46 While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”
48 He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
– Matthew 12:46-50
Family has always been of great value of mine growing up, and to this day spending time with family and being with them is something I cherish and am always thankful for. Whenever I finish a long day’s work, I look forward mostly to the time I go home and spend the rest of the day with my wife. There is hardly a person I’d rather spend my time with. For some of us family might represent a number of things. It may signify love, acceptance, support, and comfort. But there are also those out there that may feel it is a place of stress, pressure, discomfort, shame, or persecution.
Many of us believe that Jesus’ relationship with his family was healthy, functional, and in perception – loving, supportive and understanding. On the contrary, Jesus’ blood brothers were actually the ones who doubted and considered him crazy or out of his mind. There were also incidences of them challenging Jesus as well. (John 7:2-5, Mark 3:21). There was a great sense of tension between Jesus and his brothers. It is likely Jesus’ brothers who wanted him to stop speaking in case he offended the Pharisees and Sadducees in fear that he might get into deep trouble. It was love and care that they wanted to take him away from teaching, but it was also doubt on their hearts of who Jesus actually was – although we know that Mary quietly believed and was the only one who knew of Jesus’ true identity. But regardless, his mother and his brothers wished to take him away from that moment because of fear.
But Jesus says something in the midst of this circumstance and uses it as a way for him to identify his disciples as his true family. He is not only implicitly speaking to his physical family – to know and accept his identity, but also that his disciples would know that we who are obedient to God would, like a family, inherit God’s kingdom together. Jesus’ brothers eventually come to believe and realize his identity and are recorded to have become missionaries (1 Corinth. 9:5) and prominent leaders of the early church in Jerusalem (James). What was once a temporal and earthly family tie becomes locked in both physically and spiritually for eternity.
We as the church find commonality and identity in our faith and obedience to Christ. Jesus’ family was in some sense dysfunctional and a place of distress rather than comfort and peace. But in the midst of doubt and fear, came faith and obedience which restored the family to have eternal commonality. This commonality started in Jesus Christ.
The true sense of family then begins in Jesus. It begins in knowing who He is, knowing we are God’s children, and walking on that journey of obedience to his will together. For those who are going through family difficulties, it may be a season and time for us to begin with Jesus together. No longer being conflicted with fears and with failures, but rather in supporting each other to walk in His will and His name – not our own. If we have no physical family that will walk on that journey with us, know that you are included in His eternal family and has great plans in his will for you.
This is the very foundation for you and I, and most greatly, for the Church of today.
T H E O P H I L U S 
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