“For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35, ESV). Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, and someone told Jesus about it. Despite the powerful bonds that families had in ancient times Jesus reduces the significance of family bonds in comparison to one’s bond with God through Jesus. Anyone can be a sibling of Jesus! One reason this is encouraging to many is that even if your family was dysfunctional or destructive, the family of God is far more important and valuable.
This leads us to the biggest reason that this verse is encouraging: we have the privilege of being “relatives” of Jesus! If we do God’s will we are his brother and sister and mother. Consider Romans 8:29:
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 8:29 (ESV)
Performing rituals, singing songs, or knowing Scripture does not make someone a sibling of Jesus. rather, whoever trusts and follows Jesus is his sibling. A sibling of Jesus is one who subordinates their will to God’s. Moreover, even though he didn’t have a sister there, Jesus still said that people could be his sister. Thus, he encourages women that they are just as important as men in the family of God, for everyone who does God’s will is a sibling of Jesus.
Do you think of yourself as a sibling of Jesus? How will that affect you?
