Seated in a Circle
We humans like to rank people according to various standards. In grade school when we formed a line, the teacher arranged us from shortest to tallest. In high school we were assigned classes in terms of academic ability. Ball teams are ranked in terms of their performance and won-lost records.
We wonder if Jesus ranked people, and if he did by what standards. We would, of course, think he put his mother and dad at the top of his list, then sisters and brothers, followed by cousins, aunts and uncles. Once again Jesus surprises us by issuing a new standard.
“The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house. Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you.’”
His family “called him.” Does that mean they called out his name while he was busy teaching the disciples? Seemingly Jesus ignored their call and kept on teaching. Thinking Jesus did not hear his relatives call him, the people relayed the message to him.
If we were to complete the story, we would suggest that Jesus stopped what he was doing, said to the group “Pardon me for a minute. My mother is outside calling me; it might be something important that she wants to tell me. I will be right back.” This would have been the reasonable and respectful thing to do.
To our surprise, Jesus didn’t do this.
“Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking around at those seated in the circle, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Notice that the disciples of Jesus sat in a circle. It was not Jesus up front and the congregation in the pews, nor a committee sitting around a conference table. They were in a family circle.
Jesus came into the world to establish a new race of people; he called this new group the “Kingdom of God.” Those in the Kingdom had a closer relationship with Jesus and with one another than even his closest relatives did. A new order was being established. St. Paul called those who chose to enter this new order, a “new creation.”
Knowing how we naturally put family ahead of everything, even sometimes the will of God, Jesus had to re-order our priorities. When he was twelve, he left his parents and went to the temple to engage in conversation with the elders there. Mary was rightly upset that he did this without telling her. Jesus made doing the will of the Father even more important than his parents’ feelings. Once a young man wanted to follow Jesus; first, however, he wanted to go home to say goodbye. Jesus said that those who put their hand to the plow and start looking back are not fit for the Kingdom of God. At another time he said that those who love father and mother more than him cannot be his disciples.
Jesus’ commitment to put the will of God first and above all was dramatically seen in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he agonized over the decision to submit to his Father’s will, which meant surrendering himself to his enemies to be crucified.
When we enter the new creation, our priorities must change. Nothing, not even our closest relatives and friends, ranks ahead of doing God’s will. Let us ask for the courage to seek God’s will above all else.
