Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.” Mark 10:29-30
“Jesus must here be referring to the new family of the church as the replacement family members for those who join His movement…The synoptic authors’ presentation of Jesus celebrating the Passover meal with His disciples and not with His natural family points in the same direction…This shared meal is a kinship event. Thus the Passover meal of Jesus clearly reflects their perception of their community as a surrogate family…this is additional evidence for the redefinition of the family around Jesus.”
Timothy J. Murray in Restricted Generosity in the New Testament (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament – 2. Reihe; Zürich: Mohr Siebeck, 2019) 141.
Today is Passover.
It’s the meal that commemorates when God delivered the Jews from from slavery, oppression, and not one but ten plagues. Jenni and I determined yesterday that we don’t have the ingredients to observe the Passover this year, but my friend and Daily Meditations reader, Doug Christensen, shared Messiah in the Passover with me. Read through it and celebrate the meaning of the meal we know as the Last Supper during Holy Week.
And notice something in today’s Scripture.
The only thing not repeated in the two lists in the two verses is “father” because following Jesus welcomes each of us into a new family with a Heavenly Father and a hundred times more “homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields.” We experience the gift of kinship. Listen to a little story that echoes the point about a kinship event that Murray keenly makes that happened last night.
Jenni and I along with our neighbors miss human contact. This lockdown is tough. So with social distance had a “kinship event” with our neighbors, Ken and Carol Sharp. After a day filled with zooms, fruitful work, and more zooms (at least for me), we snuck just outside our home, set up a table, and remembered Jesus in lawn chairs spread back from the table and occasionally, a person would enjoy a slice of pizza rather than bread with wine.
When Jesus said to love our neighbors, we never dreamed they’d become family to us. What a gift!
So, while we endure this plague as a planet (like the Jews endured ten plagues), while we observe Passover with our neighbors (like Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with the disciples), and even if we suffer the loss of friends or family during these hard times (which is a sad reality), let us not forget the gift of kinship. We are a part of the most amazing family in the world, the family of God, thanks to the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb, Jesus.
Give thanks today for Jesus, and pray for the plague to come to an end.