Seeds for 09/01/2023 - Matthew 12:46-50
Scripture: While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, His mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to Him. Someone told Him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”
He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to 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.”
Observation: We hear little about Jesus’ family after the birth narrative in Matthew. In Luke’s Gospel, there’s a only a smidge more—a single episode from His pre-teen years.
So this interjection of Jesus’ family into the narrative functions at some level to remind us of the authenticity of Incarnation. Jesus is a man with a mother and siblings. He grew up in a family, one that is interested in contact with Him.
Jesus compares His disciples to His immediate family. Far from diminishing the status of Jesus’ birth family, the significance of calling His disciples family members depends on the importance of Jesus’ birth family. In other words, He isn’t lowering His family to the status of His disciples. Instead, He’s raising His disciples to the status of family.
His mother and brothers are blood kin. His disciples are regarded as kin, according to Jesus, due to common devotion to the kingdom of God. We’re back to the “Lords’ Prayer” from Matthew 6 in the Sermon on the Mount and the will of His “Father in heaven” finding purchase in Jesus’ followers’ lives as well as their prayers.
Let’s go further. In Christian theology, the community of disciples is marked as such by baptism with water as a sign of the covenant. The Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel pairs baptism in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with learning obedience to everything Jesus has commanded, that is, learning to do the will of His Father in heaven. The saying, “blood is thicker than water” is turned on end. For Christians, “water is regarded as blood.” That is, baptism brings believers into the family of God through the blood of Jesus.
Let’s put it one more way. Jesus’ declaration that “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” is another way of saying that those who do God’s will bear a “family resemblance” to the Father. Just like a child picks up values, mannerisms, and dispositions from spending time with parents, doing the Father’s will reflects His character and purpose.
Application:
When have you experienced a connection with a friend that elevated them to, or close to, the level of family?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, so grow me in obedience to your will that I may bear a family resemblance to my Father in heaven. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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