Advent Week 1: The Family of Christ

⁴⁶ While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. ⁴⁸ But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹ And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” 

Matthew 12:46–50

This upcoming Sunday is the first Sunday of advent and our advent theme answers the question: What does Jesus’ advent mean to us? Advent means arrival. The arrival we’re specifically thinking about is the arrival of Jesus when he added  human nature to his person. That is a little hard to say, but we say it that way because: before Jesus was born a baby, he was fully a person, but he didn’t have a human nature. He only had a divine nature which he shares with the Father and Spirit. But when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, he added humanity to his person. So now the person we know as Jesus is both truly God and truly human. This is the glory and the mystery of advent. It is a season of waiting. Remembering the wait that the world had to welcome the Christ the first time, and today we’re waiting to welcome the victorious returning Christ in the future. So: advent means arrival, and specifically the arrival of Christ as God and human. And Advent is a time of waiting. 

Which brings us to the question I mentioned: What does Jesus’ advent mean to us? These answers remind us that things aren’t as they should be. We’re still in this season of waiting like the bible says, we’re in the birthpains waiting for the final coming of Christ. Have you ever seen a woman in birthpains? It’s a gotta-get-this-baby-out-of me-now sort of waiting. We’re in this painful kind of time. We feel the afflictions of this fallen world and our own sins. 

So this Sunday the first Sunday of advent our answer is that Christ’s advent means he makes a new family for us. That is for both the messiest of us and the not so messy. It is easy to wish your family were better than it was with less problems. We all have brokenness in our families whether we like it or not. And the beginning of the gospel of Matthew says this: Christ came from an important family, but he came from a broken human family. There were prostitutes and idolaters and prideful people there. Maybe you’d think his own immediate family would have been perfect, but it wasn’t. It was still a part of that same old broken-down line of families. Christ came to start a new family based on faith. You are welcome into Christ’s family when you turn from your sins and believe Jesus, when you do the will of the Father, when the Spirit empowers you to live for Christ and not yourself. It is so shocking when Jesus says to his family in Matthew 12, ‘Who are my mother and brothers?’ Can you imagine how hurt his mom would have been? But he’s saying this because his life is starting a new family that is going to be defined by forgiveness. All are welcome to Christ’s table because they are forgiven and now do God’s will by the power of God’s spirit. So this Christmas season when your family disappoints you, remember that the new family you are a part of is one that is eternal and that is defined by forgiveness offered to us by Christ. All who pass through Christ are invited to feast at his family’s table.