Jesus teaches a new kind of family unit for his community.
Mark 3:31 - 4:1 31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." 33 And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" 34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."
The religious culture of our day has taught that genetic family ties are what make our country strong. But that isn't exactly what Jesus taught. In Jesus' definition, family consisted of those who work together to do God's will. In other words, family is made up of those bonded together to follow Jesus.
Jesus tell us that when we choose to follow him, he becomes our brother. And all of his followers become our mothers, sisters, and brothers. Interesting that he leaves out fathers. Matthew 23:9 explains why - his followers only have one father - God.
Here is just another way that Jesus is turning the accepted social order upside down. Not only is he teaching that his followers are to have an even deeper relationship with each other than they do with genetically related family members (of course, in the best case, our genetic family is also Jesus' family), but he is teaching that it is this new kind of family that will be the foundation of his community - not the genetic one. In fact, he says the genetic family will often divide because of him (Matthew 10:34-37).
The old patriarchal social order (where the father controls his offspring and wife) is different from how Jesus has calls us to live in his community. Instead he has called all of his followers into a life of mutual submission where they join together to support each other in doing God's will.
Do we ignore Jesus' teaching that family values shouldn't be based on genetic ties?
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