It certainly seems clear to me that he has redefined the meaning of family. From biological affiliations, he has now come to define "family" as a company of people who follow Jesus together and who desire to do God’s will.

But that creates a dilemma for us who have been raised with the proverbial notion, "blood is thicker than water". For this Jesus is categorically claiming that there is now a tie among his followers stronger than any tie between them and their biological families. Their biological ties are earthly and temporal, but our spiritual ties are eternal.

Perhaps Jesus had a purpose for redefining family in this way. He had something to share with the world, and he was gathering all those people who would be willing to listen. He wanted to show the world that God was writing a beautiful story; a story of his Kingdom.

You see, in all eternity, the Trinity God has always existed in an intimate relationship of love and friendship with one another. God has a dream to build a Kingdom that is based on love and friendship, so that the world can be inspired to share that dream. Jesus came to share that dream; to make that dream possible.

In being with the family of God, we are saying that we share in God’s dream to build that Kingdom together. It means that we have our unique places in this story that God is busy writing. Your own story and my own story are to be found only within this larger story of God. Jesus brings us together and says “You are now family; now live your lives before the world - as a family - so that they can see the Kingdom in their midst.”

To live as a newly configured family in order to model God’s Kingdom is no easy feat. These people are hard to get along with; just look at the person sitting next to you in church on Sunday!