Are You My Mother?
Luke 8:19-21 Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you."
He replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice."
In P.D. Eastman’s classic children’s book Are You My Mother, a baby bird hatches from his egg while its mother is out finding food. Lonely and abandoned, the baby bird goes in search of his mom. What makes the story cute is how naïve the baby bird is – how he asks everyone and everything if they are his mother – he even asks a steam shovel. He looks everywhere for his mother.
It was one of the first books I learned to read (after P.D. Eastman’s other classic, Go, Dog, Go), and it has a classic theme; the search for belonging. Most of us can relate to this search; one of our fundamental needs is to belong.
“There are an endless number of symbols of belonging all around us. We join clubs, teams, sororities, fraternities, unions, guilds, churches, synagogues, organizations, political parties, and unfortunately, even Klans. We mark our tribes through labels, tattoos, piercings, colors, symbols, music, language, and style, and this is just the surface of an array of ways we find to belong, to fit in, to be insiders… ironically the less genuine community we have, the more we create artificial communities.” Erwin McManus Soul Cravings.
My wallet says I belong to COSI, the Columbus Zoo, MasterCard, USAA, Medical Mutual, etc. What have you done to belong? What lengths have you gone to “fit in”?
When I was a senior in high school, I came to a cross road. I was always someone who could move pretty seamlessly between groups, but I never felt like I belonged. However, as a senior, something happened. My friend David and I, part joking, tried out for what was actually the most popular group on campus. We thought it would be funny if the science club and debate team members ended up on the cheer team. Say what you will about the “coolness” (or lack thereof) of male cheerleaders; this was the pinnacle of popularity at KHS in 1989. And we made it. Instantly, I was granted a new status. I got invitations to parties and to participate in other activities that I had never been asked to do. I got asked out on dates. All of a sudden, I found myself popular… I finally belonged!
But that was totally an artificial community. As is much of the community we see around us.
Have you ever experienced artificial community? I sure have. As a United Methodist pastor, I often find myself fitting in only based on my role in the church. It can be extremely hard to find community as a pastor – that was one of the hardest adjustments from seminary to the pastorate. All in a week, I went from having friends and colleagues to nothing. The closest to true community I was experiencing was on a youth ministry website. Unless you’ve been a pastor, you most likely don’t know how lonely it is.
To fit in is a fundamental need. It’s what our souls crave. Dr. Larry Crabb writes: “The deepest urge in every human heart is to be in relationship with someone who absolutely delights in us, someone with resources we lack who has no greater joy than giving to us, someone who respects us enough to require us to use everything we receive for the good of others, and because he has given it to us, knows we have something to give. The longing to connect defines our dignity as human beings and our destiny as image-bearers.” (Connecting, p. 45).
For many, that belonging is first found in family. When you begin to get to know someone, what is the first thing you tell someone? Your name. Which you got from your family. The family was designed as a place where we first find belonging. It’s been said that you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family. You’re stuck with them!
But here’s the deal: God put us in families because of who He is. Our God is a Trinitarian God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, always in loving community with one another. God determined that family would be the closest approximation to Himself. This is why honoring our parents is one of the Ten Commandments [Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12)]: because that kind of honor is living out the Trinitarian image of God, the image He placed in us.
As an aside, I understand that many of us have experienced the negative affects of the Fall right in our families. We have shown ourselves to be selfish, mean, abusive, even of our family members, those we are supposed to be closest to. This is not how life is supposed to work. The Bible calls family members, especially spouses, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21).
So when I read about the situation Jesus finds himself in here in today’s scripture, it makes me shake my head. Honestly, this is a confusing situation.
Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” (Luke 8:19-20)
As a good son, Jesus was supposed to defer to his mother. He should have packed up his stuff and gone to see what his mom wanted. After all, they say blood is thicker than water. But Jesus’ reply flew in the face of common wisdom.
(v. 21) He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.”
Wow, now there’s a good scripture to read on Mothers day! What on earth is Jesus doing by saying this? Is this what it means to honor one’s mother? Jesus is redefining family as those called by God and following Him in His mission. As Dr. Joel Green puts it, “Kinship in the people of God is no longer grounded in physical descent, but is based on hearing and doing the word of God.” (Joel Green The Gospel of Luke: NICNT).
Please understand that Jesus is in no way rejecting his family. He never says, “They aren’t my family. I have a new family.” Cults like to use this verse to get impressionable young people to sever ties with their parents, telling them, “even Jesus rejected his family.” He did not reject his family. As it turns out, of all people, Mary, the mother of Jesus, lives out that “hearing and doing the word of God” – after all of his disciples deserted him at the cross, she was still there. But he does make it clear that membership in his family is not restricted to blood ties.
