(3:31-32 links with 3:21.) What is said by Mark does not suggest that Jesus' family had rejected him but that they did not understand what he was doing and feared that he was going mad. Their natural kinship with him had not resulted in faith that he was the Servant of God. Mark refers here to something of great importance in the early Church. The new 'family' of the Church, the new People of God, were united to Jesus Christ and to one another in their new spiritual union (I Corinthians 12:12-13) which had nothing to do with natural bonds of kinship. Many had had to break with their families to become Christians.

Spiritual relationships were more important, in the end, than natural ones. Jesus said that those who did what God wanted them to do were closer to him than his natural family. This truth still holds for Christians today.