it's a family thing

Let’s play a little guessing game, shall we? After his resurrection what message does Jesus give Mary Magdalene to report to the disciples? Yes, you can cheat and look in your bible (John 20:17) but be prepared, it’s pretty awesome and a detail I never paid much attention to—until now.

. . . [Go] find my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.

In the past, I really hadn’t thought too much about those above words. But lately when I’ve read the resurrection story, I’ve been amazed by something. The very first message Jesus has for his disciples is all about relationship, namely ours, with his God and with his Father. 

Not only that, but when Jesus gives Mary the message he tells her to “go find his brothers” rather than referring to his followers as disciples or even his friends. Brothers and sisters signifies a deeper relationship, a stronger bond. It’s what Jesus’ mission and purpose were all about—to bring us back into the family, God’s family. 

You see Jesus had the right to call God his Father. The disciples knew that. They got it. Who could perform such miracles and preach with such authority unless God was truly with him?

And though in the beginning humans had the privilege of calling God our Father that relationship came undone in a garden. Think about it. God walked with Adam and Eve. He talked with them. He laughed with them—gave them gifts and things to do. In other words, they had a relationship. But as time marched on that bond began to unravel.

Adam and Eve got kicked out of the garden and that was just the beginning of the sad story about how we lost our Father—how we lost our God. Over time we fooled ourselves into thinking that God was a distant deity living in a land far, far away.

But when Jesus gave that first Easter message, we see what his whole calling, his whole purpose in life was about. He wanted to find God’s lost kids, namely you and I, and bring us home. 

. . . [Go] find my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.

I bet Jesus gave those instructions to Mary with a smile on his face. He had done it! He had reunited God and his children. Everything he’d come to do, every miracle he’d performed, every word spoken, the suffering, the cross, and now the empty tomb all led up to this miraculous event, Jesus brought us back into the family.

So when you sit in church this Sunday, and I hope you’re able to, don’t just skim over this central part of the Story letting it get lost in all the seemingly more important details. Don’t be deceived into thinking the instructions Jesus gave to Mary are trite and insignificant. Listen to them. Let them sink in. Jesus brought us back to God. Jesus brought us back to our Father. 

It’s the best family reunion ever and it gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. Hope it does the same for you. Happy Easter!

What a Friend

Today I was thinking about what a friend we have in Jesus. Remember that hymn? It was one of my favorites when I was a kid. I loved to sing it in church, and, back then, it really was true. Even if no one else got me, Jesus did. What a friend, right?

Nowadays, I think of Jesus as my friend, but there are times when I wish I could have been his friend while he lived on earth. What was he like? Did he joke? Did he cry and give hugs when he knew someone was hurting? In the Bible, we don’t get a lot of details about feelings. It’s the story plain and simple. But I have to believe that Jesus was a likable, even lovable, kind of guy. Take, for example, this little gem of a verse found in Luke 2:52:

⁵² And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

This verse comes after the story of the boy, Jesus, in the temple. I love it. He grew in favor with God and men. You know what that says to me? People liked him. They really liked him. Not because he was the Son of God. Nobody really knew that except for Mary and Joseph, and sometimes even they forgot.

Take, for example, the event that took place just before the above verse. Mary and Joseph had gone to Jerusalem and were on their way home when it occurred to them that Jesus was nowhere to be found. Mary and Joseph frantically searched Jerusalem looking for their oldest, until they found him in the most unlikely place . . .  

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷ Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸ When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

⁴⁹ “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”^{[f] 50} But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

When Mary and Joseph found him in the temple it says that they were astonished. Makes me wonder what astonished them. The fact that he’d been there for three days seemingly indifferent to the panic they must be feeling, or were they astonished for a completely different reason? Maybe because Jesus, their first born, had always been so responsible, kind, caring, obedient. This was completely out of character for him.

And I have to admit that when I heard that story as a child, it seemed so out of sync with the very nature of who Jesus is. But, the more I think about it, the more it seems that something was going on that needed to be dealt with. Jesus was twelve. In another eighteen years or so, he would begin his ministry. I think God needed to jog Joseph’s and Mary’s memory.  Jesus was His Son, His eternal Son. God didn’t do it to be mean but to prepare them. To remind them. Jesus had a job to do. He wasn’t going to be a carpenter for the rest of his life. He had a job to do, and no one else could do it.

So, no, I don’t think Jesus was being snotty that day. He was preparing the ones he loved for what was to come.  And when Jesus did begin his ministry I think Mary, his mom, the one who loved him with all her heart, missed him most. And maybe, of all the other people who had been around him throughout his childhood, Mary understood him best. But after the incident at the temple, I don’t think she ever forgot just who Jesus really was.  

Fast forward eighteen years or so to another place where a celebration was in full swing. A wedding. Jesus was there. So were his disciples. So was Mary. Here’s the run-down in the account of Luke.

¹ On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

⁴ “Woman,^[a] why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

Again the verse above seems rather rude or harsh. Why would Jesus speak to his mother like that? But, Mary didn’t seem offended in the least. Because after he says the above, his mother says to the servants:

⁵ “Do whatever he tells you.”

Seems to me there’s more than meets the eye in this exchange. Maybe Jesus says this to her with a smile on his face, or a wink. If he had intended to be rude or harsh, Mary wouldn’t have confidently told the servants to “Do whatever he tells you.”

Yup, wish I could have known Jesus back when he walked on this earth. But, regardless, I’m sure glad to have him as a friend now. He seems like the kind of guy who’d always have my back. And just so I don’t forget, so you don’t forget, I’ll close with the first verse of a hymn that intrigues me even to this day.

What a friend we have in Jesus,

all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit,

O what needless pain we bear,

all because we do not carry

everything to God in prayer.