Mother and Brethren - Matt 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21

While Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees, he was surrounded by people, and so great was the throng of people that when his mother Mary and his brothers came to talk to him, they couldn’t get close to him. So they sent word to him by a messenger who told Jesus, “Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.” Jesus’ response has always baffled me because instead of running to his family, he answers, “Who is my mother? And who are my brethren?” Not the reaction that I would have expected from the perfect Son of God as it seems so disrespectful. Then “he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” This was always a difficult answer for me to deal with because I felt that he was blowing his family off, dismissing them as unimportant, like severing the relationship with them to maintain his role as the Savior. But really, shouldn’t he be able to do both, be loyal to his family but also be the Savior? Turns out that Jesus uses this time to demonstrate just that, that he is loyal to his family and the Savior of all mankind at the same time.

The IM teaches, “In these verses, the Savior took the arrival of his family as an opportunity to teach that those who do the will of Heavenly father belong to His eternal family. Elder Bruce R. McConkie said of the Savior’s words: ‘The blessings of heaven are available- freely, without money and without price- to all men. All men cannot be born into this world as the sons of God, after the manner of the flesh, but all, through righteousness, can be adopted into the family of the Eternal God and become joint-heirs with Christ of the fullness of the glory and power of the Father.’ In this dispensation, the Savior again taught this principle: ‘Verily, Verily, I say unto you, that as many as receive me, to them will I give power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on my name.’”

JTC makes a note that it is important to know that “The superior claims of His Father’s work caused Him to let all minor matters wait. We are not justified in construing these remarks as evidence of disrespect, far less of filial and family disloyalty. Devotion, similar in kind at least, was expected by Him of the apostles, who were called to devote without reserve their time and talents to the ministry. The purpose of which the relatives of Jesus had come to see Him is not made known; we may infer, therefore, that it was of no great importance beyond the family circle.” This passage is what really turned around my thinking when it came to this incident. Just because Jesus’ answer sounds snarky in the way that I read it in English 2,000 years later doesn’t give me unfettered right to accuse Jesus of being short tempered or arrogant. He knew that they didn’t need him desperately and it makes sense that he wasn’t doing anything that he wouldn’t have expected his disciples to do. Surely, had their families approached the crowd and asked them to stop teaching the word of God to discuss a matter of small importance, He would have expected them to finish their objective. He responded in the way that he would expect others to and gave priority to God, just like when he was found teaching in the temple by Joseph and Mary all those years ago.