Why is this distinction important?
It was important for several reasons. The Jews of Jesus’ day, especially the Pharisees, had an expectation that because of their bloodline, because they were descended from Abraham, they were God’s chosen people. Thus they would be “saved” while all others would not, simply because of their family tree.
I know plenty of people who may not actually believe that lie, but they certainly live it out. One is the person who has been in church for a long time, has listened to thousands of sermons, sung thousands of hymns, consumed millions of calories at fellowship dinners, yet remains untransformed. Jesus is clear that the qualification for being a part of his family is hearing God’s word and putting it into practice.
Others are the ones who don’t seem to find the time or inclination for anything spiritual, even though their parents have walked with the Lord for years. There’s a word for this type of person: heartbreaker. You’re breaking your mother’s heart, and is that the thanks she gets for carrying you for 9 months, for changing your diaper, and so forth. (As a dad, I can’t really sell the mother’s guilt thing).
Why is this important? If we claim to be Christians, accepting Jesus as our Savior, we are also accepting God as our Father. We are accepting His claim over us. Isaiah 43:1 But now, this is what the Lord says – he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel; “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
I started this morning with the children’s book: Are You My Mother? At the end of the book, the baby bird is delivered back to his nest, where he is reunified with his mother. He now knows his identity. He knows his mother. The reality of the story is this: were that baby bird apart from its mother for long, it would die. And apart from God, we are dying as well. In his book Soul Cravings, Erwin Rafael McManus quotes Chip Anderson, one of the pastors in his church. “If your soul is disconnected from its source, it will die.”
That’s the negative. But the positive is this: if your soul is connected to its source, you will live. Here’s how Jesus put it: The thief comes only to kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10).
By hearing God’s word and putting it into practice, we can have that full life. Do you want some specifics on how to do that? First of all, if you don’t have a regular practice of reading the Bible, start one. And don’t just read the Bible; start by asking the Holy Spirit to speak to you through God’s Word, to give you instructions from it, to guide you. Then actually do what you’re told. Write it down. Tell someone. Blog about it. Make it your Facebook status. And obey it.
He replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice."
In P.D. Eastman’s classic children’s book Are You My Mother, a baby bird hatches from his egg while its mother is out finding food. Lonely and abandoned, the baby bird goes in search of his mom. What makes the story cute is how naïve the baby bird is – how he asks everyone and everything if they are his mother – he even asks a steam shovel. He looks everywhere for his mother.
It was one of the first books I learned to read (after P.D. Eastman’s other classic, Go, Dog, Go), and it has a classic theme; the search for belonging. Most of us can relate to this search; one of our fundamental needs is to belong.
“There are an endless number of symbols of belonging all around us. We join clubs, teams, sororities, fraternities, unions, guilds, churches, synagogues, organizations, political parties, and unfortunately, even Klans. We mark our tribes through labels, tattoos, piercings, colors, symbols, music, language, and style, and this is just the surface of an array of ways we find to belong, to fit in, to be insiders… ironically the less genuine community we have, the more we create artificial communities.” Erwin McManus Soul Cravings.
My wallet says I belong to COSI, the Columbus Zoo, MasterCard, USAA, Medical Mutual, etc. What have you done to belong? What lengths have you gone to “fit in”?
When I was a senior in high school, I came to a cross road. I was always someone who could move pretty seamlessly between groups, but I never felt like I belonged. However, as a senior, something happened. My friend David and I, part joking, tried out for what was actually the most popular group on campus. We thought it would be funny if the science club and debate team members ended up on the cheer team. Say what you will about the “coolness” (or lack thereof) of male cheerleaders; this was the pinnacle of popularity at KHS in 1989. And we made it. Instantly, I was granted a new status. I got invitations to parties and to participate in other activities that I had never been asked to do. I got asked out on dates. All of a sudden, I found myself popular… I finally belonged!
But that was totally an artificial community. As is much of the community we see around us.
Have you ever experienced artificial community? I sure have. As a United Methodist pastor, I often find myself fitting in only based on my role in the church. It can be extremely hard to find community as a pastor – that was one of the hardest adjustments from seminary to the pastorate. All in a week, I went from having friends and colleagues to nothing. The closest to true community I was experiencing was on a youth ministry website. Unless you’ve been a pastor, you most likely don’t know how lonely it is.
