It is important to belong. We say that it’s important to belong to a church. It’s important to belong in other ways too; its important to belong to a family. It’s important to belong where we work. One of the tragedies of life is that people are not always very good at belonging; relationships break down, families break up, people lose their jobs. And it’s not uncommon for people to fall out with and leave their church.

In this world there is a lot of loneliness and isolation. We see extreme cases where people have no friends or home or job. But most of us suffer to some extent because we feel that we don’t belong in the way we should. The cause of course is the fall; in the Garden of Eden man and woman spoiled their relationship with God and became alienated from him; and from each other. The recriminations started immediately: ‘The woman you put here with me- she gave me some fruit…’ The joy and harmony was gone.

The good news, however, the gospel is that Jesus came to restore relationships. He came primarily to restore the relationship between fallen mankind and God; but also human relationships, our relationships with each other. The restoration begins for us as we come to belong to Jesus.

Not everyone comes to belong, not everyone finds it easy to belong; but Mark chapter three shows us something about how some people do come into a right relationship with Jesus. First of all however we’ll look at some of the mistakes that people made, so that we can understand how to avoid being alienated from Jesus.

Jesus goes into the synagogue. Imagine the scene, people have come along as usual because it’s the Sabbath. The crowd is gathering in preparation for worship as we do every Sunday morning here. There is a disabled man there; he has a withered hand.

But there is tension; Jesus is being watched. A certain group of people are gathering evidence against him; will Jesus heal this man? Jesus asks if the law allows him to heal this man. No one answers. So Jesus heals him. He says to the man ‘stretch out your hand.’ The man stretches it out and it is instantly completely restored.

This is the fifth incident in Mark’s gospel where Jesus has disagreed with the religious people. There was the paralysed man whose friends had lowered down through the roof. The religious people were not happy when Jesus pronounced that his sins were forgiven. Secondly, the religious people disapproved when Jesus called a tax collector to follow him and then joined tax collectors and sinners for a meal.

Thirdly, they didn’t like it when Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast in the same way that other religious groups did. Neither did they approve when the disciples rubbed our grains of wheat to eat on a Sabbath. And here, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. He was doing good, but the Pharisees were so incensed that they decided he must be destroyed and they began to plot to kill him.

They felt their authority had been undermined and they could not bear to admit that they were wrong. The ironic truth was that God’s own son, the Messiah, had come to God’s own people but they rejected him. They knew best.

To belong to Jesus, to be in a right relationship with him is to trust that he knows best, to welcome and receive him and to receive his wisdom. The problem that the Pharisees had is a problem a lot of people have. It’s pride; it’s not being willing to admit that someone else knows better than us, even when it’s God himself.

To belong to Jesus is to trust that he knows best, to welcome and receive him. So often the problem with people is their pride, being unable to admit their failings and their need of help. How many roads must a man drive down before he will admit that he is lost and will stop and ask someone the way? Pride is a barrier to belonging to Jesus.

What is needed instead is humble trust. The Pharisees made the mistake of trusting in their traditions. What was needed was faith in the living God, the God who was speaking to them and active in his beloved son. God is always living and active. There were many who had no problem in acknowledging and recognising Jesus. We are told that when Jesus withdraws from the synagogue to the lake, a large crowd follows him. People from as far away as Jerusalem and Tyre and Sidon flock to him.

And of those who did come to him many found the reality of his healing touch, many found deliverance from the spiritual powers of darkness, from the evil influences that had held them captive. Jesus if anything attempts to avoid any form of sensationalism. He forbids the evil spirits to say that he is the Son of God. But many recognise and can see that in Jesus the kingdom of God has come near.

Yet from the vast crowds that flock to him, he selects just a special group of twelve. He chooses twelve men to be what we might call apprentices. Jesus calls them apostles. They are chosen, we are told to initially be with him. The basic way of the kingdom is the way of relationship. It is through being with Jesus that they will learn from him how to preach; they will learn how to use his authority to drive out demons.

It is such an important principle that the gospel spreads, the church grows through relationships. Jesus was ultimately to teach those twelve disciples the new commandment that they should love one-another. That would be the way the world would know that they were his authentic disciples, because they loved each other.

Yet while many put their faith in Jesus, there were those who were becoming more and more alienated. We are told that there were teachers of the law who had come down from Jerusalem listening to Jesus and watching what he did. They observed him casting out evil spirits. The reality was there for all to see; it was impossible for them to deny it.

But yet they could not bring themselves to acknowledge that the only explanation for Jesus’ power was that God was with him. Instead, they say that Jesus is using the power of evil to cast out demons. Jesus shows them what a nonsensical idea that is. You cannot use the devil’s power against evil Spirits. The devil doesn’t fight on the good side against himself. Jesus casting out demons is actually evidence that the devil is being defeated.

If people stubbornly refuse to recognise and acknowledge that God’s power is at work in Jesus; if they refuse to believe the messenger God has sent; then there is nothing else on offer for them. There is no forgiveness.

When they spurn God’s Holy Spirit, when they mock the evidence God gives them there is nothing else on offer. They have rejected God’s salvation, and God respects and confirms their choice.

There is another group of people who turn up in Capernaum to see Jesus. His mother and his brothers have arrived. They had heard of all that was going on; and come to the conclusion that he was out of his mind. The only ways to solve the problem was to come and take over; take Jesus back to Nazareth where they could look after him properly until he got over it.

Now family relationships are important. Honour your father and mother was a commandment that Jesus himself affirmed. The New Testament generally affirms the importance of our duty to support our family. Jesus had spent years of his life as the oldest son working as a carpenter to support his family.

Yet Jesus’ ministry and the challenge of the gospel commonly did cause tension and misunderstanding within families. So here is Jesus’ family. They want to put a stop to everything for his own good. They want to save him from the trouble that he is heading for. Their attitude is quite understandable, particular when you consider that even the teacher’s of the law from Jerusalem say that he is demon possessed.

But Jesus refuses to go with them. He knew that God had called him to a particular path in life. His family were sincere in their concern, but they just did not understand God’s call on life. He must not allow them to deflect him from God’s will. He calls us to be strong enough not to let family pressure deflect us from his call on our lives.

So Jesus affirms that he is forming a new type of family. This new type of family is not based on blood ties or a family tree. It is based on peoples’ relationship to God. ‘Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’

We come into relationship with Christ when we make that choice to do God’s will. That’s not something we do naturally. By nature we are inclined to do our own will, to do it ‘my way’. But Jesus came to call us back to a right relationship with God. Jesus calls us to repent; to turn from doing things our own way; and instead to seek to do God’s will.

It’s as we do God’s will that we do truly come into relationship with Christ, and with his people. There are some that Jesus appoints to special tasks. Out of the crowds he chose just twelve to be apostles with a specific task to do. But he calls everyone to be part of his family.

‘Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister…’ whosover will, can make that Choice to do God’s will. As we make that choice we come into relationship with Christ, as well as with all other believers. That’s fellowship. That’s belonging. And although we still will have our failings and weaknesses, through our fellowship God will work on us to form the reality of a family likeness.

God will by degrees make us more like Jesus. We live in a world that can be every bit as sceptical as the Pharisees of Jesus day. But Jesus calls us to be his presence here and now. He calls us to be a family where faith can grow, where people can find release from the powers that imprison them.

He calls us to be a community where people can find Jesus as their friend and find the reality of his presence, accepted by his grace.
 

Amen.

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