Does Jesus Call You Family, Part 1| Does Jesus Call You Family

Luke 8:19-21

Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 8. We are moving through this great chapter verse by verse and a following the organization and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who wrote this down through Luke. Look at verses 19 to 21, 19 to 21. It says there, “Then his mother and his brothers came to him,” and I just want to make a quick comment on that. “His mother and his brothers came to him,” came to Christ. That sentence you need to understand refutes the false Roman Catholic doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. And I just want to say that as a sort of an aside, sort of a footnote to the text, because I know that in our midst are many former Roman Catholics.

 “His mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.’ But he answered them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’” That text provides us, as I said, with another reason, for paying careful close attention to how we hear God’s Word. Because of the implications about the nature of our relationship to God and very importantly about Christ’s relationship to us.

It’s very important we are careful with how we hear. Those with hearts of good soil, as it says in verse 15, they are the ones who, verse 18, they “take care how they listen.” And they show that they have, have hearts of good soil and that they’ve taken care “how they listen” by the fact, verse 21, that they both hear and obey God’s Word. The good soil, verse 15, “take care how they listen,” verse 18. They “hear and obey,” verse 21. That’s a connection from the parable to the promise of light and to the identification of the children of light. Those whom Jesus counts as family.

And that really is the issue, isn’t it? It’s not about anybody’s claim to belong to the family of God. It’s not about what people say and profess about themselves. The more important question is what does Jesus profess about each one of us? Does Jesus consider us to belong to his family? So, the text, this passage, moves from divine revelation to human response and helps us draw a right conclusion about the nature of our relationship to God.

Is there a relational distance between ourselves and Jesus Christ? Or is there a relational closeness? Is there relational intimacy? And again, we’re less interested in answering that question, we’re less interested in how we feel about that. Our subjective feelings really are not the issue at all? This is not about a subjective sense. We answer the question in a very objective way, an objective manner by comparing ourselves with how Christ judges relational closeness and relational intimacy. We’re going to find here how Jesus defines his family and for the many of you here who are relight, rightly related to Jesus Christ, I think you’re gonna find every reason to be encouraged this morning as we walk through the text.

Let’s get right into point one. The arrival of Jesus’ family, the arrival of Jesus’ family. Look again at verse 19, “Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd.” This is one of the places in Luke’s Gospel where, where he is not following as he records this account, he’s not following a strict historical chronology. Both Matthew and Mark record the same section, but it comes before the Parable of the Sower, not after. And that’s more strictly historically chronological.

Luke records it here though, and he records it out of strict chronological sequence because he’s using it to illustrate the point that Jesus has just made, the importance of listening carefully to what God has revealed. It has implications on your family membership.

There’s an inverse proportion, rising popularity, and declining appreciation by the religious leadership of Jesus and his ministry, especially among the scribes and the Pharisees, especially those who are fastidious about the law of Moses and the law keeping. In fact, as we’ve already mentioned in our exposition of Luke’s Gospel, some of the religious leaders were already conspiring together about how to get away with killing Jesus. Others though, were more subtle.

As we’ve seen at the end of Luke 7, like Simon the Pharisee, he feigned a friendship, inviting him over to dinner, but actually he was intending to entrap Jesus. In either case, the thoughts of religious leadership or of hatred toward him. Murderous, even. So, it’s in the climate of this growing hostility and particularly from respected religious leaders, respected opinions within the community which were very powerful. It’s in the climate of that that Jesus’ mother and brothers visit.

There are rumors of Jesus coming demise. And it’s in this climate that Jesus’ family tries to visit him, and in fact they are trying to intervene. Let me show you this by having you turn over to Mark’s Gospel, Mark 3:22 “The scribes who came down from Jerusalem,” these are Jerusalem scribes and they, “were saying, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul,’ and ‘by the Prince of demons he casts out demons.’” Now we understand that’s easily refutable. There’s nothing about Jesus that speaks of the demonic. And Jesus handily refutes the charge in the verses that follow.

But think about how ominous that judgment would sound to Jesus’ family members. They have a family affection for him. They have a concern about their family reputation. And these are the scribes of Jerusalem, no less. They’re experts in the law. They are full of wisdom. You might consider them on par today with, with, with the so-called mental health experts. Public intellectuals, and they have all come to the conclusion together that Jesus is possessed.

How do you think that judgment would stir the anxieties of Jesus’ family? His brothers didn’t believe him, in him anyway, John 7:5. And here his mom is worried about him. I mean, messianic pretensions are one thing, but this is getting way too serious. This is going a bit far. No one wants him to die for all this controversy. Which has to be due to some kind of misunderstanding. So, his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, Judas they, they decided to take action.

They decide to head over to his residence in Capernaum. Find out where he is, seize him, Mark 3:21, and they do that for his own good. The word seize means to grasp hold of, to arrest, to put under restraint. They intend to grab him, restrain him, take him back to their house, out of the public eye where he can come back to his good senses. Like the kid that they knew growing up. Become the reasonable lad that they knew when they grew up with him, not this would be Messiah who’s stirring up all the good folks of Galilee. They want to get him home, away from the controversy, away from the danger for his own good. But surely didn’t Mary hold a different point of view?

