Today we continue our walk through the book of Mark, which is walking us in an intentional process–the process of knowing Jesus. And knowing is not just details or information; knowing is in relationship over time. In that time, there is endless intentionality. Mark is not asking us to just read, but is calling us to participate in this understanding and relationship with Jesus.family
When something requires processing, the choice is to participate or not. Mark isn’t forcing belief, but rather asking that you participate in the discovery process. As he shares this story of what he and others saw, felt, and discovered in the person of Jesus, the hope is that his readers would participate.
Here we are on week four of our process, and today the theme of FAMILY hits the pages. Now, there is an impact to knowing Jesus. Connection to or relationship with Jesus impacts our NOW.
Our very own Minnesota's Mayo Clinic has is a list of 12 habits for having a healthy family:
1. Exercise.
2. Forgive.
3. Manage portions.
4. Be proactive with health care.
5. Get quality sleep.
6. Explore new things.
7. Build strength.
8. Find joy.
9. Spend time with loved ones.
10. Kick addictions.
11. Reduce stress.
12. Show gratitude.
This list is not complete or exhaustive. There is no way it could be. So I am going to give you a moment to build on it. Remember–family is not just mom, dad and kids. Family can be outside of blood relationship.
What would you add to this list of habits that help make a healthy family?
What on the existing or your amended list is highly important? What is less important to you?
We will come back to the idea of a healthy family in just a moment. But first, let's walk to a memory or an experience you have. There are times in life where the selection process can cause insecurities to swell: picking teams in gym class. Standing along the wall of the gym at the start of a dance. Submitting your resume. This question may involve the story, but really it is about what happens to you internally–when you are picked or when you are not. There is the contrast of the insecurity and the pride, the humiliation and the elation.
What has happened to you internally when you were “picked”?
What has happened to you internally when you were “not picked”?
We have talked about family. We have talked about selectionion and rejection. Now, let’s bring these things together. This will be foundational to our processing what Mark writes in chapter 3. I will give you some time in this question as it does involve some story.
Outside of blood related relatives, what is the value of family-like relationships?
How or when have you experienced this type of relationship?
Mark is not written to a culture or a world that is or feels like America. While Jesus’ culture is different, keeping that difference in perspective and building that perspective will help us in walking out Mark’s goal of us knowing Jesus. So here are some things about it:
The book of Mark was written in the mid 60’s to 70’s AD. Christians were facing immense persecution. Nero, the emperor of Rome, was leading horrific persecution of the early Christian church. He blamed Christians for the Great Fire of 64 in Rome, which destroyed portions of the city and devastated Rome economically (but some believed the fire was ordered by Nero so he could rebuild the city in his own image). To punish Christians, Nero had them killed and mocked. Some were crucified like Jesus; some were set on fire which lit the city at night.
People that followed Jesus were hated for their abominations. They didn’t follow the Roman gods; they didn’t live like other people in their communities; they were outsiders. People blamed them when things went wrong–like the fire, or sickness–because they weren’t pleasing the gods. The people Mark is writing to are living in the middle of extreme persecution, becoming outsiders in their families and their communities.
Jesus calls the disciples and they leave behind everything–their businesses, their families, their past–and follow Jesus. Now we’re in a story where Jesus is putting the will of God above the will of his family. He sees the disciples doing the will of God and says they’re His new family.
The people Mark is writing to are experiencing persecution and oppression. Here we see Jesus experience oppression, not just from the religious authorities, but also His family.
Process this. This is what was under the feet of the followers of Jesus as Mark was being written. I am going to ask you to dig deep in this question. This is not a question of what you could do to break relationship with your family or closest connections. This is a question of, if it happened, what would you need? what insight would it give you? what would become incredibly valuable in that moment?
If you made a decision that cost you connection to your family, what would you be in need of immediately or eventually? What would the experience show as being incredibly precious?
Here is the text:
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”
Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:13-35)
I think it is very easy to focus on the tension between Jesus and His mother and brothers, and it does merit processing. But the focus of the text is the invitation into knowing Jesus, knowing what it is to have relationship with Him.
Jesus, in Mark, has already stood out as the Son of God, as pleasing to God, as an authority in teaching as well as over illness and evil spirits, and as being in stark contrast to other religious authorities.
Mark 3 names names. The disciples are named. Jesus here, while being called out, looks into the eyes of His disciples and says, You are My family. Support. Connection. Future. Trusted. Needed. Community.
As we are invited into relationship with Jesus, He is pointing towards us NOW and saying, You are My family. Feel that impact of those words.
Remember, we have already talked about healthy families, insecurities, and the impact of invitation to be a part of family. Now Jesus, in Mark 3, says, You–disciples–are My family!