To fit in is a fundamental need. It’s what our souls crave. Dr. Larry Crabb writes: “The deepest urge in every human heart is to be in relationship with someone who absolutely delights in us, someone with resources we lack who has no greater joy than giving to us, someone who respects us enough to require us to use everything we receive for the good of others, and because he has given it to us, knows we have something to give. The longing to connect defines our dignity as human beings and our destiny as image-bearers.” (Connecting, p. 45).
For many, that belonging is first found in family. When you begin to get to know someone, what is the first thing you tell someone? Your name. Which you got from your family. The family was designed as a place where we first find belonging. It’s been said that you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family. You’re stuck with them!
But here’s the deal: God put us in families because of who He is. Our God is a Trinitarian God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, always in loving community with one another. God determined that family would be the closest approximation to Himself. This is why honoring our parents is one of the Ten Commandments [Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12)]: because that kind of honor is living out the Trinitarian image of God, the image He placed in us.
As an aside, I understand that many of us have experienced the negative affects of the Fall right in our families. We have shown ourselves to be selfish, mean, abusive, even of our family members, those we are supposed to be closest to. This is not how life is supposed to work. The Bible calls family members, especially spouses, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21).
So when I read about the situation Jesus finds himself in here in today’s scripture, it makes me shake my head. Honestly, this is a confusing situation.
Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” (Luke 8:19-20)
As a good son, Jesus was supposed to defer to his mother. He should have packed up his stuff and gone to see what his mom wanted. After all, they say blood is thicker than water. But Jesus’ reply flew in the face of common wisdom.
(v. 21) He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.”
Wow, now there’s a good scripture to read on Mothers day! What on earth is Jesus doing by saying this? Is this what it means to honor one’s mother? Jesus is redefining family as those called by God and following Him in His mission. As Dr. Joel Green puts it, “Kinship in the people of God is no longer grounded in physical descent, but is based on hearing and doing the word of God.” (Joel Green The Gospel of Luke: NICNT).
Please understand that Jesus is in no way rejecting his family. He never says, “They aren’t my family. I have a new family.” Cults like to use this verse to get impressionable young people to sever ties with their parents, telling them, “even Jesus rejected his family.” He did not reject his family. As it turns out, of all people, Mary, the mother of Jesus, lives out that “hearing and doing the word of God” – after all of his disciples deserted him at the cross, she was still there. But he does make it clear that membership in his family is not restricted to blood ties.
Why is this distinction important?
It was important for several reasons. The Jews of Jesus’ day, especially the Pharisees, had an expectation that because of their bloodline, because they were descended from Abraham, they were God’s chosen people. Thus they would be “saved” while all others would not, simply because of their family tree.
I know plenty of people who may not actually believe that lie, but they certainly live it out. One is the person who has been in church for a long time, has listened to thousands of sermons, sung thousands of hymns, consumed millions of calories at fellowship dinners, yet remains untransformed. Jesus is clear that the qualification for being a part of his family is hearing God’s word and putting it into practice.
Others are the ones who don’t seem to find the time or inclination for anything spiritual, even though their parents have walked with the Lord for years. There’s a word for this type of person: heartbreaker. You’re breaking your mother’s heart, and is that the thanks she gets for carrying you for 9 months, for changing your diaper, and so forth. (As a dad, I can’t really sell the mother’s guilt thing).
Why is this important? If we claim to be Christians, accepting Jesus as our Savior, we are also accepting God as our Father. We are accepting His claim over us. Isaiah 43:1 But now, this is what the Lord says – he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel; “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
As our Father, God gives us life, true life. But unless our souls are connected to our source, God the Father, they will wither and die. As Larry Crabb puts it in Connecting, “Sin is any effort to make life work without absolute dependence on God.”
Real life is not about independence, not even interdependence. It is all about connecting to the God who is our source, our creator, the one upon whom we can depend. I started this morning with the children’s book: Are You My Mother? At the end of the book, the baby bird is delivered back to his nest, where he is reunified with his mother. He now knows his identity. He knows his mother. The reality of the story is this: were that baby bird apart from its mother for long, it would die. And apart from God, we are dying as well. In his book Soul Cravings, Erwin Rafael McManus quotes Chip Anderson, one of the pastors in his church. “If your soul is disconnected from its source, it will die.”
That’s the negative. But the positive is this: if your soul is connected to its source, you will live. Here’s how Jesus put it: The thief comes only to kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10).
By hearing God’s word and putting it into practice, we can have that full life. Do you want some specifics on how to do that? First of all, if you don’t have a regular practice of reading the Bible, start one. And don’t just read the Bible; start by asking the Holy Spirit to speak to you through God’s Word, to give you instructions from it, to guide you. Then actually do what you’re told. Write it down. Tell someone. Blog about it. Make it your Facebook status. And obey it.
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