She did. She clearly did as Elizabeth had said thirty years earlier by the Holy Spirit, Luke 1:45 “Blessed is she who believed”, that’s Mary, “Blessed is she who believed there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” There’s nothing in any Gospel record that would lead us to conclude that Mary had stopped believing what the Lord told her would be fulfilled. So why here does Mary come along with the boys? Why does she come with the four brothers? She comes not because she agrees with her other sons that he’s out of his mind. But really, she comes because she’s very, very concerned.

You mother’s know, when there’s a potential for conflict among the boys, you’re gonna be there to be on hand to make sure no one gets hurt. Hard for boys to pile on too hard when mom’s watching. She’s crying, carrying on like mothers do. If you’re gonna seize my first born seize him gently. Right, so she’s there as a mother. Her affections are stirred and probably with the four brothers there leaning on her, voicing their opinions and concerns, perhaps she started to become concerned herself. Well, maybe it is better he takes a rest a little bit.

So, if we can understand in the most benefit of the doubt, gracious terms, the reason why Jesus’ family arrived on the scene, or at least one reason. And say they came for his own protection. At least they thought so. They came for his own good. His brothers didn’t believe in him, so the only sense they could make out of him. The only way they could explain his itinerant lifestyle, I mean, not even, he’s not even making any money off of the deal.

The only way they can understand any of this is he’s lost it. Maybe the heat has been getting to him. Maybe he’s working too hard. I mean he’s all over the place. In any case, he’s out of his mind. Let him, let’s get him out of the heat. Let’s get him out of the public eye, away from the controversy, away from all this. Let’s let him get a little R&R back at our house. So, if you’re still in Mark 3:22, “Jesus’ mother and brothers” they, “came and standing outside they sent to him and called him.”

Go ahead and turn back to Luke 8:19 now. “Standing outside they sent to him and they called him.” But in Luke 8:19, Luke abbreviates that and just says, “His mother and his brothers came to him, but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd.” And you’ll notice that Luke hasn’t provided any of the background that Mark gave us or that Matthew gave us, and that’s purposeful on Luke’s part. He knew the full story, he’d done his research, but he chooses here to focus our attention on the deeper point.

For him, the deeper point is that this is an illustration of Jesus’ exhortation in, in verse 18 of Luke 8, “Take care therefore how you hear.” Luke has purposefully here, stepped away from his usual chronological development. To insert this account and direct our attention, on this point, the issue of relative proximity. The issue of relational proximity. Let’s put it this way. This is Jesus’ family, right? It’s his natural mother and his natural brothers and they would say that they are coming to Jesus, basically to rescue him from himself. Why? Because they would tell you he’s our brother. We love him. We care for him. We don’t want him to get hurt.

But if they love him. I mean, if they truly love him, that is to say they love him by understanding him, by knowing him, knowing him for who he really is. Not just according to human judgement, but according to who he really is. If that’s true that they truly love him, then what are they doing outside of the house? Why would they need to come to him if they love him, shouldn’t they already be there? Don’t the people who know and love Jesus stay close to him? Don’t they abide in him and stay as close as possible to him?

That folks is what Luke wants us to see. So, Luke brings us into the scene without historical context to demonstrate the incongruity of the fact that Jesus own family is outside of the circle. As John wrote in John 1:10 and 11, “He” that is Jesus “was in the world, and the world was made through him, and yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” Look, Jesus’ family had lived close to him, probably closer than anybody could. I mean, his mother, imagine her taking care of him from a young, young age, nursing him, caring for him, raising him, weaning him. All the rest; they knew him intimately. They had lived close to him while he grew up among them.

But now, they’re not in the inner circle. They’re not in the outer circle. They haven’t been hanging out at it, even at the perimeter of the spectating crowds. They’ve been living away from him. And now they have to come to him. And when they arrive on scene, they can’t reach him because of the gathered crowd. And listen, their physical proximity is a picture of their relational proximity. They’re not close where it counts.

That takes us into our second point. The report of Jesus’ family. There in verse 20, Jesus was told, or you could say it was reported to him. “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” That is, he’s on the inside. They are on the outside. They’re standing outside of the circle of the followers of Jesus, and so he had to receive this news of their arrival by this report.

It actually says in Mark 3:31 that his family “sent to him and called him.” They are the ones who initiated this report. Why do they want to see him? Remember their intentions. They basically intend to arrest him. Take him back to their house. They don’t want, they don’t want to actually themselves come into the house where Jesus is to be with him. They’re not coming to see him in the way that any of the rest of these disciples, any of the rest of the crowd is. His family is standing outside and they’re staying outside and they are sending for him, calling for him, wanting to see him but outside where they are.

