NOTES for Mar 3:31-35

The Gospel often speaks of the reward that those who follow the Lord will receive. Different people picture this reward in different ways. For some it is a “blessing” in the form of wealth, prosperity, comfort, or health in this life; for others it is deliverance from torment after death; for still others it is success in the spiritual life. But few of us would dare to think of the reward Christ speaks about in today’s reading: whoever does the will of God will become His brother, sister, and mother—that is, the dearest thing a person can have—His family. Not merely hired workers in His Kingdom, not merely His flock, not merely a community gathered around the Teacher, but family in the most direct sense: they will have the kind of relationship with Christ that exists between loving brothers, or between a brother and sister, or between a mother and son. Yes, perhaps this is too exalted for our imagination. People could never have conceived such a “reward for good behavior” as becoming relatives of God. Only He Himself could reveal this to those able to receive it.