Sermons

[more sermon topics]

DISCIPLESHIP AND COST - by Revd Gilbert Wong
Texts: Psalm 40:1-12; Mark 3:31-35
20 January 2008

Introduction

This text is particularly challenging as we gather together this morning for a family service - a service where children and adults are supposed to listen to some encouraging messages to foster and strengthen family life. And yet here in the Gospel, we seem to hearing the opposite. This seems to be a message which teaches us to ignore our biological family for another one. Is Jesus ignoring his own family? If so, is he also encouraging us to do the same? How family life, which is already under threat, expects to benefit from such a text?

Prepositional Sentence: A Family Redefined

Transitional Sentence: We need to understand this redefined family in two ways.
I believe we can understand this redefined family by firstly examining the context of this passage and secondly, by applying that understanding to discipleship.

Firstly, let us examine the context of this passage.

Jesus’ family seemed to be anxious for Jesus’ safety. In Mark 3:20-21, we read that Jesus’ family was forcibly going to take Jesus away from the crowd as they feared for his safety. “Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’”

It was obvious that Jesus’ family was concerned about his health and safety. He had not been eating or resting as he and his disciples continued to serve the crowd. As parents and siblings, it seemed a natural affection that they wanted Jesus to be safe and not to be sorry for neglecting his health and safety.

So when they appeared at the scene in verse 31, they were really there to snatch him out from the crowd. They really wanted to help Jesus. They perceived that not only Jesus would be tired out by the continuous strain and stress of ministry but there was also a smearing campaign going on by the religious leaders (see 3:22-30) who concluded that Jesus was indeed demon-possessed.

And so with so many people pressing on him for ministry and a smearing campaign by the religious leaders, it was only natural for parents to be anxious for their children’s safety.

But what seemed natural in this case of parental love could not determine that it was necessarily the will of God. In other words, no matter how well-intentioned parents might be, it could amount to sinful interference with the will of God.

Jesus was telling his own family that “his comings and goings cannot be determined by physical ties but only by the will of God”.

You may recall a few other incidents where natural affections amount to sinful interference. John 2:3-4 tells us of one such incident: “When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’ ‘Dear woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied, ‘My time has not yet come.’ Peter was another when he tried to stop Jesus from going to Jerusalem only to be harshly rebuked by Jesus, “Get behind me Satan” (Mark 8:33)

So when Mary and his other sons appeared again in Mark 3:31, they were really there to save Jesus from the crowd and the smear campaign. But they did not stop there as they allowed natural physical ties to determine their course of action without very little reference to the will of God.

So it is clear that natural and human ways cannot determine God’s will. A familiar OT verse which echoes the same is Isaiah 55:9, “As heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Transitional Sentence: But how is this to be applied to discipleship.

Secondly, let us understand how we can apply to discipleship.

As disciples of Christ, there is no other way except to recognise submissively and lovingly the supremacy of God’s will over all our physical ties and possessions. God remains the grander vision of our earthly life. All that we have and all that we are are to be used for his glory.

However, we need also to know that Jesus was not expecting parents to therefore not show natural and parental care and concern for our children, and likewise children must honour and respect your parents and not use this text as a means to escape your filial obligations to your parents.

You find that elsewhere in the Mark’s Gospel, Jesus teaches exactly that. In fact, Jesus condemned fiercely those who neglect their responsibilities to their parents through legal casuistry (see Mark 7:6-13), his returning of a healed man back to his family (5:18-19) and his condemnation of divorce (10:1-12).

Let me take one such teaching to illustrate which is that of Mark 7:6-13. The erroneous teaching of the religious teac