Day 14 - Kingdom Minded Community

Written By: Megan Sorrow

SCRIPTURE FOCUS
Matthew 12:46-50
46 As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 47 Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and they want to speak to you.” 48 Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” 49 Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. 50 Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!”

DEVOTION
I have always found this interaction between Jesus and His relatives to be a really tense and strange scene. After much opposition from the Pharisees and the religious leaders we find Jesus speaking to the crowds. He has just been toe to toe with pharisees in the moments before this interaction, so it’s not a coincidence that His family shows up. They were most likely there to keep Him from danger by what He was saying.

This scene depicts a hurried and urgent family attempting to bring their son and brother Jesus away from His mission. I think our natural conclusion would be surely Mary, the mother of Jesus, would take priority over the crowds and people in the room. Yet, we have this shocking scene where Jesus does not pause what He is doing, but instead He brings the attention back to the will of His Father.

The goal of Christ was and is the Kingdom of God. Earlier in Matthew He says to “seek the Kingdom of God above all else…”. So when faced with an opportunity to do this, Jesus gives us this picture of what that looks like. Instead of pausing the work He was doing to focus on His earthly family, He leveraged that moment to focus intentionally on the family of God.

Jesus constantly, and intentionally prioritized the family of God. Nothing distracted Him from His mission; however, a beautiful piece of that is that He invites the family of God into His mission. There are many things that keep us distracted, and if we are honest many of these things keep us from also prioritizing missional community.

We like to say that Jesus has saved us from sin, but that is not the only part of the Gospel. He has not only saved us from sin, but He has brought us into a family. A family filled with purpose, and calling. This family might not share the blood of relatives, but they share the blood of Christ.

In our culture, even in the church at times, there can be an emphasis on the nuclear family. While family is good and a gift from God it was never meant to become God. But the family God has called us into is so much bigger than merely those who live under our roof. The church is meant to function as a family on mission together as we are building the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus knew, and modeled for us a mission - minded community. This scene is not a depiction of disrespect, or neglect of His family here on earth, but an invitation to share in the mission of the bigger family, which is all of those who seek the will of God.

We, with our families on earth, have been invited by God to share in His mission to go and make disciples in all the earth. The cool part is we aren’t called to do it alone. We get to share in this mission together.

ACTION STEP
Our personal action step today can be concluded by asking a few key questions.

1. How has God called you to seek His kingdom first where He has planted you? At work, at home, at school, or in your community?
2. What is distracting you from that mission? 
3. Who has The Lord planted in your life that you can invite to share in the mission of building His kingdom where you are?  Invite them to family dinner, or coffee. Bring them with you to the kids soccer practice or the grocery store. Be intentional about prioritizing the family of God as you are fulfilling His mission on earth as it is in heaven.  

PRAYER TIME 
Lord Jesus, thank you for teaching me what it looks like to live undistracted from the mission you have called me to. Thank you for your Church and the family you invite us to be a part of. Help me to be attentive  to the places that need to see your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven and the people you planted in my life to share in that mission. Amen.