Corona Chronicles - Crown of Thorns

Welcome back to corona chronicles, and last time we were thinking about Jesus calling his disciples to be about his work, to be with him to preach, to have authority to drive out demons. So he chose very ordinary people to come and to be his family, if you like. And Today, we're gonna be looking at another part of chapter 3. But this is what we would call a classic Mark Scott whole sandwich. In other words, there are there are 2 pieces of bread.

And in the middle, there's a really juicy filling. But because we're trying to keep the time short, we're gonna look at just the bread versus before and after, and then we'll come back to the filling next week. So we're gonna read verse 20 first. 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 then verse 31.

Then Jesus' mothers 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 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 my sister and my mother.

Yeah. Well, it certainly is a Mark sampling. And and just just quickly to say that the that the meat in the middle or the substance in the middle is the religious leaders calling him a demon demonic man. But what you've got here is then you've got you've got the the the the mother and the the and and his family, thinking he's out of his mind. It's quite an interesting expression.

And they seem to think he's out of his mind because he hasn't eaten. And so there is real genuine family concern here, and there's this great gathering. Now, it it's sort of typical mother, isn't it? Yeah. And siblings.

It's like, you know, how's your brother getting on? Well, he hasn't eaten all day. Yeah. Well, he needs some food in him. You know, so when you go home to your mom.

Have you had a have you been eating your vegetables? Yes. That sort of stuff. But it's it's going a bit further than that because they're saying, look, this is crazy way of living. You can't put all these crowds around you, And also, they must have in their mind the fact that the religious leaders want to kill him.

Yes. So he's disturbing people somehow. Yes. So is he claiming to make all his claims? Too big.

He's out of his mind. Let's get him home. Let's sort him out. Let's give him a good wholesome meal. Let's just relax him a bit.

You know? Yeah. I think you're right. There's part of it which just feels like natural concern like that, as you say, the parents whose son or daughter has taken up a hobby, and it's beginning to take over them, you know, spending all their time doing it. And yet, there is a slight kind of clue here that that what they're doing is actually not just concern is unhelpful for Jesus and his ministry.

They went to take charge of him. You know, there's a sense in which they want to stage some kind of intervention, you know, and to remove him from his public. Ministry. And that that is something which as much as Jesus loved and honored his family, he He can't allow because he's got to go on with the ministry. And you see that in the second half.

So you've got Jesus' mother and brothers arrive. And then the crowd would come in and and say, well, your mother and brothers are outside looking for you, Jesus. You know? And then he says verse 33, who are on mother? And my brothers.

And now the crowd must be saying, okay, he is out. Because he now he now doesn't even know who they are. Yeah. He doesn't recognize them or understand that he's even gone on earth and found it perhaps. But this is You know, Jesus is not being rude or dismissive here.

And he's not implying that those relationships don't matter to it. Not who are they? You know, they don't matter to me. Because actually, he he was the perfect righteous son, and he would have honored his father and mother and his family as part of his righteousness. But he's wanting to make a point again, isn't he, about his his ministry and who he is?

Yeah. It's actually probably worth saying, isn't it? Because a lot of Catholics have a very wrong idea of Mary. This is Mary. Right.

This is his mother. And she hasn't got everything right. And she needs teaching. But anyway, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I think you're right. And so but he asked that question to you. He shows he is in his right mind because he uses this as an as a teaching opportunity. And remember, he's teaching his disciples, particularly, but he's also teaching all of us, obviously.

And the question, who are my mother and brother? Is asked. And then he looked at those seated in a circle around him verse 34 and said, here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother. So, he's he's he's he's taken this to say, I don't dismiss a physical family.

Yes. But there is a bigger and actually more important family that I've come for. Mhmm. And we saw that in the fact that people are coming from all over the world, that, you know, all the different places to gather around him -- Mhmm. -- and that he creates a family where he teaches them, because and they're with him.

And and it's a family that that listens and sits at his feet, and and he, in many ways, is the father of this family that he brings together as the family family of God. Yeah, and their unity is in their doing with the will of God, isn't it? So, just as the son of God does the will of the father. So all of the adopted children, Christians also do the will of the father. And therefore, our unity is in obedience.

Isn't that a funny thing in God's in God's word? And so, that's really important, isn't it? Because there might there might be people, I suppose who think, well, you know, as long as I get to church and actually sit in the physical building, as long as I'm in the proximity of Jesus, I'm his follower. You know, I'm a I'm a I'm in relationship with him or you know, as long as I grew up in a house where they were Christian people, I myself am a Christian because I was in I was in that kind of household. Yeah.

But Jesus is saying actually, it's not about physical proximity or or where you happen to go on your weekends. What makes you my family is your trust in my father's will and your doing of his will. That that's where the unity begins and ends, isn't it? It's in faith and obedience. And so so And the personal thing, yeah, isn't it?

You know? Yeah. And, you know, whoever does my father's will, that's sounds like, you know, I've gotta do lots of good works in order to get right with God. Mhmm. But his father's will is that people would recognize who Jesus is.

Because the father's will is that we trust in Jesus and we look to him and see that we can't really provide anything. So it's a beautiful idea of is a family of grace, a family that is intimate, they're coming together, you know, he calls them, we're with him, He teaches us. It really is a family. The trouble is with the word church, at least in our country. We we think of a building for an austere building, which means in this lockdown, we don't exist as you like as we could.

Yeah. Well, Yeah. But but it isn't a building. It is people. It's it's it's people that have come around Jesus and listened to the will of God.

And that's beautiful because he invites us to do that. Okay. Well, I think we'll leave it there, and we'll see you next time.