Where they’re standing, they’ve come to take him away. Like embarrassed, concerned family members, enough is enough. The crowd of disciples around Jesus, in the house, packed in, even standing outside. They don’t know that. They don’t know what their intentions are. So, when Jesus’ family arrives, you can imagine their excitement. A report of their arrival and request came from outside where Jesus’ brothers were. They’re there outside the crowd, outside the house, and they’re sending word inside the house. And so, if you picture it, the report passed from person to person, from the outer perimeter, then inside the house and then through the stack of bodies that covered every inch of floor space, and finally the word made it to Jesus.

So, by the time Jesus hears the report, everyone in the home and outside of the home, they all knew, that Jesus’ family had arrived. And that they wanted to see him, and again, no one knows why they came to see him. That the family thinks that Jesus has lost his mind and they’ve come to take him away from them. Everybody knows what’s reported here in verse 20, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.

So, what do you think the gathered crowd on that occasion would expect Jesus to do? How do they, you think they would expect him to respond to this news that his family’s arrived? As you consider that. Let me inform your thinking just a bit by showing you what’s really plain in the text, in, but easily looked over. Notice the repetition here. Verse 19, verse 20 and verse 21. The repeated identification of his mother and his brothers. His mother and his brothers, your mother, your brothers, my mother, my brothers. Why the repetition of that same phrase over and over just a change in pronouns. But why?

How about, how about some variation from Luke here? I mean, why not use the word family? There’s actually a word family, patria, in the Greek. He could use that word, for instance, in the first instance and maybe a pronoun in the second instance, they, them, they’re here. And then spell it out at the end, my brother, my mother and my brothers, why? Why do you see this repetition of the phrase?

Look whenever you find repetition in the text, pay attention because its often intentional. There’s a reason for the repetition. It’s not just that Luke was tired and ran out of creativity. Couple reasons for the repetition really. Let me just give you one of them for now. By repeating the phrase, “his mother and his brothers” in verse 19, and then “your mother and your brothers” verse 20, and then “my mother and my brothers” in verse 21. Luke emphasizes the significance of relationship. Heightens the sense of expectation among the people.

In fact, even trace the pronouns, “his mother and brothers,” third person right, third person, “your mother and your brothers,” second person. Let me get to the first person, “my mother and my brothers.” Heightens the sense of expectation here among the people. The reader is going to assume a certain kind of response on Jesus’ part. Expects Jesus to act a certain way. How should Jesus respond with the arrival of his family? With eagerness right? We expect him to readily receive his family members and to receive them immediately.

Biblically, we have that expectation. To go back to the Old Testament, it’s as basic as the ten commandments. Exodus 20, verse 12, “Honor your father and your mother.” That’s repeated by Moses in the second law, the Deuteronomy, there in the reiteration of those ten Commandments. Deuteronomy 5:16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you.” Why? So that “your days may be long, and it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

Apostle Paul reinforced the same truth, didn’t he? In the New Testament, Ephesians 6:1-3 he points back to this ten Commandments truth, “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ this is the first commandment with a promise, Paul says, “that it may go well with you and you may live long in the land.” The duty to honor one’s parents was instilled in Hebrew children from the womb upward all the way through life.

Out of that command, that basic command to “Honor your father and honor your mother” come a number of stark warnings in the law? If you honor your father and mother, you’re not going to commit acts of physical violence against them, Exodus 21:15. According to Exodus 21:17, you’re gonna, not gonna show any verbal dishonor toward your parents or disdain for them. Leviticus 20:19 says the same thing. In fact, you’re not to treat them with any lack of dignity according to Leviticus 18:7.

Be careful that you’re not brought up on charges of rebellion as a child in your parents’ home, Deuteronomy 21:18-21, because those kids who rebel against their parents totally dishonoring him, them and not obeying him. They get rocked to sleep and they never wake up. The whole community gathers to stone rebellious children to death. So, Leviticus 19:3, “Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father.” There’s a final warning. Before they entered into the promised land, it was a curse, shouted from the slopes of Mount Ebal. Deuteronomy 27:16, “Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”

So, when his mother and his brother show up in verse 19. And the report comes to him in verse 20, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” What does everybody expect Jesus to do? Whether it’s the people present on this occasion or the readers of Luke’s Gospel starting with Theophilus and beyond in the first century and today as well, everyone expects Jesus to treat his family with the utmost deference and regard and respect and honor.

Every reason in the world to expect Jesus either to go out to them as they’ve requested, or to tell his disciples to make way, make a hole everyone, make a pathway, get them close to him because that is what families do. When the arrival of Jesus’ family produces this report about their arrival, makes its way to Jesus and there is an expectation about the, from the people that are there that day, there’s an expectation for us as we read. But here’s where the needle comes off the record. Here’s where you might say someone sings a flat note and sings it very loudly. But then fingernails dragged down the chalkboard. I know all these metaphors come from a predigital age so fill in your own metaphor of discomfort and metaphor of discomfort in the first century world. The folks here are in for a bit of a shock.