And looking around in a circuit at those that were sitting around him, he says, Behold my mother and my brethren
A crowd fills the house, and His family waits outside asking for Him. Jesus stays, looks at the listeners seated near Him, and calls them His family — so what makes a person His?
Mark has a favourite word for this look, and it means more than a passing glance.
"Looking round" (periblepo) is a word typical of Mark. Only one other New Testament writer uses it, and only once (Luke 6:10). Mark uses it six times, and all but one of those refer to the Lord Himself (Mark 3:5, 34; Mark 5:32; Mark 10:23; Mark 11:11)... Here the word seems to imply the deep, personal interest the Lord took in each one who sat around Him as a disciple.
His relatives wanted Him out of that room, and He weighed their claim against the work He was doing.
In Mark 3 His mother and His brothers came to Him, and they seem to have had a plan to pull Him away from His work, to themselves... But the Lord urges the importance of what He was then doing. He says this against their move, and in answer to the claims that flesh and blood had on Him. He was teaching His disciples and the crowd, getting the light and word and truth of God into them. He solemnly lets us know that the fruit of such a work was worth far more than every connection with Him in the flesh. And the claims of God's word, which He was then ministering, weighed far more than the claims of nature.
His look at the seated crowd announced a new basis for belonging to Him.
Now our Lord shows that it must no longer be a question of nature, but of grace... In short, He owns no one from now on because of any connection with Himself after the flesh. The only ground of relationship is the supernatural tie in new creation. Doing the will of God is the point. For this, grace alone works: "the flesh is no help at all."
His answer settled something for the whole nation, not just for that room.
The solemn scene that follows is the terrible result for the Jewish nation. The Lord gives up all relationship with Israel after the flesh. He breaks every link with the nation. At the same time He marks out a remnant who are in relationship with Himself. Their tie to Him does not come from their natural connection with Israel. It comes by faith in His word.
His mother was in that group outside, and His answer includes her too.
Looking at those who sat to hear His Word, He said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!" But He did not stop at hearing the Word. He declared that those who do the will of God were His real relatives. Their relationship to Him was a living one. Thank God, His mother did have this living relationship to Him as well. Still, she needed the reminder that the merely natural relationship is far below the spiritual one.
He asks others to do God's will. He Himself did it by choice, not by duty.
For every living creature, service to God is not a choice but a duty. On the Son there was no such duty to serve. He chose to take on Himself "the form of a servant." He planned this before the world began. The prophetic Spirit showed it through the psalmist: "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart'" (Ps. 40:7-8).
His words reach past the group in front of Him.
He tenderly kept up natural relationships to the very end of His days in the flesh. But He always had before Him the founding of a lasting relationship that death could not destroy. So He added — not limiting it to the disciples of Israel — Whoever does God's will is My brother (Mark 3:35; Matt. 12:50). The gospel of Luke connects the relationship with hearing the word of God and doing it.
- Cause. The family outside pressed a claim of blood. He answered that the word He was ministering weighed more than nature's claims.
- Ground. The new relationship rests not on birth but on grace — the tie of new creation, with doing God's will as the mark.
- Pattern. He asks nothing He has not done first: He came saying, "I delight to do your will, O my God."
- Reach. "Whoever" is not restricted to Israel; Luke ties it to hearing God's word and doing it.
- Result. He looks with personal interest on those seated around Him and names them His family — His mother among them, on the same footing as the rest.
for whosoever shall do the will of God, *he* is my brother, and sister, and mother.
Jesus is teaching in a crowded house, and His mother and brothers send word for Him from outside. He does not go out to them, but calls the people sitting near Him His family — so why refuse His own relatives, and what tie replaces theirs?
The family did not simply ask; they pressed. One writer weighs what their message showed.
They must have known that scribes were in the audience. As teachers of the law of Moses, these men had a right to some reverence and regard. The family ignored that and sent their demanding message, as if to assert that natural ties have the highest claim on Jesus.
Another writer names the choice their request forced on Him.
They put forward natural claims as taking precedence over the carrying on of God's work. That He would not admit... Either, it seems, He must stop His work, or disown the claim of natural ties.
He did not simply refuse the request. His answer sets out a rule that holds for everyone.
The Lord used the incident as a text, so to speak, to announce the basic principle of the kingdom that was at hand. His relatives tried to influence Him, and that led Him to declare the only reliable foundation of divine relationship: obedience to the will of God. It must come before every other claim.
If natural birth and family give no place, what does? One writer answers in a single line.
In short, He owns no one from now on because of any connection with Himself after the flesh. The only ground of relationship is the supernatural tie in new creation. Doing the will of God is the point. For this only grace avails: "the flesh is no help at all."
One writer reads the moment as a turning point for the nation — and not only a negative one.
The solemn scene that follows is the terrible result for the Jewish nation. All relationship with Israel after the flesh is renounced. Every link with the nation is broken. At the same time the Lord marks out a remnant who are in relationship with Himself. Their tie is not their natural connection with Israel, but faith in His word.
Mark notes that He looked round before He spoke. The word he uses is a mark of his own Gospel.
"Looking round" (periblepo) is a phrase typical of Mark. Only one other New Testament writer uses it, and only once (Luke 6:10)... Here the term seems to imply the intense, personal interest the Lord took in each one who sat around Him as a disciple.
The titles He gives are family names, not ranks. And the obedience He asks for is within reach of the weakest.
He gives the dear titles and the dear names of relationship to anyone who does God's will in this self-willed world... That obedience is not a feeling that fades. It is not self-esteem, which comes to an end sooner or later. A broken heart can obey, a broken heart can be subject; and that is what I call real life.
This relationship is not a figure of speech. One writer links it to a line in Hebrews.
He acknowledged a real spiritual relationship with those who did God's will. Elsewhere we read that He is not ashamed to call such people brothers (Heb. 2:11).
The other Gospels word the same test in their own way.
It is interesting to compare how the three Gospel writers report the way the Lord identifies with such disciples. Matthew 12:49-50 has "the will of my Father". Luke 11:27-28 has "the word of God". Mark 3:34-35 has "whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother". Do we belong to this company?
- Claim refused. His relatives pressed natural ties as the highest claim on Him; He would not stop God's work to honour them.
- Test named. Obedience to God's will is the only sure ground of relationship with Him. It outranks every other claim.
- Tie replaced. Birth and family give no standing. The tie is supernatural, in new creation, and the flesh is no help at all.
- Circle redrawn. He disowns Israel after the flesh and marks out a remnant as His — those who believe His word.
- Names given. He looks round with personal interest and gives the obedient the family names — brother, sister, mother. A broken heart can hold that place, and He is not ashamed to own it.