The New and
Improved Family
Luke 8:19-21
Introduction
Here's how several elementary school students answered the
following questions about moms:
1. Why
did God make mothers? She's the only one who knows where the Scotch tape is.
• Mostly to clean the house.
• To help us out of there when we were getting
born.
2. How
did God make mothers?
• He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
• Magic, plus superpowers and a lot of
stirring.
• God made my mom just the same like he made
me. He just used bigger parts.
3. What
ingredients are mothers made of?
• God makes mothers out of clouds and angel
hair and everything nice in the world…and one dab of mean.
• They had to get their start from men's
bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.
4. Why
did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
• We're related.
• God knew she likes me a lot more than other
people's moms like me.[1]
We have been studying in the book
of Luke, one of the four biographies of Jesus in the Bible. Sometimes we forget
about the part of the story between Christmas and Easter. But it is in these
crucial in-between chapters like 7 & 8 where we find out through Jesus’
miracles, stories and conversations what he thought he was doing
on Earth. In verse 1 of chapter 8, we saw that Jesus spent his time and his
effort “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.” (Luke 8:1)
Jesus’ life was not about a baby in the manger; it was not even about his death
on the cross to save us—it was about reestablishing God as king. “Our Father,
who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10, paraphrased)
Every time Jesus refers to God as
his Father, it makes me wonder what happened to Joseph, the carpenter who
married his already-pregnant mother Mary. Where is he? Where is she? Where are
his brothers (all 4 of them) and his sisters? What did they think about this?
We’re going to find out. We have
been studying the life of Jesus from the book of Luke. Now, midway through his
preaching tour, right in the middle of a sermon…
19Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see
him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers
are standing outside, wanting to see you.” 21He replied, “My mother and brothers are
those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”
Ouch. Seems a little
harsh. What is going on here? We’re going to take some time to look at Jesus’
family. Then let’s look at God’s new and improved family. And here’s the bottom
line:
It’s not the family you are born with, it is the family you
choose. Choose God’s family.
Jesus’ Old Family
So let’s look at Jesus’ family. It is clear from the
beginning that Jesus and his family didn’t always see eye-to-eye on things. He
was a boy, the oldest son of his family, and like his father, Joseph, he was
expected to be a carpenter (see Matt. 13:55, Mark 6:3). When God’s plan began
to diverge from their plan they didn’t understand or approve.
Once, his family was going to Jerusalem for one of the
holidays, the Feast of Passover, like they did every year. It was an important
year for Jesus, because he was 12 years old. In Jewish culture, you became a
man at 13 at your bar mitzvah. Bar
mitzvah means “son of the Law”, so this was the time Jesus would have been
sharpening his understanding of the Bible and he would read it out loud in
public. But at the end of the festival,
when everyone was going home, they forgot Jesus. Sort of a Home-Alone moment.
So they went back to Jerusalem and searched for three days. When they finally
found him, he was in the Temple, discussing the Bible with the leading scholars
of that time. Listen what happened (Luke, chapter 2):
48When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him,
“Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously
searching for you.” 49“Why
were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my
Father’s house?” 50But
they did not understand what he was saying to them. – Luke 2:48-50
Notice the gap between their expectations (“why have you
treated us like this?”) and Jesus’ expectations (“Didn’t you know I had to be
in my Father’s house?”).
Then, Jesus goes to his home town and announces to his
family and town-mates that he is a prophet:
54…“Where did this man get this wisdom and
these miraculous powers?” they asked. 55“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and
aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then
did this man get all these things?” 57And they took offense at him. – Matthew 13:54b - 57
Bottom line: Look at the family he came from. He’s not
prophet material. Soon he starts to draw big crowds because of his miracles and
his teaching. What does his family do?
20Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and
his disciples were not even able to eat. 21When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for
they said, “He is out of his mind.” – Mark 3:20-21
You want to know what his brothers thought about him?
1After this, Jesus went around in
Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting
to take his life. 2But …, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him,
“You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the
miracles you do. 4No one who wants to become a public figure acts in
secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5For
even his own brothers did not believe in him. – John 7:1-5
“Go ahead Jesus. You want to be a prophet. Go get yourself
killed and save us all a lot of trouble.”
Our Old Family
And you thought it was tough to do what God wants you to do with
your family! Many times in Jesus’ early ministry there was tension
between what God wanted him to do and what his family expected him to do. And
many times we have to make a choice between our family, or the way we grew up,
and God’s family and the way he wants us to grow up.
Some of us came from really messed up families. Some of us
came from great homes. But every family can pull us away from God. At some
point we must make the decision: do I do things the way I learned or hear from
my family or do I do it God’s way? Do I treat my kids the way I was treated, or
the way God treats me? Am I angry the way my father was angry, or do I love the
way God the Father is towards me? Am I living up to my family’s expectations
for me, or am I living up to God’s expectations for me?