As I process that It gives such depth to the words of 1 John 3:
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
Let’s read these words from John 13:
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (John 13:1)
And feel Jesus’ love and care for his disciples in John 14:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:1-4)
And also feel Jesus’ words in John 15:
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:15-17)
What do you think the disciples felt as Jesus pointed them out as being His family? (How does it impact a person to be chosen?)
The disciples were an odd mix of unimpressive people.
Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter) is characterized as a strong-willed and courageous man; however, at times he could be quick to speak, impulsive, and impetuous. Peter seems to embody strength and weakness. Peter held a firm belief in the teachings of Christ and made up one of the three closest disciples to Christ. Historical evidence points to the fact that during the time of Nero, Peter was crucified upside down. Crucifixion was the general means of death for Christians during the Roman Empire, and when condemned to death, Peter requested to be crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy to perish in the same way as Jesus.
James son of Zebedee was a fisherman with Peter and John and is always referred to in the Bible as the son of Zebedee in order to distinguish him from any other James in the Bible (there are many!). Jesus nicknamed both James and John “Sons of Thunder,” and this nickname is thought to come from the fact that they both were such stormy personalities. They were easily angered and quick to judge enemies of the Lord. James was slain by a sword, the first of Jesus’ disciples to give up his life in martyrdom.
John, the younger brother of James (the other “son of thunder”), was also a fisherman. John is known for writing five books of the Bible. John was particularly devoted to Jesus and is claimed to be the closest to Him of all twelve disciples, never straying far from Jesus. John is often found in the accompaniment of Peter in the Bible and it was Peter and John who visited the empty tomb of Jesus after His resurrection. John was the last of the twelve disciples to die and the only disciple who did not die in martyrdom; he is believed to have died from old age after being exiled to Patmos.
Andrew is most noted for being the first apostle called by Christ, and he spent his life spreading the word of Jesus Christ. His death is not referred to in the Bible, but it is believed by many that Andrew was hung on an “X” shaped cross for two days before succumbing to death, which is why the “X” shaped cross is referred to as the St. Andrew’s cross.
Philip was slow to recognize Jesus; however, once he found Jesus, he was quick to share His greatness with his friend Nathanael Bartholomew.
Bartholomew is known for being an honest man who was convinced of Jesus’ greatness upon his meeting with Him and learning that Jesus saw him even before he came to Him.
Matthew, because of his work as a tax collector, was seen as filth among people, considered the lowest of the low for working alongside the Romans in collecting taxes. Matthew always refers to himself as Matthew the tax collector or Matthew the publican, noting that he was once a sinner even though he followed the path of Christ. Matthew was particularly self-absorbed at the time he was called by Jesus to serve as His disciple. Upon meeting Christ, however, Matthew forgot about being self-centered and began to consider others.
Thomas is sometimes called “doubting Thomas” because he was particularly slow to believe in Christ’s resurrection. Thomas is also characterized by being somewhat gloomy and easily discouraged. While he was much of a pessimist, Thomas was a full believer in Christ and followed Him loyally throughout His life. Thomas is known for being unable to see the forest for the trees, and Jesus often had to help him to see the whole forest. Thomas is the one disciple who was not present on the first Easter Sunday. Thomas was the disciple who refused at first to believe in resurrection but then went on to spread the word of Christ until his death.
James son of Alphaeus is one of the disciples that very little is known about.
Thaddaeus is known as a disciple of three names, since he is referred to as Thaddeus, Judas, and Lebbaeus. Thaddeus was not a leader of the twelve disciples and he is not mentioned often in the Bible.
Simon the Zealot was perhaps a member of the Zealots, a political movement in first-century Judaism which sought to incite the people of Judea to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms.
Judas Iscariot was the group’s treasurer, and the one who betrayed Him.
As Jesus looked at them and said they were His family, they were not perfect. They didn't really understand. They had issues internal, external, and with each other. They had struggles and pasts full of failures. They were going to fail in the future. I could go on and on. Yet Jesus said, this is My family.
And now me. And now us. Family with Jesus.
How does it impact you that Jesus invites you into a family relationship with Him?
How does it impact your perspective of Jesus?
Take It Deeper Questions
- Read Mark 3:13-35.
- Are you the person doing the crazy stunt, cheering on the person doing the crazy stunt, worrying about the person doing the crazy stunt, or feeling disappointed in them for doing the crazy stunt?
- Why do you think the disciples followed Jesus?
- Why do you think Jesus’ family was so concerned about Him?
- What do you think it meant to the disciples to hear that Jesus saw them as family?
- How are you challenged, encouraged, focused, and/or confused by this text?
Bible Reading Plan
- Mark 3
- Matthew 4
- Matthew 10
- Luke 6
- John 1