What do we mean when we say that church is family and family is church?
Joseph is never named or mentioned in the Gospel of Mark.
Mark’s Gospel begins and ends with the meaning of family.
- Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
- Mark 1:9–11 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
- Mark 15:39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Jesus’ natural family does not live up to the meaning of family, and so Jesus challenges the meaning of family. Jesus creates a new family in relationship with the Father.
- Mark 3:20–21 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
- Mark 3:31–33 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
- Mark 3:34–35 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
Jesus’ natural family misses out on the power in Jesus’ new family.
- Mark 6:1–3 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
- Mark 6:4–6 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.
- Mark 6:7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
- Mark 6:8–10 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there.”
- Mark 6:11 “And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”
- Mark 6:12–13 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
Jesus disrupted the old family to create a new family.
- Mark 13:12–13 And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
- Mark 10:28–30 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Our relationship to the Father in Jesus by the Spirit creates a true family.
- 1 Timothy 1:2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
- 1 Timothy 5:1–2 Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.