Jesus’ Family Tree – Mark 3:7-35
Good morning, church family! I hope and pray that you are being strengthened (and challenged) as much as I am as we study through the Gospel of Mark each Sunday together. In all my years of preaching, this is the first time I’ve attempted to preach straight through Mark’s entire gospel account, and while it’s a real challenge, it’s also something I’m enjoying so far. It means we are engaging larger blocks of text than normal, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
I’ve talked with you all before about the value of reading large chunks of text—even whole books of the Bible—at a time. Doing so helps give us a bird’s-eye view that can lend insight into some things the author is doing that we otherwise wouldn’t see if we just read a few verses at a time. The section of scripture we’ll work through this morning provides an example of that, and I hope I can help you see it for yourself.
We’re going to be working through Mark 3:7-35, which might normally be dealt with as four unrelated episodes, but I think there is a unifying thread that keeps these paragraphs related to one another. That thread is the question of identity.
We live in a culture that loves to label and define people. We do it ourselves, even if we may not think about it. I’m not saying that all labels are unhealthy or unrighteous as long as we use definitions and labels that God would approve in ways Jesus used them. One of the greatest blessings we receive from Jesus is a new set of eyes, or at least a new set of lenses, through which we look at the world, at time, at our purpose, and at one another. Let’s pray we see ourselves and the people around us like Jesus did.
— Patrick Barber, preaching minister
Jesus Family Tree, Mark 3:7-35
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