Jesus is our brother

Gospel of Mark 3: 3:31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 3:32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you."
3:33 And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"
3:34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!
3:35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."
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It is astonishing in its nature, but it looks like in the Gospel accounts, that there is a rivalry between Jesus and John the Baptist, or at least between the disciples of John and the disciples of Jesus. It can be seen also in the birth narratives in the Gospel of Luke, which is quite odd, as where the other Gospels say just a little or nothing, Luke tends to be superfluous. However he gives away a couple of details, which are needed to know a bit more of the family relations of Jesus. It might be surprising that Jesus and John were cousins. Their families were closely related.
Regarding the rivalry, once happened that the disciples of John reported that "Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified (that Jesus) , behold, the same baptizes, and everyone is coming to him."

This was a question of authority because John baptized Jesus and not vice versa and John was not yet thrown into prison. According to the Gospel of John, the other John, the Baptizer acknowledged the leadership of Jesus, answering them that “You yourselves testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent before him.' He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

The Gospel of John was written in the second century and still it was an issue to be clarified, because even in the second century there were communities, who followed exclusively John the Baptist, who created the Baptism movement, who was its first leader, who was the first candidate to be the Messiah, until Jesus came to be baptized by John.

Back to the birth narratives in the Gospel of Luke, they were cousins, which means if John was from a priestly clan, then Jesus must have been also born into a priestly clan on his maternal side, as their mothers were related.

Both births were foretold by the angel of God, and both births were miraculous. Although the birth of John was miraculous too, it was still a part of an extensive line of traditional but supernatural births where the mothers were barren for a long time or even getting too old to naturally have a child. This line includes Sarah the wife of Abraham, Rebecca the wife of Isaac, Rachel the wife of Jacob, Zelelponith the wife of Manoah and the mother of Samson the Judge. All of the wives were barren, the miraculously granted births were foretold by angels, and the children born to them, became extraordinary leaders of the people. The most cited story belongs to Hanna the wife of Elkanah, the mother of prophet Samuel, because it is used as an archetype in the Gospel of Luke.

According to the Bible, Elkanah had two wives. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. Hannah wept bitterly for years and prayed to the Lord. Finally, she took an oath before the Lord, and said, that oh, Lord of Hosts, if you will remember me, and you will give me a boy, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come on his head.”

This oath sounds like the famous Nazirite oath of the Jews, though it does not contain the avoiding of the grapes or wine, and avoiding corpse by any means. Nonetheless, because the boy, Samuel was fully dedicated to the service of God, and the parents had the authority to dedicate their kid on behalf of their child, this oath could not be else than the Nazirite vow, as it is given in the Book of the Numeri, written by Moses, that the Nazirites “ must abstain from wine and other fermented drink (...) They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. (...) During the entire period of their Nazirite vow, no razor may be used on their head. (…) Throughout the period of their dedication to the Lord, the Nazirite must not go near a dead body. (..)Throughout the period of their dedication, they are consecrated to the Lord.”

Although it can not be scientifically proven, but it looks like that John the Baptist was a Nazirite, as the Gospel of Luke says regarding John that “The child was growing, and becoming strong in spirit, and was in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”

As Jesus may have spent his early years in exile in Egypt or even in Galilee, so John spent his youth in the desert, probably in a Qumran or Dead Sea Community settlement. This should have meant only one thing that both families were persecuted by the Herodean rulers.

According to the Eastern Greek Orthodox tradition when King Herod ordered the slaughter of all males under the age of two in an attempt to prevent the prophesied Messiah from coming to Israel, Zechariah refused to divulge the whereabouts of his son, John (who was in hiding), and he was therefore murdered by Herod's soldiers.

Although the Gospels are no too revealing regarding the immediate family of Jesus, and it can be a result of the intervention of the editors of the Gospels in the the early centuries, still the New Testament describes James, Joses, Jude, and Simon as brothers of Jesus, having also mentioned, but not named, the sisters of Jesus.
The impact of Jesus’ immediate family in the historical development of Christianity is not really in the front of the eyes of the church pews, accept that his mother was elevated into the rank of the Queen of Heaven and the mother of the church by subsequent Roman Catholic synods.

Nonetheless it is more than well documented by the apostle Paul, Roman and Jewish historians like Josephus, in the writings of the early church fathers like Epiphanius and Eusebius, that after the crucifixion of Jesus, his successor in the leadership of the movement was not Peter, but James the Just, who was a Nazirite and the very brother of Jesus. When James the Just was killed, an other brother of Jesus took the leadership, Simon of Jerusalem, who was crucified by emperor Trajan in 107 CE.

As Christians, we would like to know much more about Jesus immediate family members and the prequel and the sequel stories of all of them, however Jesus gave a remarkable Gospel announcement, when his family members wanted to rescue him from persecution or stoning, by stating that he was insane. It is written that “ a crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

Thus, whosoever loves God and follows Jesus, he or she is declared to be a brother or a sister to Jesus, even more than his relatives by blood, in his immediate family.
In the era, which is still present even today, when someone’s pedigree meant almost everything, including inheriting full kingdoms, principalities, titles, land, wealth, name, money, etc., Jesus practically says, that these are nothing in comparison of the merit of observing God’s laws, especially when we want to weigh the worth of somebody’s character on a divine scale.

Nonetheless, an astonishing gem can be found in the genealogy chart provided by the Gospel of Luke, which goes back from Jesus to Adam and Eve. Some people in Christianity think, that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, and whosoever believes in him, can be only adopted by God, as an extra, for the sake of Jesus. The astonishing part, that the chart does not stop there, but it continues, and says that Adam (and Eve) was fathered by God. It means that the fullness of humanity stems from God.

Through our forefather and foremother we are all children of God by birth, and we are all brothers and sisters of Jesus not only by adoption and faith but by birth as well. God is our parent, our home, our goal, our meaning, our creator, our Rock and Redeemer to whom we are destined to return home to Heaven by following Jesus the Son and by the life giving Holy Spirit,
Amen