While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
(Matthew 12:46-50)
I won’t lie. When I first read this passage back in the early 90s, I almost walked away from the faith. In my upbringing, family was everything. Cousins were more like siblings. Aunts and Uncles were more like parents. We literally saw each other almost every weekend! So this seemed completely contradictory to everything I ever knew. But here’s a few things I’ve learned over the years.
Jesus wanted to challenge the idea of family. He was not disowning or being condescending to His biological family, but He was making the point that the eternal family (the church) should be a higher priority than our earthly family. Jesus rhetorically asks, “Who is My mother and who are brothers?” before He points at His disciples and proclaims that they are His true family because they do “the will of [our] Father in heaven”.
So the question for us today is the same as it was when Jesus uttered those words. Who do we consider our true family? Who do we prioritize? ☧
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