Day 8: Who's in and Who's out
He replied to them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Looking at those sitting in a circle around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Mark 3:33-35
Ok so I feel I need to start this with a personal confession. I feel awkward doing something for ‘lent’. Growing up I always assumed it was something either Catholics or nominal Presbyterians did and something to be avoided. Isn’t it just a tradition, or a ritual? Or worse is it a religious work, something we do to earn God’s favour before Easter?! And anyway, what’s the point of giving up chocolate only to be self-righteous towards people who don’t? (Yes, I see the irony…)
Now, obviously, this is not a gracious or helpful attitude. It reeks of the same self-righteousness I’m apparently concerned about in others and I’m judging people’s hearts and motivations without truly understanding where they are coming from. But I do think somewhere in it there is a helpful reminder that we also see played in Mark 3:20-35.
In this passage Jesus’s own family set about him. They try and restrain him. They don’t want him doing his whole teaching and healing the crowd thing anymore, certainly not when it’s time for some scran. Then we have the proper religious teachers rocking up. You know, the ones who were meant to be reading the scriptures and expecting the Saviour. They start to whine about Jesus being ‘possessed by Beelzebul’ – they thought he was a son of the Devil not the son of God.
What’s happening here is that those you would expect to be in the family of God are actually out. The ones who grew up around him didn’t actually know him. The proper religious ones who you would expect to be his biggest fans, were actually his mortal enemies. Their problem was they all wanted Jesus on their own terms. They wanted Jesus either to do what they wanted (his family) or they wanted Jesus without doing what he wanted (the scribes).
And that’s often us today isn’t it? We can look like we’re in. We can look religious; we can practice lent or argue clearly with others about why they shouldn’t. We’ve maybe grown up in a Christian family and never missed church, we wear Jesus t-shirts and Jesus bracelets, we can recite the best bible verses, we can sing all the best hymns or modern songs or psalms, we can talk the talk (and our social media profiles show it, we can do all this and not truly be in the family of God. Why? Because we’re really doing these things to get Jesus to do what we want him to do, or because we can do all these things but ignore the daily (perhaps more hidden) ways Jesus calls us to obey him.
In this passage Jesus lays the smackdown big time on this type of behaviour. It can be quite confusing (even worrying) when Jesus starts talking about this sin that will ‘never be forgiven’, but he is simply meaning that if we persistently refuse to recognise who Jesus actually is, then it doesn’t matter if we look the part or not, we will never be forgiven. Forgiveness comes from recognising Jesus is the strongman who defeated the Devil, he is the saviour we all need.
That’s what’s great about how this passage ends because you have this crowd full of sinners and failures being told that they can be in. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done. If you recognise Jesus as the saviour you need, if you trust that he died to forgive your sin and rose to give you new life, then you can be in God’s family and know God’s hope. The ‘will of God’ is that you trust him and then do what he says in the daily grind of life. So, it’s not about observing lent or not observing lent. It’s not about looking the part. It’s about daily fleeing sin and running to Jesus.
There are those who look like they should be in but are out… and yet, by God’s grace, many who should be out are in. What Good News. What a Saviour. What a Hope.
Passage for today: Mark 3:20-35
A thought to remember: It doesn’t matter who you are, if you truly come to Jesus you will know HOPE.
A question to ask: What external behaviours might you be doing for the wrong reason? What does walking in obedience to JEsus look like for you today?
A song to sing: My worth is not in what I own.