MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St. Mark

St. Mark 3:31-35

=====

IN THESE few verses Jesus gives to us a really wonderful revelation of God's purpose and his saving love, and of his great desire for his saved ones. The revelation is this that we are not simply to be saved from our sins, but that the great desire of Jesus is that we should be his brothers and sisters and members of the family of God.

This revelation is an extension of the revelation in a previous section where we considered the words of Jesus concerning the twelve apostles, that they were chosen so that they might be with him. It is the same revelation which Jesus gives to his disciples in the beginning of John 14. Jesus says there that he is going away to prepare a place for them in heaven, and then he does not simply say that he will come again to take them to the reserved homes in heaven, but something much more deep and lovely. The words are these, "I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." This is the glorious revelation that the Saviour has saved us because he wants to love us and be loved by us, and that he wants us to dwell with him in fellowship forever. It is expressed also in the words of Jesus to the criminal on the cross next to him. Jesus did not merely say - Today you will be in paradise, but rather - Today you will be with me in paradise.

This is great joy of heaven. Heaven would not really be heaven, however rich and pleasant the surroundings, without being with the one our soul loves, and enjoying his loving presence always. The joy now of being a Christian is that we are children of God, and know fellowship with the Lord, and the experience of his love. It is good to be saved and forgiven, and guilt and judgement taken away. It is good to be inheritors of the kingdom of God, and members of heaven, and to know a place in heaven is reserved for us. It is much better to know and to experience this tremendous blessing of being in the family of God, to have a real friend at last, and to be really and truly loved and owned. If, as is likely, we have experienced the failures of human friends and friendship, it is wonderful to know that Jesus is a friend who will never let us down or reject us, but longs to have us with him and to shower his love upon us. Is it not our experience that whenever we come to Jesus and seek his face, his love surrounds us, and is not diminished by the constant failures and evils that are revealed in our lives. There is always solace in the troubles and sorrows of life when we seek the Lord in his Word and through prayer.

This glorious revelation is revealed by Jesus for the first time in this Gospel. It is expressed in the opening chapter of John where we are told that those who receive Jesus are given the right to be called children of God, but this is the first time in Mark. Yet in the dramatic way Jesus reveals it here, we have a more vivid, if not more direct, telling of it.

The family of Jesus come to the house where Jesus is again teaching and ministering to the crowd, and they feel that it is time for Jesus to give them, his family, more attention, and they send in a message that they are waiting for him outside. They did not realise that this family relationship only existed because of Christ's human nature, and was not the real relationship. Jesus was not then just another man, born into a human family. He was and is first and foremost the Son of God, that unique relationship with God which existed for all eternity, but what Jesus wants all to know is that he is not just Mary's son, but the Son of his Father in heaven, and Brother of all who receive him, because he is the God-man and the second Adam, come to redeem a new and holy family of God.

It must have been quite a shock to the people all around him when he seemed to reject his family, and claim and promise another family. He so dramatically offers a place in his family for all, as he looks around the assembled company and says "Here is my mother and my brothers". The condition of entering the family of Jesus, and becoming his brother or sister, is to do the God's will. This seems to be saying at first sight that the way to become a member of God's family is by our human effort to keep God's law. If Jesus meant this then it would be a contradiction of the whole Gospel in the rest of the Bible. The Bible declares so often and so forcefully that we cannot be saved by our own effort. No! what Jesus is declaring is that the will of God was to save sinners through the death of Jesus for them, and that it was his covenant will that all should receive this gift of grace, and receive the Saviour. This is God's will for the world. This will is expressed so clearly in John 1:12 "Yet to all who receive him (Jesus), to those who believe on his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

This glorious will and purpose of God reveals a God of infinite grace and love. It is such a tragedy that so many in the world, even more so in the visible church, don't do the will of God. God has declared that there is only one name in heaven and earth by whom we are saved, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by his merits alone. This is God's will, his will not only for our salvation, but much more so to glorify his Son for all eternity.

There is no greater blessing of salvation than what Jesus tells us here in these few verses. To be brothers and sisters of Jesus, and have God as our heavenly Father, is to dwell in the joy of heavenly love and fellowship. This joy is eternally satisfying and glorious to know and experience.