FAITH: becoming part of the family

It was rumoured and slandered about, that Jesus was mentally ill, or demon possessed. His mother and brothers went to visit him and stood waiting while he talked to the crowds. Someone pointed out to Jesus that his mother was waiting to speak to him, instead of courteously hurrying away to see what she wanted Jesus kept her waiting even longer, because, said Jesus, these disciples, who were standing around him, were his mother and brothers. in fact everyone who practiced doing the will of God was his mother or brother. It seems rather like a snub, and not a bit like we expect Jesus to act, but Mary who had conceived by the Holy Spirit and had been warned to expect something different about Jesus, probably understood, or knew she would one day understand, what Jesus meant.

Have you thought of yourself as the brother of Jesus, or his sister? No, I don't mean think of the word as meaning a person with a religious job, think of yourself as you are right now, write down your name, and in parenthesis beside it write, 'brother of Jesus'. If you are a mother of children, write beside your name, 'mother of Jesus'. That's how true it is. Of course there is a proviso - this family relationship belongs only to those people who do the will of God? Does that include you? “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus was asked that question by a rather hostile crowd, they became even more hostile when Jesus replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So doing the will of God is that simple, simply believe that Jesus came from God, died for your salvation and now shares his spiritual life with you. That's it! That's how you become a younger sibling of Jesus, because he has shared his spiritual life with you.

Jesus often talked about his Father in heaven, it is interesting that he always talked about 'My Father' when he was talking about himself, and said 'Your Father" when he talked about the disciples' relationship to God. He was talking about the same Father because there is only one God, so why the 'My and Your' words? Because he had a different relationship with God to the one we have. He was with God before the world was made, and was, in fact, God. Jesus used the words 'My Father' because of this unique relationship. God is our father in a different sense, he is the cause of all that is, and we are told he made the first humans with great care and shared his own breath with them. Jesus came to call us back to our Father-God whom we had forgotten, disowned, and rejected.

There are a great many generations between those disciples of Jesus then, and you and I now, so how does that affect the brother/mother relationship to Jesus. Belief is not a generational thing, everyone believes for himself, therefore we are all first generation relatives of Jesus.

So what does being family of Jesus involve? It involves a lot more than calling another person brother or sister. The family of Jesus has privilege, not deserved but bestowed. Family members act in the interest of the family and on behalf of the head of the family. Not because they have to but because that is the way that families act, it is (spiritually) natural.

And if we are to act on behalf of the head of the family how does God want us to act? Jesus knew: he said about himself that he always did the will of God. So by looking at what Jesus did we can understand what God wants. Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, healed the broken hearted, set people free from limitations. More important than even those things; he taught people; he taught them about God the Father.

So when we do these things we are doing the will of God. Acting in the interests of the Father and family is a strong thing, not a bit like submission or subjection but a vital power, directly inherited from the Father through the act of his spirit. Members of the family of Jesus are often dynamic in their reaction to suffering or oppression, forceful in their opposition to lies, and amazingly powerful when they concertedly undertake any action for the relief of human suffering. Their teachers are an outspoken group of people, often unpopular with people outside the family.

Members of the family of God are free people, they learn how they should act by understanding the record of God's interaction with people as it is written in the Bible, they copy the actions of Jesus as they are recorded in that book. They understand that wisdom is necessary when exercising the privileges of family of God and are always studying the book and learning from each other and from their many teachers. However sometimes, a person come along who claims that God has given him knowledge he hasn't given to the rest of us, these kind of people claim that God tells them things; they claim that God has told them what you should do. Run from people who do this, listen to teachers but run from dictators. God does not give private wisdom, he treats us all equally.

The Head of this family has kept for himself certain powers, only he knows the hearts of humans, only he may say who is a true believer and who is not. Although we may declare what the Bible states about believing in Jesus we are not anywhere given permission to make judgements about other people. We may not exclude or execute anyone because they believe differently to us. Jesus will one day judge the world, But he, not us, will be the judge of all the earth. Until that time all who believe in God are drawn together by a shared reverence of God and a strong desire to do his will. Surely God will help us live together in peace and work together for the benefit of his creation. .

References:
Matthew 12:46 - Matthew 12:50 (NRSV) 46While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. 47Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” 48But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Gospel of John chapter six verses 28 & 29 This is the work of God that you believe in him who he has sent.

(First letter of John chapter 3: verses 1-9)
Now we are sons of God and we do not fully understand what that that means, but one day Jesus will appear to all humanity, at that time we shall see him as he is and we shall be like him.

FAITH: trusting in ourselves.

The search for faith may start out with disappointments. We may be disappointed when we learn that God does not regard how sincere we are but who we sincerely trust. Now we meet another disappointment, trying hard is not enough! That is a real disappointment. Our own effort to be acceptable to God is something we can produce and control, we get pleasure from following certain rules of religion and believing that we are going to be congratulated and thanked by God for working so hard at right-ness, and it isn't so! That really hurts.

Jesus tells the story of a man congratulating himself for all his hard work, he does this as he is praying. He reminds God of the way he follows the religious law, he fasts twice a week, he gives one tenth of all his finances to the temple funds. He actually tells God how grateful he is that he is not like the less religious people. Jesus states, in his story, that all this isn't enough to impress God. Then Jesus includes a man who is despised by the rest of society, he works for the occupying army collecting taxes for them, taking money from his own countrymen to give to foreigners. This man stands in a less than prominent place and simply prays, "God be merciful to me a sinner" Jesus is impressed by that prayer, he says that man began to be put right with God.

