New Definition of Family

Jesus creates a new definition of family in today's gospel passage (Matthew 12:46-50). Jesus is on the inside of the house teaching his disciples; Mary, his mother, and his brothers are standing outside the house. "Who is my mother, my sister, my brother?" Pointing to the disciples, to the inside, Jesus says, "These are my brothers, my sisters, and my mother. Anyone who does the will of my Father is my brother and sister and mother."

Jesus turns the situation upside down. No kinship, no tribalism, no culturalism, no bloodline. Who is my mother, my brother, my sister? Those who do God's will. To challenge the idea of family was really shocking to a culture based on the kinship system. Blood relationship is secondary to Jesus.

Jesus has in a moment turned upside down the whole bloodline family system, even at the risk of slighting his mother! Mary with regard to the bloodline may be on the outside; but she becomes an insider, a disciple: one who does the will of God. She belongs to the inside group as disciple, as mother to God's beloved, as mother to the disciples.

Jesus says it's not blood that makes family, but it's trust, union, and commitment. This is the new defintion of family. Jesus opposes conventional wisdom so much that he has redefined the family in terms of a universal family based on discipleship and love. He has broken that addiction to false patriotism, loyalty and nationality. Everyone is a God's beloved child. Everyone is a bearer of the divine image, containing in herself/himself the inherent dignity that s/he is created in God's own image and likeness. No exceptions. No more boundaries of races and countries. No more narrow-minded nationalism, but only internationalism without boundaries. All people are God's own people, every land Holy Land, all times and places sacred to the Lord.