Jesus was a member of the human family

JESUS WAS A FAMILY MAN

Col 3:12-21 & Mt. 2:13-15, 19-23

One of the highest compliments that can be paid to a person is to call him or her a family man or woman.  It obviously means that they are married and have children.  But it also means that they are stable and dependable, that they are faithful to their spouse, devoted to their children and a credit to their community.

I like that compliment.  The only problem that I have with it is that we use it in too limited a sense.  We need to expand its meaning and apply it to a lot of people, who under the present rules do not qualify.

For example, can’t we maintain that Jesus was a family man?  We are well aware that He never married and never had children.  But we will all agree that in the broader and deeper meaning of the term, Jesus deserved to be called a family man.  We can say this for two reasons.

First, He was the product of a family, to which He was deeply devoted, and for which He was genuinely grateful.  It is impossible to study the life and work of Jesus without discovering the influence His family had on Him.  His concept of God must have been shaped, at least in part by His relationship with Joseph.  His high regard for women, which was not characteristic of His culture, was surely rooted in His relationship with Mary, His mother, and in the relationship He observed between Joseph and Mary.

Many of the stories that He told reflect experiences of home life.  Since Joseph was a carpenter He must have observed Joseph create furniture and even help in the building of houses.  With the passing of time, He saw those houses withstand storms and even floods.  Other houses were blown down or washed away.  Jesus asked why, and Joseph explained that the difference was the foundation.  He built his houses on bedrock.  Those other houses were built on sand.  And years later Jesus said, "Anyone who hears My words and puts them intro practice is like the wise man who built his house on rock.”

He watched His mother making bread.  He observed that she took a small amount of yeast and carefully worked it into the dough.  Then she covered it with a cloth and put it in a warm place.  He saw the dough begin to swell slowly, until it had more than doubled in size.  And years later Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like yeast which a woman kneaded into three measures of flour.  Eventually, the whole mass of dough began to rise."

These are just two examples of the influence His family had on His life and work.  Much more could be cited.  There is no denying that Jesus was the product of a healthy home life.  We call it the Holy Family.  This does not mean the members wore haloes or that they were not real people.  They were just as real as the members of your family and mine.  They had problems just as other families do.  They were not exempt.  Today's Gospel reading tells of the time when they were forced to protect their Child from the wrath of a paranoid king. 

Luke's Gospel tells of a time when Jesus was a missing Child.  He was only twelve years old.  Mary and Joseph searched for Him, and their hearts were filled with fear and foreboding.  Gratefully, the story had a happy ending.  After three days of searching they found Him.  Mary scolded her Son.  It was a gentle scolding, but a scolding nonetheless.  All families have misunderstanding and disagreements, and the Holy Family was no exception.

We can presume that Joseph died when Jesus was a youth, certainly before He began His public ministry.  This idea is based on two things.  One, that Joseph is never mentioned after the second chapter of Luke.  And the other, that Jesus from the cross, committed His mother to the keeping and care of John.  So it seems almost certain that Joseph died an early and untimely death.  All families have sorrows, and the Holy Family was no exception.

Jesus was the product of a real family that had problems, disagreements and sorrows just as all families do.  Our lives have been influenced by our family.  Perhaps our family was not everything that we may have wanted it to be.  Very few families are.  Some are tragic, but I hope all of us can find somewhere in our hearts some reason to be grateful for that person or persons that we call our family.

A mention must be made of those mothers, and in some cases fathers, who are rearing their children alone?  Are they not families?  Of course, they are, and many of them are beautiful families.

I would like to note that a husband and wife and their children are not a family, in the best sense of the word, until they are tied together with bonds of love.  Listen to Paul's instructions to the Church in Colossi, "Because you are God's chosen ones, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness and patience.  Bear with one another, and forgive whatever grievances you have against one another.  Over all these virtues, put on love which binds the rest together and makes them perfect.”  Those are the elements that bond a family.

Lord Jesus, in some sense we all belong to a family.  It could be our own family, or the Church, a school or our place of work.  In whatever family we find ourselves may we play our part in modelling our family on that of Yours where love, thoughtfulness, obedience and the presence of God flourishes.

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