So is it only social failures who can hope to be accepted by God? No, social successes, moral upright citizens can be accepted by God but on one basis only; that basis is transferring faith from their own good works to the work that Jesus has done.

In one way this tax collector was truly fortunate, he was able to understand that he needed God's mercy and forgiveness, the morally upright religious man couldn't understand that. He could see that other people might need mercy, but he couldn't see his own need.

We used to call it 'conviction' and with that word we meant an act of the Holy Spirit which convinced people that they needed God's forgiveness and mercy. Some people are so afraid of conviction that they won't go near a church that might shake their faith in themselves.

There are many Christians who still secretly harbour the notion that they are not bad people, and privately think that God should congratulate them for having the good sense to choose to believe in Jesus. Jesus would call it exalting ourselves (we want to ask what is wrong with that, doesn't society teach us to believe in ourselves?) This kind of faith is untested; people who believe in themselves will readily transfer their allegiance to another leader. There is another kind of Christian faith which puts all confidence in the leader and would not dare transfer to another because we know that only this leader (Jesus) can save us from ourselves and make us acceptable to God.

For some people blessing comes in disguise. It comes in the form of conviction. They are visited by the Holy Spirit who shows them the comparison between their own right-ness and God's right-ness and who convinces them that they are truly unacceptable to God, no matter how hard they try. Those people have received a blessing which is the beginning of all other blessings, they have learnt that Jesus Christ alone can make them acceptable to God, and if they are sufficiently blessed they have come to understand that they personally need mercy.

"God be merciful to me a sinner.' It is the cry of the blessed, who are no longer exalting themselves but who have been humbled in order that God might exalt them and make them his sons and daughters.

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Luke 18:9-14[9] Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: [10] "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. [11] The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. [12] I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' [13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' [14] I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

FAITH: Testing Jesus

One important thing about faith is whether the person or system you have placed your faith in is trustworthy. A person can have complete confidence that the ice on the surface of a deep lake will hold his weight, it matters not how sincere his faith or how strong his confidence, what matters is whether the ice is thick or thin.

The lawyer who tested Jesus was a religious lawyer, he proscribed how the ancient law should be applied to the contemporary situations of daily life. Such lawyers were necessary, Moses gave the law to nomad people travelling through a desert, the same law was now being obeyed by citizens living a settled existence under Roman rule.

He asked a question, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" and was answered by another question. Jesus asked: "What does the law say?" The lawyer's answer strikes a chord deep within everyone of us: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Most of us like that answer, we would like to have the kind of faith that enables us to love God so completely. Notice that the lawyer included loving with your mind, that included thinking the faith issue through, instead of blindly believing all the should and must of any religious system.

Jesus agrees with the lawyers answer; this is a bit of an anti-climax. The lawyer had hoped to discover whether Jesus was trustworthy or not but instead Jesus is examining what faith the lawyer already has.

Searching for faith is sometimes like that. A person looks for faith, and asks questions which they hope will show whether Jesus is trustworthy or not; instead of being rewarded with a quick solution, he or she is sometimes confronted by more questions. Perhaps it depends on the person's attitude towards Jesus, some people came to hear Jesus longing for a new religious leader, they had no difficulty in deciding he was worthy of their confidence. Others, like this lawyer of religion came fearfully, perhaps even aggressively, because putting confidence in Jesus would challenge the faith he already had, and perhaps necessitate life-style changes he didn't intend making.

Thinking about the search for faith, we can perhaps be comforted by the approach Jesus took. He did not attack or destroy the lawyer's faith, instead by questioning he called for the strongest part of the faith that the lawyer already held. Thinking people can receive faith in this way, by looking at what they already believe and what they hold dear, being freely allowed to investigate what is good about their own religion and then looking towards Jesus to enhance complete and orientate what is still needed.

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, questions people had never asked were answered. God gave life to the dead body of Jesus, he came alive and was seen by hundreds of believers. People who had placed confidence in Jesus were convinced that God, the judge of all, had credited them with the right-ness of Jesus and that the life they now lived was eternal and would continue in the presence of God.

Perhaps, and it is only a perhaps, all faith-seekers can be divided into two groups, people who believe that God has spoken through Jesus and want to hear what he said, , and people who are afraid that God has spoken through Jesus and are afraid to hear what he said. Jesus treated all who came to him with gentleness, not destroying what faith they had but showing them how he completes and perfects their faith.

It was to this questioning lawyer that Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, the story illuminated something that was lacking in a strictly legal and prohibitive approach to religion. It challenged the lawyer to do more good, and do good to more people. Like many of today's seekers the lawyer left the place of his meeting with excitement, he had been shown a way to love God by loving his neighbour. Like many of today's seekers he may have had some trepidition. People who already trust Jesus but long to have their faith developed come to him seeking more faith, Jesus questions us, and challenges us. We go away exhilerated that we really experienced Jesus and also feeling trepidation, what will this stronger faith be like, what will happen when we begin to live the way Jesus has shown us?

(Luke 10:25-37)