Reflecting on Mark 3:20-30“Here are my mother and my brothers!” (Mark 3:34)
As a Jesus follower, I am part of the crowd sitting around Jesus.
The crowd around Jesus was large, and included different people.
It included Jesus’s actual family members, who thought He was crazy.
It included the twelve, a mixed assortment of oddballs and misfits.
It included religious leaders, who were there to judge and accuse.
It included seekers and strugglers, sick and spiritually possessed.
Jesus does not separate any of these – they are all His family.
But there is one thing that ought to unite them together.
“Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35)
In any gathering of Jesus followers, there will always be a variety of people.
There is no church that fully agrees, that fully conforms to the same thinking.
In Jesus’s parable of wheat and weeds, they are not to be separated.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull the weeds up?’ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.'” (Matthew 13:28-29)
When we pull (or push) out the weeds in our churches, we risk damaging the wheat.
In our judgment, they are not right or good or faithful.
And not surprisingly, they will likely think the same about us.
A church focused on purity and orthodoxy ends up dividing itself.
(I will talk more about this tomorrow).
As I talk with people with whom I disagree, I do notice one thing.
They are often committed to knowing and doing God’s will.
They are sincere, even if I sincerely think they are wrong.
I may personally think their views are weak… but they are committed.
They kneel before the same Jesus as I do, even though we’re different.
Jesus’s family is filled with believers of all kinds.
Jesus is not out of His mind for welcoming this motley crew of disciples.
Because it is in sitting at Jesus’s feet together that we learn and grow.
We learn from each other, if we allow each other a place at the table.
Jesus is at the center, and is the key to unity in the midst of diversity.
Unity in Jesus, not conformity to beliefs and practices, is what makes us family.
If a person is committed to knowing and following Jesus, they are family.
“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.” (Romans 14:1-4)
“Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. (Romans 14:13)
“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” (Romans 14:19)
Currently I see many churches pulling (or pushing) out those they see as weeds.
Those who sincerely want to follow Jesus are being kicked out or excluded.
Those who eagerly want to obey God’s will, but see things differently.
In my own mind I am guilty of this too.
I have my own type of christians that I do not want to associate with.
Jesus is reminding me: “Here are my mother and my brothers!” (Mark 3:34)
By rejecting some christians, I am rejecting Jesus too.
He has chosen to bring us all together as one big family.
“Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. (Matthew 19:6)
A true church is a grace community, where all people meet in Jesus.
It is not united in beliefs, but united in their desperate need for Jesus.
The Cross, symbol of God’s grace, is what unites us… not the Creed.
Baptists, Catholics, non-denominationals, Reformed – these are our labels.
Among them all are people sincerely committed to Jesus and the Jesus Way.
They are all seeking to do the will of the Father imperfectly.
Like it or not, this odd mix of people we call church is welcome.
Conservative, liberal, traditional, progressive, Jesus says to them all:
“Here are my mother and my brothers!” (Mark 3:34)
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, help me to see christians of a different sort, including the kinds that I think are weak or wrong, as my brothers and sisters. Forgive me for pulling or pushing out those that You have welcomed.
May whatever church community I belong to demonstrate the unity that comes from sincerely seeking to know and follow You - and not from a forced agreement on creeds or confessions.
All are welcome to worship the Lord. As the disciples were a motely crew so are we the people who make up the church. We all are sinful and are accepted by the Lord but we aso have to acknowledge our ways before Him and as the woman at the well, sin no more. We are all one before the Lord and He desires us to worship Him – putting our lives in order and that He has His way in our lives. Living for Jesus and not for myself and ways that are contrary to His Word.