Our Story

Activity

Read Mark 3:20-35 together. Jesus talked about becoming a new family with new mothers, brothers and sisters. In Jesus day your family was the most important group around you. If you were hungry your family would always feed you. If something happened and you couldn’t live at home anymore, a relative would take you in and you would live with them. Families supported each other in everything, and when someone in the family did something wrong, the whole family took the blame.

It might seem like Jesus didn’t want his first family anymore, but that was not the case. Jesus loved them like he always had. What Jesus was really saying is that everyone who follows him has to treat each other like family and take care of each other. That meant when one of them needed help, they could talk to any of the followers of Jesus and ask for help, and they would receive it. This was especially important for people who didn’t have larger families to support them.

What is your family like? What other people in your community treat you like family? Talk about it with the family you are closest to, and brainstorm ways to help others who might not have a family to support them.

Activity

This is a great story to act out in costume or with your dolls/action figures. Who will you be in the story? The new followers of Jesus who want to hear and learn everything he has to say, and watch him perform miracles? Are you the scribes and pharisees from Jerusalem who want Jesus to stop and don’t really listen to what he is saying? Or are you Jesus’ family who love him and worry that something bad will happen if he keeps doing and saying things that anger the people in charge of the temple?

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