Mark 3:31-35 has to be one of the strangest stories from Jesus’ life found in the pages of Scripture. But these verses need to be taken in context with verses 20-21 if they’re to be understood properly:20-And 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.”
Do you remember the story of Jesus’ parents accidentally leaving Him in Jerusalem when He was only 12 years old? You can read it in the second chapter of Luke’s gospel. They thought he was with other members of the family caravan, but about a day’s journey outside of Jerusalem they discovered He wasn’t. So they turned around, went a day’s journey back to Jerusalem, and then spent a day looking throughout the city for Jesus.
Luke tells us, “…they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. When they saw Him they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.’ And He said to them, ‘Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?’” (2:46-49).
Don’t miss the contrast between “Your father” and “My Father.” Even at 12 years old, Jesus understood that His greatest loyalty lay with His Heavenly Father! Even at 12 years old, Jesus was aware that He had special work to do—“I had to be in My Father’s house.” Even at 12 years old Jesus grasped that He was on mission!
Keep all this in mind as we return to Mark’s gospel. At some point when He was about 30 years old, Jesus laid His carpenter’s hammer down and told His mother, “It’s time.” And He began His earthly ministry. He went about preaching the gospel, and crowds began to follow Him. Out of the masses, He chose 12 men to be His disciples “so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons” (Mark 3:14-15). This brings us to verses 20-21 in Mark 3.
When Jesus’ family heard what He was doing and how the crowds were following Him everywhere He went, they said, “He’s lost His mind! He’s ruining our good name and we’ve got to stop Him!” When they got to where He was, they couldn’t get through the crowd…so they sent word to Jesus that they were there. They were there, of course, to take Him home.
So Jesus was faced with the same decision every one of us is faced with—who has the greater claim on my life? My earthly family or my Heavenly Father? Jesus’ answer was shocking, to say the least. When they said, “Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You,” Jesus asked, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Then he said, “…whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
These words seem awfully harsh to us now, and I suppose they didn’t sit well with his family then. But Jesus knew why they had come, and He wasn’t going to be dragged away from His Kingdom work because His family thought He was crazy. They were seeking to block Him from His mission, and Jesus wasn’t going to let that happen. They meant well, no doubt, but they were “blinded by [their] good intentions.”
So Jesus asked that odd question, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” and made those strange statements: “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” What Jesus was calling attention to was the fact that our relationship with Him precedes every other relationship in our lives!
We sometimes say that “blood is thicker than water.” Well, Jesus was saying that “spirit is thicker than blood”!
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