Doug Van Pelt

Jesus and His Siblings

It's interesting how when Jesus went into His hometown to preach that the people in their synagogue were amazed.

"'Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. 'Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?' And they took offense at Him."

It kinda disproves the "perpetual virgin" theory, doesn't it? It's funny how familiarity bred contempt here and mistrust. Since they knew Him, surely He couldn't be some special agent of God, could He?

I was reading a devotional Bible and it brought up a good point about the illustration Jesus was sharing prior to His hometown visit. He talked a lot about judgment and fire and weeping and gnashing of teeth. He was talking about soil, and about how some seeds landed in "good soil," some on "rocky soil," and others on "thorny" soil. The question posed was, "how do we cultivate our hearts so that it becomes "good soil?" Good soil is, of course, the same as the other soils, only it's been worked over, tilled, broken up, and whatnot. Perhaps the greatest thing we can do to "farm our hearts" is to read the Word. Allow a steady diet of God's Words to examine our hearts and lead us into truth, which should destroy the "weeds" of doubt, deception, and wickedness. When we stay close to and sensitive to God, it really empowers us to live good lives. This, in and of itself, keeps us from living "bad lives" and sort of preoccupies us, so that making poor choices becomes less and less of an issue. We don't really have to "resist" sin, like some sort of anti-negative effort, but submit to God and walk with Him. The temptations come, but can slip off and not "stick" to us because we are sort of preoccupied with God and His ways. It's a subtle change, but significant.

In chapter 15, we see some great teaching on being "clean." Jesus said:

"'Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.''"

When His disciples asked Him to explain, He responded:

"'Are you so dull?' Jesus asked them. 'Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.''"

If we watch our mouths, control our tongues, we can remain clean and pure. This would be good. I don't think most of us want to be or be around the following: slanderers, murderers, thieves, liars, adulterers, sexually immoral. That's just not good.

I don't mean we shouldn't hang around people guilty of those things (at one point or another, all of us are guilty of those things), but I'm just being real and stating that, "It's not a pleasant thing." These are basic things and guidelines that even the most calloused of heart would agree on. Where there is failure, there is mercy; but I'm talking about choices and lifestyles. If we are pursuing a lifetime of lying, we're going to make ourselves and those around us miserable. That's not good.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at September 26, 2005 09:32 AM