THE FAMILY OF JESUS
When the
messenger interrupted Jesus’ conversation with the people at his home in
Capernaum to say that Jesus’ family was outside, (Matthew
12: 46-50) it’s possible the people in the room began at once to get up and
leave to make room for these more important people. But Jesus stopped them with a gesture. “Who are my mother and brothers and sisters?”
he asked. Then he stretched his hand out
to all of them and said, “Here are my mother and brothers. For whoever does the
will of my Father is my mother, brother and sister.” Startling words, of course, especially to
people to whom family is everything.
Jesus, as is his way, has taken an ordinary event and used it to proclaim
yet another new thought. In this case He
is saying that to him there is no hierarchy. All the faithful are equal. What a glorious idea that we, by doing what
He has told us to do, have earned the right to be counted as his family. Since there is no hierarchical structure with
Jesus it follows there is none with the Creator either. Somehow we manage to miss this point. It’s easy to see why. In life there are those who lead and those
who follow, those who are gifted and those who are not and we tend to elevate
those people above ourselves but in the eyes of God we are all loveable. If we could begin everyday with the thought that
no matter what happens during the day, no matter how others treat us we are
precious to Him, we might surprise ourselves at how happy we would be.
With love from Carol
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