One such text includes His enigmatic comments about His family. This event is recorded in all three synoptic Gospels, but not in John. Luke’s version, in chapter eight, looks like this:
Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”
One individual, or perhaps a small group of people, come to Jesus with the information that His mother and brothers would like to see Him. Which answer did they expect from Jesus? As a faithful Jew, and a Rabbi, Jesus would have been expected to know not only the obvious commandment (Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16, Leviticus 19:3), but rather also the deep attachment between parent and child — and between siblings — which is taught throughout all Scripture: e.g., the devotion which Jacob’s twelve sons show him, and which Joseph shows to his brothers, in the text of Genesis.
This devotion is not weakened by the sins which parents and children commit against each other, or which siblings commit against each other: Jacob’s sons sinned against Jacob by selling Joseph into slavery and then fabricating a deception about Joseph’s alleged death. Jacob sinned against his sons by favoring Joseph and Benjamin over the others. Joseph sinned against his brothers in his arrogance. The brothers sinned against Joseph.
Yet, in all this plentiful sin, the attachment of the children to the parents, and of the siblings to each other, was strong: The brothers are clearly concerned about how Jacob will react to any of the possible outcomes of their trip to Egypt. Joseph is clearly motivated by love toward his brothers.
A variety of words can be used to label this familial love: bond, fondness, duty, tenderness, attachment, devotion, commitment, warmth, loyalty, affection, etc.
Jesus certainly knew all this, and those who brought the message to Him — the message that His mother and brothers were waiting for Him — expected that He would know all this. They probably expected — this is a bit speculative, and methodologically, a little speculation is permissible, especially if it is prudent and informed speculation — that Jesus would react with instinctive affection and reverence for His mother and brothers.
The answer which He gives is indirect. He does not say, “I’ll interrupt what I’m doing now, and greet them.” He also does not say, “I don’t care about them and I’m not interested in them.” Instead, He doesn’t speak directly about them, but rather about His followers.
Given His rabbinic status, He didn’t need to explain that He had a deep affection for His mother and brothers, and His listeners didn’t need it explained to them. That is already an intrinsic part of His Hebrew piety.
Instead, Jesus takes His high regard and deep loyalty to His mother and brothers, and making that a standard reference point, bestows upon His followers a profound compliment: He raises them to the level of His mother and brothers.
In now way is Jesus demoting His family: On the contrary, He is indicating that their centrality in His life is a fixed point, and now has honored His followers by acknowledging them as having the same high status.
It is, in effect, as if He were saying: “My mother and brothers are here, and desire to see Me, and I desire to see them, and My affection for them is great. And now, I also say that My affection for My followers is so great that it has reached the high level of affection which I have for My mother and brothers.”
Matthew offers his account of this event, in chapter twelve, with slightly different wording:
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.”
In this text, it is detailed that the message was brought to Jesus by one man. The importance of this small detail will be left to the reader as an exercise.
Jesus responds to the information with a question — most likely, a rhetorical question. He probably didn’t expect a literal answer from the man who brought the message to Him, or from any bystanders. He goes on to answer His own question.
He announces that His followers, at the moment, those present with Him at that place, but in general, all His followers, are being elevated to the status of His family. As if He were saying: “I have such fondness for My disciples, that I am going to raise them to the level of My mother and brothers. My family has always rightly had My highest level of affection, and now I lift My followers to that same high level.”
Jesus is not lowering His mother and brothers; rather, He is promoting His disciples to the level of mother and brothers.
He adds that “whoever does the will of My Father in heaven” has this status. Scripture clearly shows us that on the one hand, His disciples routinely failed to do or say the right things, and on the other hand, there is at least one example in which His family fails to understand who He is, and expresses doubt or skepticism. Therefore, neither His family nor His disciples did “the will of My Father in heaven” completely, perfectly, or consistently. What does He mean?
To be justified in the sight of God — the grammatical passive is important — is to be declared righteous. Jesus is attributing His own perfect actions to His family and to His followers. His family was already among His disciples, and so He completes the logic by placing His disciples among His family. Both in the synoptics and in John, His mother Mary and His brothers are reckoned among the early church: and in the rest of the New Testament as well.
Mark’s account is similar to Matthew’s:
And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
Mark’s account has more than one person — “they” — delivering the message to Jesus, in contrast to Matthew’s stipulation of a single messenger. Like Luke, Mark specifies that His mother and brothers arrived, i.e., they were not there by chance; they had made a planned journey, whether it was short or long. They would not have made such a journey unless they had an established and good relationship with Jesus.
What happened immediately after Jesus spoke the words recorded? Taking into consideration other passages both in the synoptics and in John, it is clear that Jesus generally enjoyed a good relationship with His mother and brothers. To be sure, they were not perfect, and did not follow Him perfectly — exactly as the disciples were not perfect. In no way does Jesus attribute superiority to His disciples over His family; in no way does He prefer the company of the one to the company of the other. He has a profound attachment to them both.
It is safe to conclude that, after Jesus was notified that His mother and brothers had arrived, and after He said words in reply — the words recorded in the three synoptics — He then proceeded to meet with them. He did not ignore them; He did not shun them. This can be seen, e.g., in John chapter two:
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
Jesus makes the trip from Cana to Galilee “with” His family and disciples. Jesus is an itinerant Rabbi; traveling is His way of life. It seems that this travel was habitually in the company of His family and disciples.
Notice also that the statement that Jesus was traveling with His family is woven into the narrative of the miracle at Cana, including the explicit detail that the disciples “believed in Him.” It is to be concluded that His family also already “believed in Him,” because the family and disciples are blended into one group — the group which traveled from Cana to Capernaum was not segregated: it is one group, with Jesus as the focal point. They traveled together, and “they” stayed in Capernaum.
Jesus in no way downgrades His family. In His words, He first elevates His disciples to the level of His family, and then ceases to distinguish between the two. With His rhetorical question — “Who are my mother and brothers?” — He is in effect saying, “My family is precious and dear to Me,” and He does His disciples the honor of promoting them to the status of family members.
