(Matthew 12:46-50)
46 While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47 [Someone said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to You.”] 48 But Jesus replied to the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?” 49 And extending His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold: My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother.”
TODAY'S TAKEAWAY
From scripture, we know that Jesus' brothers only became believers after His death and resurrection. I mean, can you just imagine growing up with a brother who was PERFECT in everything, all of the time???!!! And I can just hear the parents saying to all the other children: "You should listen to your brother!" and "Why can't you be more like your brother?!" so... I'm pretty sure the brothers resented Jesus, and were most likely embarrassed by Him. And NOW, here was their Brother - going around like He's God or something - and "creating scenes" and "making enemies" with the spiritual leaders!
Of course, Jesus was and is God!!! And the spiritual leaders decided to see Him as their enemy, instead of who He really was. Meanwhile, the brothers didn't yet want to acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord and that they needed Him. In this moment, they were only thinking about themselves, and trying to take control. Well, if Jesus wouldn't listen to them, surely they would listen to Mom! After all, God's word tells us to obey and honor our parents! So, they most likely convinced Mary to go with them in order to convince Jesus to stop all of this nonsense and craziness.
While Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a righteous woman, she was still born a sinner in need of a Savior, and once a believer, she would have still needed the Lord's help and guidance, just the same as everyone else. So even though she was already a believer, it seems that in this moment, she too decided to go against God's will, thinking that they knew better and could sway Jesus away from what He was doing and what He came to do.
Culturally, what Jesus said would have sounded so disrespectful. But Jesus knows the big picture, and lets us in on it. While we are told to love all people, and respect and honor our parents, and submit to all believers, and obey and submit to all authorities... it is only "unto the Lord". This means that if anyone tells us to do something that is against God and His will, we should not follow those instructions, but instead, obey the Lord. The Lord God and His will should always come first. And this shouldn't even just be at the top of our lists of hierarchies, this should be our firm foundation.
As believers...
(1 Corinthians 6:17) ...the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him
Because we are in a personal relationship with the Lord, forever joined to Him, this means that He goes with us wherever we go and whatever we do. And whatever He says, it is to our benefit to listen to Him, and then ask Him to do it with us! Also, we are to meet with and work with our fellow believers, who are also in one spirit with Him! Jesus provides a wonderful spiritual family! Are they perfect yet? No! But iron sharpens iron.
We are to be involved, to serve, teach, equip, fellowship and encourage one another so that we are all striving together to be steadfast in our personal walk with the Lord. And when we corporately experience unity in God's Spirit, we will all be moving in the exact same direction! Just like when family members respect, obey and honor their parents and the family is NOT dysfunctional - imagine how functional our spiritual family can be when we all respect, obey and honor our heavenly Father!
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