Flashback Episode — Doing God’s Will: Mark 3:31-35

If you have ever wondered what it means to be included in God’s family, our passage for this episode gives us a clue. While on the surface, how Jesus responds in this situation might have been considered offensive by some in the crowd, regardless of whether it offended someone, Jesus’ response gives us a powerful picture of what God’s family is like.

While I don’t hear many people talking about this passage today, an idea or theme hidden in this passage must have made it significant enough for three of the four gospel writers include it in their stories about Jesus. Part of me wonders if it has to do with the theme of being included in God’s family.

Let’s read this event from Mark’s gospel, chapter 3, using the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, Mark tells us:

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

In the first century culture, family was important – and especially honoring one’s parents – and in this passage, it sounds as though Jesus is blowing off or ignoring the family that has come to speak with Him. However, since the passage ends where it does, it is possible that Jesus uses His last statement as a conclusion to His message. All three of the gospels that include this event transition to something else afterwards.

However, regardless of whether Jesus stopped to go and visit with His mother and brothers, what Jesus shares about God’s family is powerful. The key point and key distinction Jesus makes which separates God’s family from everyone else is simply the test of whether someone is doing God’s will.

It sounds too simple, but Jesus rarely complicated things. In that culture, the religious leaders had complicated spirituality and religion to the point that many people simply gave up or resolved that they were already lost, so why even try. When Jesus steps onto the scene as God’s representative, He combats the complex with the incredibly, almost unbelievably, simple.

With this in mind, we turn to the question about why Jesus’ mother, brothers, and according to some gospels, sisters were there. While it is easy to speculate, included in this passage, and in their request, we can see a clue regarding why they had come.

Mark shares that the message that reaches Jesus is that His mother and brothers are outside looking for Him. If they had come to listen to what He was preaching, there would be no need to send the message. Also, taking from the theme of Jesus’ key point, members of God’s family do God’s will, and at that moment, God’s will for Jesus was to share about God with the people. Whether the Holy Spirit orchestrated this event to prompt Jesus’ words about God’s family, or whether Jesus knew the words to say while not knowing exactly when the opportunity would arise, the clue in this passage comes through the implied request for Jesus to stop what He is doing to go out and see His mother and brothers.

We don’t know the reason Jesus’ family had come. It may have been to share the bad news that Joseph just died or he was very sick. While this is a possible reason, it is unlikely, since a request like that would likely have come through a messenger or servant, and it would have been included in at least one of the three gospels that record this message. But, none of the gospels give any reason for their request. We don’t know, however, what we can see taking shape is a distraction from God’s will.

God’s will at that moment was Jesus teaching, and whatever reason Jesus’ family had for coming, their request appeared to interrupt and distract from Jesus’ mission.

With how each of the gospel’s end this event, and move on to something else, I am lead to believe that Jesus used this event to tie off the topic He was preaching about, and then He went out to see what they wanted. Jesus didn’t stop what He was doing because they had arrived, but He didn’t ignore it either. Jesus used this situation to draw our attention onto a bigger truth that we are adopted into God’s family when we are doing one specific thing. According to Jesus, when we are doing God’s will, we are Jesus’ mother, brother, or sister, and logically, we could describe this as being a part of God’s family.

This simple description about doing God’s will to be adopted into His family is a challenge for all of us. While there isn’t a specific action that makes us worthy of heaven, there is a set of simple things for us to do to align ourselves with God’s will for us.

The first is prayer, and the prayer I am referring to isn’t sporadic, whenever-we-need-God-to-do-something-for-us prayer. Instead, this prayer is regular, at the same time every day, and often first thing in the morning when we wake up. And this prayer is mixed with reading our Bible and just spending time with God looking for insights, inspiration, and encouragement from His Word.

The second is by making the commitment to depend on God and Jesus with whatever life throws our way. While it is easy to say we believe in God and trust Him for big things like our eternity, often times our actions don’t match our words, and we act like we are doing it on our own. God’s will is for us to live with Him, and He is more than willing to help us with our lives here on this earth. However, His help will always be focused on the ultimate goal of seeing us, and the most people possible, in heaven when history ends.

The third is by choosing to reflect Jesus’ character and His love to everyone God brings our way. The only way we can truly accomplish this is through the first two things. In order to reflect Jesus, we must know what He was like, which is found in the four gospels of the Bible, and we must depend on God and lean on Him, because that is what Jesus did, and that is where Jesus gained His strength for each day.

Being a part of God’s family is possible, and it is not complicated. However, it takes trust, faith, belief, and commitment, and sometimes it won’t feel easy or comfortable. But the challenges are easily outweighed by the huge truth that our ultimate reward for being in God’s family is living forever with Him!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Choose to depend on God today, for whatever life throws at you today, and make the commitment to do this each morning for this coming week. God wants to walk with us through life, and He is willing to help us when we need Him. It may be worth taking Him up on His offer.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn what God, Jesus, and doing God’s will is all about. The mission God has created us to live will have many similarities, but there will also be many differences. We are all uniquely created, and personal study mixed with personal prayer is the best way to begin discovering why God has placed you here on this earth at this point in history.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!