We hear experts label families with relationship troubles as “dysfunctional” families. Jesus, too, spoke of tattered and torn families and their respective relationships, when He stated (as He sent out His disciples to preach the word of God and told them what they and their hearers will expect): “Brother will hand over his brother to death, and a father will do the same with his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household” (Matthew 10:21 & 35). There seems to be negativity to following Jesus and it seems that the Savior is the instigator of such division and dysfunction.
But we know from the Bible that the real cause of family strife is sin. God created the perfect family in Adam and Eve. They rebelled against God and by their disobedience plunged the entire human race into sin and its dysfunctional consequences. We witness a tangible result of this sinful dysfunction when Cain murdered his brother Abel.
Because of His underserved love, however, God sent His Son to undo the eternal consequences of humanity’s sinful dysfunction. Jesus “became our brother,” that is, Jesus became true man so He could live, die and rise to pay for our sins.
Although we as sinners still struggle with sin and its dysfunction, in Christ we are a new family. As we cling to God’s word, we become more like Him and functionally faithful as His family.