Family Values are so much extolled,
In many a land, and in the Common Wealth,.
They rang as Number One in cultures old,
And did define a peoples’ moral health.

But Jesus came and deemed them differently,
"Sit Loose to home, to clan and forebear's land"-
"He is a madman said the Family,-
"Go take Him home" - sneered the Establishment.

Symbols of Jewish world-view held enshrined,
Temple, Land, Sabbath, Torah, Food Taboos,
And family and codes that firmly bind
To tribe and clan - but Jesus said" "Sit loose~"

"Sit loose to worldly goods and property-
Depend not on the many codes you learned,
No ill in them - but lo! redundancy"-
A world view was now being overturned.

He never came to abrogate, amend,
But came to radically redefine
The values and the world-view entertained,
And flouted hard-nosed boundaries and line.

Perhaps the blessed Lord had empathy
With all the many that have been denied
A caring home, and loving family
And full of love set all their set-backs right

No prophet finds due honor, Jesus speaks
In his own house amongst his family,
But let him seek ’mongst Romans, Picts or Greeks
To well confirm his claims’ validity.

“My mother, brothers, and my sisters are
Hear ye! - all those do my Father’s will,
And if they do, they are my family“
He rendered thus their definitions nil.

The listeners to this speech, stunned and aghast,
So strange a wisdom that now people learned,
Lo! Jesus with one single verbal blast
Had all their cherished values overturned.

How jolting, - if you Mark or Mathew read,
He called established values “Temporal”-
His well-known sayings,- arduous to heed,
All must have sounded controversial.

Redefinition threatened zealous Code,
Although it drew the promised Kingdom near,
But it broke in, - in unexpected mode,
That vexed and vexes still the wax-clogged ear.

© Elizabeth Dandy