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Jesus' mothers, brothers and sisters |
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"Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you." "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother! " Mark 3: 31 – 35 (New International Version) |
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Introduction |
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The UCCSA 36th Assembly is upon us and some of the fraternal delegates from the USA, Jamaica, United Kingdom, are already on their way to Maputo, having left behind their families and other programmes in order to join us as we wrestle with issues of our faith and its implications for the struggle for justice. Our text can help throw some light and perspective on this Assembly.
The challenges we face as a region of Southern Africa and our own internal family issues can indeed be so pre-occupying that we may lose sight of what it means to be a church a family. Some might even be skeptical about the whole process and activity of Assemblies
. The Assembly theme tells it all by its approach that we are called to participate in the suffering and struggle that others are involved in. And this is the struggle for justice; the very same struggle that took Jesus so far away from his family that they began to think that he had become "mad". Well for us it should be counted an honour to be seen as being 'mad for the sake of the struggle for justice.' |
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About the text |
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In this chapter, Mark has put together several stories that have a bearing on the family. From the story of the healing of the man with a shriveled hand and the one about the crowds that followed Jesus' early ministry in Galilee, the appointment of the Twelve and the accusation of being demon possessed to our text, Mark 3: 31 – 35, the implications to the family are very instructive for us today. The mother of Jesus, Mary, appears to have led her family, the siblings of Jesus, in a bid to bring him home as they sensed that something was wrong and dangerous about the activities of Jesus
. They seem to have shared the fears and concerns of some of the sections of the community about 'this movement' that was gathering pace and would soon attract the dangerous attention of the Roman rulers. Their request to meet Jesus outside and away from the crowds, seems to have been met with a negative answer from Jesus.
"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked the surprised audience, before going ahead to show them who his mothers and sisters and brothers really were. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother!" |
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Jesus thus re-defined the meaning and bounds of "family". Family is not just about 'blood' or cultural or even nationality relatedness; it is more about human solidarity "at the point of deepest need". The people who were healed by Jesus and those who listened/obeyed his teaching were indeed more motherly/brotherly/sisterly to him and to each other, than anybody else could ever be. The people who stood together and helped one another in the 'trenches' in Soweto and other sites of suffering and struggle throughout history, such as the events of 9/11, have, in the majority of cases been bound together in unbreakable cords of love
The challenge for Africa, in particular, is not to wait for crises like Somalia, Libya, and others, to trigger our family compassion. Our comradeship must emanate from our nature of ubuntu, which we have suckled from the breasts of our rich Mother Africa's culture. Indeed we should say with Jesus that "our mothers and our sisters and our brothers are those who care about those in need as they care about their own personal needs.
May God bless our gathering as UCCSA family with our brothers and sisters in Mozambique. And as we assemble under the theme, "Christ is Calling Us: Participating in Suffering and Struggle, may this Assembly set our hearts of compassion with suffering people everywhere, especially in Mozambique. |
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