Family Love Expanded!

“While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”
Jesus replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Matthew 12:48-49

I love my family.

My wife, my sons, and my daughter all hold special places in my heart. I love spending time with my parents, my siblings and their families, and even my uncle and aunt(though they rarely ever spend time with me). Even my wife’s family, my “in-laws” are near and dear to my heart.

I am a different person around my family. To those I grew up with, I’m “Billy”, and I know now I’ll never really grow out of that name. To my kids I’m “daddy” and to my wife I’m “honey.” There is a special love I hold for my family. A love that I have for no one else.

Families are precious things to all of us. We are very different when we’re just around our family as opposed to how we are around our co-workers, our friends, and even those we know at church. We have a special love for our families that we have for no one else. A love that is intimate, personal. A love with history behind it. A passionate, nurturing, tender love. A love of family.

We might expect that, if we have such love for our families, than God must have that love for His. Afterall, God came down to earth as a human being, as Jesus of Nazareth. Surely he had a special love for his family.

But we find that, in Jesus, God’s love is something rather strange. Instead of having one love for his family and one love for the rest of the world, as we have, God’s love is a family love expanded out to...everyone! Jesus gives a little hint of that love in this peculiar and seemingly harsh conversation surrounding his family.

In this lesson, the crowd, seeing Jesus’ family wishes to speak to him, is willing to dismiss him from teaching to talk to them. “Go on, Jesus,” they seem to say. “We understand. You need to love your family now.”

But Jesus, unwilling to set one person over another, replies. “You think I have a special love for them? It’s no different than the love I have for everyone who does the will of the Father. In fact, I love them as much as I love my family.”

This might sound weird to us, since we don’t love others like we love our family. We don’t love our fellow Christians, our pastor, our co-workers like we love our family. When our family is at home, we’re relaxed. When others come to visit, outside our family, we get all tense. We clean the house and make sure everything looks its best because they might not understand us like our family does.

But God loves everyone as his family. And that’s good news! God doesn’t have one love for one person and another love for another. His love is a family love for everyone. He feels as passionately about us as our spouses do. He feels as tenderly toward us as we do about our children. He feels as comfortable around us as our parents and our siblings do. He knows us better than our most intimate companion. He wants the best for us and urges us to make good choices, and he forgives us and accepts us when we falter. God knows us for who we are... And he loves us just the same!

So, as you remember the love you shared with your family at Valentine’s Day this past year, may you remember the love that God shares with us, not just once or twice, but each and every moment of each and every day. A love that is stronger, more vibrant, and more real than even the love we share with those we hold near to our hearts. Amen!