Perspective: Two Kinds of Family

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Two Kinds of Family

When his parents saw him, they were shocked.

His mother said, "Child, why have you treated us like this?  Listen!  Your father and I have been worried.  We've been looking for you!"

Jesus replied, "Why were you looking for me?  Didn't you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father's house?"

Luke 2:48-49 (CEB)

We don't need to be related to relate
We don't need to share genes or a surname
You are, you are
My chosen, chosen family
So what if we don't look the same?
We been going through the same thing
Yeah, you are, you are
My chosen, chosen family

From "Chosen Family" by Rina Sawayama

In the Gospel of Luke, we read that, when Jesus is twelve years old, He travels with His family to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.  After the celebration, Jesus stays behind in Jerusalem, unbeknownst to Mary and Joseph, who think He is with some of their fellow pilgrims from Nazareth.  When they finally realize that Jesus is not among their group of travelers, they return to Jerusalem.  After they spend three days looking for Him, they finally find Him in the Temple of the Lord, discussing religious matters with the teachers.¹

Mary says to Jesus, "Child, why have you treated us like this?  Listen!  Your father and I have been worried.  We've been looking for you!"

Jesus replies, "Why were you looking for me?  Didn't you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father's house?"

When I wrote about this story a few years ago, I pointed out how it is a foreshadowing of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.  When I encountered this story again recently, something else about it stood out to me.

St. Luke, writes, referring to Mary and Joseph, "Each year [Jesus'] parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival."  When Mary and Joseph find Jesus at the temple, Mary says to Him, "Your father and I have been worried."  Jesus reponds by asking, "Didn't you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father's house?"  Mary refers to her husband Joseph as Jesus' father, as does the narrator of the story, but, by referring to the Temple of the Lord as "my Father's house," Jesus implies that His Father is the God for whom the temple in which they found Him had been built.  Jesus has a father on earth, yet He has another Father in Heaven.

According to Christian teaching, Jesus is the Son of God in a very unique way.  The fact that, according to the Gospels, Mary is a virgin when Jesus is conceived is meant to point us to this truth.²  That said, because we were all created by the same loving God in the very Image of God, we are all beloved children of God.³  All of us have earthly parents who brought us into this world and also a heavenly Parent who brought us into existence.

Interestingly, in Eugene Peterson's translation of the Bible, The Message, when Mary and Joseph find Jesus at the temple, Jesus says to them, "Didn't you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?"⁴  This version of Jesus' reply calls to my mind another story from the Gospels.

One day around twenty years later, after Jesus has started His ministry, Mary and her other sons want to see Him, but they are unable to reach Him because a crowd has gathered around Him.  Someone tells Jesus that His mother and brothers want to see Him, and He replies, "My mother and brothers are those who listen to God's word and do it."⁵  Jesus seems to be saying that He considers family anyone who is working in the family business, so to speak.  There are things in life that bind people together, causing them to experience a kinship with each other they might not experience otherwise, a kinship that has nothing to do with biology.

There is family, and then there is family.  There is the family into which a person is born, and then there is the family into which a person is baptized.  There is the family with which a person shares genes, and then there is the family with which a person shares other things, like a history or a purpose.

Whom do you consider family?


Notes:

1. A majority of this perspective is based on Luke 2:41-52.  Quotations are taken from the Common English Bible.
2. See Luke 1:30-37 and Matthew 1:20-23.
3. See Genesis 1:26-27.
4. Luke 2:49-50 (MSG)
5. Luke 8:19-21 (CEB)

The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple was painted by William Holman Hunt in 1860.