“Behold My mother and My brothers!"

Mark 3:31-4:25 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

³¹ Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. ³² A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” ³³ Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” ³⁴ Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! ³⁵ For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

4 He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. ² And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, ³ “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; ⁴ as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. ⁶ And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. ⁷ Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. ⁸ Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” ⁹ And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

¹⁰ As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. ¹¹ And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, ¹² so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.”

¹³ And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. ¹⁶ In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; ¹⁷ and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. ¹⁸ And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, ¹⁹ but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ²⁰ And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

²¹ And He was saying to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? ²² For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. ²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴ And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. ²⁵ For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

In the beginning of today’s text Jesus says something that makes it sound as though He disregards the true family relationships we are born into.  He says:  “Who are My mother and My brothers?” ³⁴ Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! ³⁵ For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”  If we look at verses 20-22 of Mark 3, we can better understand the context of what is happening.                    He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. ²¹ When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.” ²² The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”        Jesus was being accused of being crazy, of being possessed by demons, even by His own family. In Matthew 10:34-36 Jesus says:   “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; ³⁶ and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.     Jesus knows that following Him may come at the price of separation from, those who are closest to us. The revelation that Jesus is the Christ, our Lord and Savior is an individual revelation. The decision to follow Christ is also an individual decision. Because of the fact that: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17) There can be resistance to the change we under go when we choose to follow Christ. Jesus also says:  "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, 30but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.…(Mark 10:29-30)  We will suffer persecution for our decision to follow Christ and some of it may come from our own families. But Jesus promises a hundred fold return as we, like those who followed Him then become part of His family, children of God.

It’s not that we disregard our own families. Jesus took the responsibility of loving and caring for His mother to the very end on the cross. John 19:25-27 says:  Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” ²⁷ Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.  Often like those who knew Jesus well had a difficult time comprehending that He was the Son of God and would be their Savior and redeemer, those who know us, who know the old man, who we were before Christ began His new work in us, resist who we are becoming. They want us to return to what is familiar to them. Jesus calls us to follow Him. It is important for us to remember that: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) and that: The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us,  not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)   God cares for those we love even more than we do. We may not be the ones who can convince them to follow Christ, they may not receive us. But if we are faithful to follow Jesus and do the will and the work of the Father, He will be faithful to reveal Himself to them.

Jesus teaches the parable of the sower, the soil and the seed. The soil represents the condition of the heart of the one who hears God’s word. In truth we and those we love are represented by various conditions of our heart throughout our lives.  The sower sows the word. Hebrews 4:12 says: the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  God continues to sow the seed of His living, active word into the lives and hearts of people regardless of the condition of the soil. Through His patience, the hope and the promise is that the seed will fall on good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

Jesus says:  “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? In Matthew 5:16 He says: "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.  We should not concern ourselves with the results, God is the sower and it is the Holy Spirit’s part to reveal Christ to others. We are to be a light, the light of Christ shining in the dark world. Through that light which glorifies the Father in heaven, the seed which springs up in our own lives may bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

Thank You Lord Jesus, that You never ask us to do anything that You haven’t done. Through Your example and the power of the cross help me to trust those I love to You. I choose to follow You because of the revelation of the love God has for me in His Word, a love so great that You died for me, Jesus.  Holy Spirit fill me and empower me to live in such a way that my light shines to glorify You.     Amen.