Word to the Wise
Tuesday, September 25, 2012 - Tuesday in the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
[Prov 21:1-6, 10-13 and Luke 8:19-21]The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you." He said to them in reply, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it."
Those who would understand the Middle East must understand the importance of family relationships. "Family" relationships in this cultural context go beyond what we in the West would call the "nuclear family!" In the time of Jesus and in our time, these relationships begin with family, then clan, then tribe! The importance of tribe can be seen in the account in Luke about the birth of Jesus. The census-taking required that Joseph go to Bethlehem because he was of the "house of David." That is the tribe of Judah! In the Letter to the Hebrews 7:13-14, reference is made to Jesus as a completely new priest from the temple priests because he was not from the tribe of Levi, but from the tribe of Judah! St. Paul identifies himself as a member of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom. 11:1)! "Clan" would be considered as a tighter form of what we might think of as "extended family." This might explain why Jesus wasn't missed by his parents in the incident also in Luke's infancy narrative. They assumed he was with the extended family on the caravan. This brings us to the scene in today's gospel which is also from Luke.
Luke, in contrast to the Gospel of Mark, presents Jesus' family as disciples. They have come to join him. Recall that in the infancy narrative, Jesus' mother is portrayed as an ideal disciple. The Gospel of Mark, on the other hand, portrays Jesus' family as rejecting him [3:31-35], as does the Gospel of John [7:5]. Nevertheless, even though his family are shown to be model disciples, Jesus still indicates that it is not "kinship" - as powerful as that may be - that defines discipleship, but faith in God's word. Given that we in the United States, in particular, have in many ways lost the sense of a stable and immediate family context, perhaps we might find our nearest point of comparison in the notion of "label." We know from hard experience that a label does not always describe the contents. Jesus is saying that the content is far more important than the label. It is the one who believes in him who is truly the "disciple." If we claim to be disciples, we must be careful to understand what is meant by that "label" before we put it on! If we claim to be "kin" to Jesus, we had better "hear the word of God and act on it." AMEN