The book of Luke records a man who struggled with being both
a follower of Jesus and meeting his family’s expectations:
59He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go
and bury my father.” 60Jesus
said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the
kingdom of God.” – Luke 9:59-60
It doesn’t matter what family you
were born with, it matters what family you finish with. Your destiny is not
controlled by your genes; it is not controlled by your background; it is not
controlled by the garbage and abuse and lies you went through as a kid; your
tomorrow is controlled by which family you are a part of.
Jesus’ New (and Improved) Family
What are you talking about, Tim? Let’s go back to what Jesus
said, in Luke chapter 8:
20Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside,
wanting to see you.” 21He
replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into
practice.”
Did you see what he said? My family does not choose me, I
choose my family. This is the new and improved family: A family not of birth
accident, but a family who collectively choose to be hearers-of and doers-for
God.
When I lived in the Philippines, I
lived in the city of Tuguegarao (rhymes with to-feed-a-cow). Now Tuguegarao is
a college town. There’s CSU (Cagayan State University), there’s St. Paul’s and
St. Louis’ and then where our church met, CCT, the teacher’s college. It always amazed me how families would work
so hard, save carefully and endure so much to send their child to college. Then
that child would enter the work-force and, in turn, help to pay for the tuition
for each of the siblings and, in many cases, cousins.
This is what Jesus is doing for
his new family. He is the first born, the panganay and, as kuya, older brother,
he went before us. He was responsible to go first and show us the way. And on
the cross, he paid, not his own fee, but the fee of the many younger brothers
and sisters who chose to follow his way. Now he sits at the right hand of the
Father, and as each of us struggles, He, with the many witnesses who have gone
before, encourage us on with the applause of heaven. (Heb. 12:1)
Our New Family
Recently, my niece in the Philippines came back from the
elementary school and promptly told my sister-in-law Rowena that she had seen
“Uncle Tim” at the school. Weng knew that I was here in the States by my niece insisted,
“It was Uncle Tim” Turns out there was another white guy, no beard visiting
their town. My niece only knew one white guy so she reasoned in must be me. I
mean, how many white guys can there be in the world, right?
Even with that case of mistaken identity, my niece Liwliwa
can teach us an important lesson. What struck me is that she had no trouble
with calling me “Uncle” even though no one else in her town has an uncle that
looks like me. Marriage is that strong, that in Helen and I choosing each other,
God has joined together two completely different families so completely that my
niece finds it natural to call me Uncle. The strange beluga whale white uncle,
but uncle nonetheless.
God’s family is similar.
While you and I may not have any closer blood relative than Noah, in
God’s family we are much closer because of the blood of Jesus. The accident of
our birth cannot compare to the deliberate choice of the family of God.
Jesus was born with one family, but he formed—he created-- a
new and improved family with God as our father and centered on himself. I did
not get to choose my biological family. I didn’t get to choose my brother,
half-sister, step-sister and three step-brothers. But I do get to choose the
family of God. I do get to choose you, who are my brothers and sisters. Here’s
what the Bible says:
12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave
the right to become children of God — 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a
husband’s will, but born of God. – John 1:12-13
Notice what this family is not. It is not based on my
descent or ethnicity or nationality. It is not based on a human
decision—something someone else did for me or to me. It is not based on my
parent’s good or bad choice. My choice is based on God’s choice.
Let me speak frankly here: church is not the
have-to-go-even-though-I-don’t-want-to place. Actually, that’s your family
background. No, no, church is the want-to-go-because-I-choose-to place. You’re
stuck with your biological family. But church is different; you’re not stuck with
us. The church family is filled with people who, every one of them, chose to be
there. When Helen and I came to FCC it was clear that everyone was here because
they wanted to be here!
You are not controlled by the family you were born with--
you are controlled by the family you choose.
Conclusion
Something changed in Jesus family. At the cross, we find
Jesus speaking from the cross to his mother,
26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved
standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” 27and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”
From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
And what about his brothers? Listen to how his brother, who
wrote the book of James, referred to himself:
1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…
– James 1:1a
Yes, he was a biological half-brother to Jesus, but first he
was a servant of Jesus. The brother who thought Jesus proud, misguided and even
out of his mind, was now a leader of the church.
When my brother-in-law Jun got married to Helen’s sister,
Rowena, they got little support or recognition because his relatives are mostly
Mormon. But he made his choice about who would be his family and they live
simply. Then this past month, Jun decided to be baptized and now he is twice my
brother: first by his choice of Weng and now by his choice of Jesus.
No one deserves God’s family. Our track record, our
CV, our resume is not good enough for God’s family. But, if we will choose
Jesus, he intercedes before God the Father and we are accepted with open
arms based on Jesus’ track record: perfect, and flawless. You can ask
him to do that for you.
We are adopted as children of God. We are brothers
and sisters together. This—this, right here, is our true family. It’s
not the family you are born with, it is the family you choose. Choose God’s
family.
