Matthew 12:29 “And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!”
Family, we are born into a family, and some are adopted into a family, but we all have families. Some of our families are close and stay in contact regularly, some families are estranged and rarely, if ever, have contact with each other, or with certain members of the family. Families are messy and yet a blessing.
In our family we had a big get-together over the holidays. You may have had that with all or some of your family as well, it is a big part of celebrating Christmas and maybe New Year’s Eve. We have the added reason to get together of having two birthdays at the same time.
And here is what we learned this year from our family getting together, family is messy! This year that meant people coming and going at various times. Trips to the airport, and others arriving and departing in their cars. It also meant a trip for everyone to Estes Park for two nights. Getting together was wonderful. Seeing each other, catching up on everything, seeing the changes, especially in the young children – my how fast they grow! All that is wonderful.
Into that busyness came an unwanted guest, illness. Almost everyone in the family ended up sick at some point. That messiness added to the luggage, sleeping on floors, extra dish washing, spilled food, and the normal mess with extra people, made for a real mess of things.
Jesus knew the mess of family too. In Matthew 12 there is the story of Mary, His mother and brothers coming to visit him when he was at home after a long time of travelling and ministering. In Mark’s account of this they come because they are worried about Him. They thought He was out of His mind. I’m sure one of Jesus’ brothers came up with that idea. Doesn’t that sound like a jealous younger brother idea?
When they come to where Jesus was, the house was full, and they could not get inside. So, together they pass on to someone that they are there, and that person tells Jesus that His mother and brothers are outside wanting to talk with Him.
When everyone in the house had no doubt heard someone call to Him about His mother and brothers being outside, they waited to see if He would stop His teaching and go out to talk with them in private. Jesus used that occasion to show how we have other families than those we are born into; we have faith families too. Our churches, our bible study groups, and really any group we are part of that helps us grow in our faith, become our faith family.
Who is your faith family? Who helps you grow in your faith and who are you helping grow in theirs?
We cannot know what Mary and His brothers felt when Jesus said that His disciples were His family, but it sure shows how messy family situations can be. His earthly family life had its messes and His family of faith with His disciples, proved to be messy too. Families, all of them, biological, faith or other family-like groups are all messy. And the reason is because we are part of them. We make them messy.
Here is my thought for messy family get-togethers. Enjoy them. Enjoy the mess. Don’t think that any family is better than yours, they have their messes too. Don’t write off messy family members either because in truth, you are one of them. Jesus’ home family life, and faith family life were all messy, so are ours.
Pastor Gary.
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