1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word today is taken from Mark 3:20-35 and is entitled, “The Family of God.” Today we learn from Mark’s Gospel that through Jesus, we have been taken from Satan’s family and brought back into the family of God, in which there is forgiveness and life eternal. Please pray with me: Merciful Father, when sin had stolen us from You and held us captive to death, You determined to restore the family You had made and sent forth Your own Son to win us back into Your family. Grant us grace that we rejoice in this gift and be sustained through forgiveness until we dwell with You on high; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
2. Before God created the world, there was from eternity the concept of family. From eternity, there was already the Father and the Son. When God created Adam, he breathed the Holy Spirit into him, and another son was created, a son with a beginning in this world, but a son who, unlike the animals, was made in the image of God. But then God created something totally new. He created woman. It is no coincidence that God keeps moving in his creative process. His grand finale is a daughter! She is not just a daughter, but she is a being who, with the man, has the potential for procreation, for creating additional family members right along with God. Though the animals were given a similar gift, only humans would generate additional children of God. Only humans would procreate immortal individuals—and all this is possible because of God’s invention of motherhood.
3. God also instituted only for humans the foundational family framework: marriage. From this framework come children. It’s clear that children are carried, born, and nursed with a built-in link to their mothers. They will have to live a while to be bonded to their fathers. In the end, God’s goal was to create family, and not just beings who would live as members within love-centered groups consisting of a father, a mother, and children. God ultimately wants us to live as immortal members of His family. As sons and daughters of God.
4. In his creation, God’s goal was to have family. God’s creatures were lovingly commanded to be fruitful and multiply—have families. Humans were unique, created in God’s image—a family reference (Gen 1:26). “Image” includes the understanding of being one’s child. For example, Adam’s son Seth is described as being in Adam’s image in Gen 5:1–3. We still use the term in our phrase “spitting image.” So, Adam and Eve were sons and daughters of God by creation (Lk 3:38). Unlike any other creature, God wanted man to be family. God instituted marriage—a foundational family concept—for humans (Gen 2:18–25).
5. God also created us to want to have families. Families are most commonly established by birth—blood relatives. Children naturally want to be in a family, to have parents. Parents usually want children. But, foster children, stepchildren, and biological children are all equally loved as family. Adopted children are of the same status as children of a blood relationship. Then families are also established in marriage, a union as strong as blood relations.
6. All these family concepts are used by God to describe his relationship with humanity. In Jesus, God ultimately became our blood relative, our Brother. From eternity, Jesus had a Father, but no mother. As God’s Son, he is without beginning. A mother indicates a beginning. In time, the man Jesus has a mother, but no earthly father. In our text (Mk 3:21, 31), we get a glimpse of Jesus’ earthly family—mother, brothers, sisters, but still no human father (Mk 6:2–3). Thus, as a man, Jesus is our Brother. But as God, Jesus is also betrothed to his people. Marriage, is also a family relationship God uses to describe his relationship to his people. Christ desired to take us the Church as his Bride.
7. God’s goal is still to have humanity as his family. In disobedience, man lost the image of God. Man broke God’s desired family. Man ceased to be children in God’s family. Of course, Satan had a hand in this (Gen 3:1). So, humans now have the devil as their father. Jesus tells us this in John 8:41, 44. Man is born in Satan’s domain (Eph 2:1–3). Jesus was even accused of involvement with Satan’s family as our text from Mk 3:22–27 says, “22And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.” Now marriage and bearing children are under a curse (Gen 3:16). Now many, many sins are related to broken families. Betrayal, like Adam blaming Eve (Gen 3:12), adultery, fornication, divorce, unloved and unloving children, disobedience in families.
8. But God desires that we be adopted back into his family (Gal 4:5–7). The Son of God becomes the seed of a woman promised in Gen 3:15. As the Son of God, Christ is of God’s family. And he becomes the new Adam to bring man back into God’s family. As predicted in Gen. 3:15, Jesus must crush the serpent’s head. Jesus in our text today from Mark 3:27 describes this as, “[binding] the strong man.” Jesus must plunder Satan’s goods, taking his “children” away from him. This is why exorcisms are spoken in the Rite of Holy Baptism. The sponsors confess that a child does “renounce the devil” and all his works and all his ways.
9. In order to restore the image of God in man, Jesus must destroy sin and death. Death belongs to Satan. Jesus takes it upon himself (Heb 2:14). Sin is the root of death. (Eating the forbidden fruit caused death; the wages of sin continue to be death.) Therefore, to restore God’s human family, Jesus had to destroy sin (1 Pet 3:18).
10. In Jesus, God’s goal is reached. His family in this creation is restored. Jesus did destroy sin and death and crush the power of Satan by dying and rising. Jesus now has eternal brothers, sisters, and mother In our text from Mark 3:33–35, 33[Jesus said], “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” We, as the Church of God are now also Christ’s Bride (Eph 5:32). In Christ, we now again possess the image of God (2 Cor 3:18; 4:4). Therefore, God’s family does God’s will. We believe in Jesus, who did God’s will (Jn 6:29). We are now empowered to behave as family, as God’s children (Eph 5:1, 2).
11. Our restoration as God’s children is beyond the grasp of the world. So, the apostle John writes in 1 John 3: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:1–2).
12. As we live out our lives in this fallen world, we struggle. We have pain. But we know that as God’s children, we have eternal life. We shall “be like Jesus.” We are waiting for our glorious immortal bodies, bodies like what was intended for God’s children. Thus, in conclusion, hear how St. Paul explains our immortal family, speaking of each of us as sons: “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom 8:19–23) Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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