The Family System

I recently translated Mark 3:21, 31-34 from the original Greek text as presented in Nestle-Aland 27th edition. Two thoughts became obvious in that moment. First, the gospel story directly portrays Jesus mother in a very human, not-so-divine, sort of way. In the story Jesus' family (or literally "the ones from him" came to retrieve him because they said, "He is out of his mind" (NIV) or more literally "He is outside of himself". Sorry Catholic brothers, you are correct on many things, but on the divinity of Mary, this passage should be taken seriously as showing her lack of divinity. The story continues in verse 31 with the attempt of his mother and brothers looking for him to take him away. Jesus answer is simple, "Who are my mother and my brothers. And looking around at the ones sitting around him he said, "Behold, my mother and my brothers. Whoever might do the will of God, this one is my mother and brother and sister" (my translation). This brings me to my second thought. Jesus is serious about his use of the family system to describe his people, later called the church. Those who are part of the church are just as much our family, and I would say even more so than our fleshly family. The comment of Jesus that requires his follower to "hate" his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters and even his own life has always been perplexing and confusing to Christians and non-Christians alike. They always point to the fact that Jesus just wants his followers to love him "more." Yet, if we look at Jesus' developing familial model, we see that Jesus is seriously asking people to leave their families and join into a new family, that is the kingdom of God. I think Jesus' model is this: Upon entering into the Community of Christians, one no longer lives according to fleshly relations, but to the relations that are created by the Spirit. Namely, the relationships with fellow Christians. In this model, we are called to leave behind our earthly families to join the family in Christ Jesus.
However, there are two things I want to cover. First, if a Christian's earthly family is part of the family of Christ, then their relationships are made new in the new family through the Spirit. Second, leaving your family does not mean that you do not love them. We are called to love others and the family should be a focus of our commission to restore the world to Christ. However, if they are not a part of the Church (on a whole) then your requirement is to your Church family, not your earthly family. In other words, the church family is set above the earthly family.
So, what does this mean? This means that the way we used to go about family living, now is carried out in our church community. In our families, we take care of needs medically, economically, socially, and physically. Likewise, now we are called to care for our church family in these same ways. And in this, the body of Christ will fulfill the theology that Paul placed forward in Galatians 6:10 which says, "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." We are called to do good to all, but above all this new family of believers, called the church. We are called to be a family that knows each other beyond just names. To be a family that interacts and meets each others needs. To be a family that encourages and challenges. To be the family of Jesus Christ.