Family Stories: A Dialogue

Mark 3:20-25

June 10, 2018

“Do you remember that time Jesus went off on that thing about family?”

“Which time?”

“You know. That time he asked the crowd ‘who is my mother’ and Mary was standing right there?”

“Oh, yeah. Whoa. She was steamed.”

“God, I’ll never forget that night. Afterwards. The crowds had all gone home and we were hanging around the fire after dinner. She sat down next to him, gave him the side-eye, and said, ‘yo, Jesus, who is your mother? You mean, the woman who went into labor in a stable? The woman who nursed you next to a snoring donkey? That one?’”

“And, and Jesus was all like, ‘mom, I didn’t mean you. I was talking about the way people cling to tribal loyalty instead of to G--.’”

“And she just cut him off – ‘yeah, well, all I’m saying is I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it, sonny boy.’”

“And then Jesus was about to start in on whose world it really is, and who really brings us into it, and she just walked away and went to bed.”

“I don’t think he tried that line again – at least not when Mary was around.”

“Yeah, I don’t remember any of us being too happy with him whenever he started in on that.”

“Peter tried asking him about once. You remember that?”

“No. But I do know that he said, ‘get thee behind me, Satan’ to Peter more than once!”

“Yeah he did. Said it to you a couple of times, too, brother Mark.”

“Yeah, John. I think he said it to you once or twice, too, buddy.”

“True story. The ‘son of man’ saw Beelzebul in our midst plenty of times back in the day.”

“On the other hand, he got called the devil more times than I could count. Every time we stepped on any big toes they’d call us all sons of satan but they saved the worst of it for Jesus.”

“They still do, friend. They still do. Best never forget that, no matter what you’re doing. … So, Mark, what are you up to these days, anyway?”

“Just trying to write down some of the stuff we lived through with Jesus. Kind of a ‘family history’ of our weird little family.”

“It was more like a moveable feast than a family, as I remember it.”

“I suppose that was his point, all along. What does it mean to be a family? I think it’s the ones you sit around a table with, to begin with. I mean, all that stuff we did together, most of it was dreamed up over meals, right?”

“Yup. Especially the dangerous stuff. The stuff that got us in real trouble. The stuff that’s why I don’t live in Jerusalem any more. The stuff that still wakes me up in the middle of the night.”

“For sure. Lots of night. Last night, in fact. Last night I was up late writing. Here, let me read something. It’s from that time we were talking about: ‘But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.’ You remember when he said that?”

“Lord, yes. I’ll never forget that. That was the line that really ticked off the Pharisees and the scribes and all the rest who went in against us. They knew he was talking about them. They knew they were the ‘strong man,’ and they knew they were screwing everybody who wasn’t already one of ‘em.”

“Yeah, and they knew we were coming like thieves in the night, too.”

“I really do think that’s why Jesus talked so much in those days about ‘family.’ All those priests and scribes – they were all from the same families going back generations.”

“Well brother, that’s for sure. If you weren’t an insider you were a nobody.”

“Hah! Some things never change.”

“It’s a good thing Jesus isn’t here right now. ‘Cause if he heard you say that he’d kick your butt!”

“Yeah, and then he’d tell me to turn the other cheek – so he could kick that one, too.”

“Oh, man, I miss those days.”

“Yeah, me, too. That’s why I’m writing this stuff down, too. So people remember. We were something different in the world. We were the ones Jesus was talking about – whoever tries to do the will of God is my family. We were just following where he led, trying to do God’s work in the world.”

“Well, that’s worth passing along, for sure. It will always be true as long as there are a few people willing to be like thieves in the night.”

“As long as there are a few people willing to sit around tables and scheme for a better world.”

“Amen to that, my friend. Amen.”