Our True Family

Mark 3:20-35

Family is important to most people.  When problems surround us and people are attacking us on every side, it’s a comfort to be able to retreat to our family and find love, understanding, and acceptance. Unfortunately, not everyone has that, including Jesus. What? Jesus wasn’t accepted by His family? Sadly, no He wasn’t. Let’s look into our passage today from the Gospel of Mark.

Jesus and His disciples kept a very busy schedule.  He would generally wake early to go off by Himself and pray to the Father. Then would start a busy day of preaching to the crowds, teaching His disciples, and healing the sick who were brought to Him.  There were many times when Jesus and His disciples couldn’t even break away to grab a bite for lunch (vs 20). When Jesus’s brothers and sisters observed this happen more than just a few times they decided something had to be done (vs 21).  Big brother Jesus has gone top far, and is crazy, they thought. Time to take Him home before He upsets the authorities any more, before He embarrasses them further, or worse, gets them into trouble with the Jewish leaders. Later in verses 31-35, Jesus’s family is again calling for Him because they think He has gone too far.

Many believers find that, once they have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior, their family and close friends don’t understand and sometimes turn their back on them.  They might insult your intelligence, saying that no one with any intellect could possibly believe the Bible, so obviously because you do believe God’s Word, you must not have intelligence.  Sometimes their remarks are cutting and vicious. In some countries becoming a Christian can even be dangerous.  Abandoning the family’s traditional religion has often brought great anger, physical assault, and sometimes even murder of the believer by a family member.

When people told Jesus, while He was teaching, that His family wanted to speak with Him, shortly after they had called Him crazy and tried to take Him away, Jesus gave an answer that might encourage those whose families have turned away from them (vs 33-35).  Jesus said that those who obey the Lord God and follow His will are His true brothers and sisters. When we become Christians we now have a whole new family in our fellow believers. Our fellow believers are now our family. Prior to the resurrection, no one in Jesus’s family, except His mother, believed He was the Messiah. After the resurrection His brothers James and Jude came to faith. Whether any other brothers or His sisters became believers is unknown.

Another important subject Jesus spoke of in this passage is something that sometimes worries believers.  The scribes and Pharisees were saying that the reason Jesus was able to cast out demons was that He received His power from Satan (vs 22-30).  In reality, of course, it was through the power of the Holy Spirit that the demons were cast out. Jesus states in this passage that anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness, also sometimes called the unforgivable sin.  The scribes and Pharisees knew if they admitted that Jesus’s power was from the Holy Spirit, from God, then they would have to submit to Him and give up their own authority. These religious leaders refused to do that. Their pride wouldn’t let them acknowledge Him as Messiah.  They tried to destroy Jesus’s popularity with the people by saying His power came from Satan. This is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - attributing to the devil what is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Some people may worry that they have committed the unforgivable sin.  If you are concerned that you have committed this, it is quite certain you have not. The unforgivable sin is wilfully choosing not to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior, refusing to allow the Holy Spirit to move in their heart to accept Him. It is a deliberate and ongoing rejection of the Holy Spirit. Let’s always be sure we keep a heart attitude of belief and repentance.