Why does Jesus ask, "Who are my mother and brothers?" in Matthew 12:48?

If His mother and His brethren came to Him, they thought, He would give heed to them. They put forward natural claims to take precedence of the carrying on of God's work. That He would not admit. "There came," we read, "His mother and His brethren, and, standing without, sent to Him, calling Him." The house was full; they could not enter it (Luke 8:19). So standing without, they sent to Him to come out to them. Had He done that, He must have paused in His work, for a multitude sat about Him, and He was speaking to them (Matt. 12:46). "They say to Him, Behold thy mother, and thy brethren, and thy sisters (so some read) without, seek for Thee" (Mark 3:32). It was sought to bring family influence to bear upon Him to get Him out from those around Him. Either, it would seem, He must stop in His work, or disown the claim of natural ties. It looked like an artfully concocted plan of the enemy, in which His mother certainly was an unconscious instrument. What did He do? His answer silenced His mother and His brethren, as He had just before silenced the scribes: "Who is my mother and my brethren?" Then, answering His own question, He said, after looking round on those which sat about Him, "Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother" (3:33-35). Natural ties there are, but there are spiritual ties as well. Those who did God's will were evidently born of God; so He would regard them in the light of His mother, sister, and brother. Sister, He said, for Mark, as we have noticed, very possibly mentioned them as coming with His mother and His brethren.

Did these without think they should be heeded because of their relationship? A higher relationship was the ground He would take for continuing His work within. He owned the existence of a spiritual relationship with those who did God's will; and elsewhere we read He is not ashamed to call such brethren (Heb. 2:11). Hence He refused to go out to His mother.

(7) All this is closed, on the Lord's part, with a significant word. While still speaking to the people, He is told by one of the bystanders that His mother and His brethren stand without, desiring to speak with Him. The cry had been raised, as we learn from Mark (3:21), even among His "friends," that He was beside Himself; and this attempt speak with Him on the part of His relatives no doubt was a consequence of this. The opposition had grown so great, that alarm for His personal safety may have actuated them, and the desire to induce Him to take in some respects a different course. But if such were their thought Matthew gives no hint of it; and the omission is significant. The Lord's words are not to be taken as if they referred merely to any conduct of this kind, as far as this Gospel is concerned. They are to be taken rather in connection with what has gone before and what follows here; that is, as referring to the dispensational change beginning. Judaism was essentially a national religion: men were "Jews by Nature," as the apostle says, although of course, proselytes were admitted. Christians are such by new nature only: the spiritual tie is the whole thing. And that is what the Lord here affirms: He answered an said to him that spake to Him, Who is My mother? and who are My brethren? And, stretching out His hand over His disciples, He said, Behold My mother and My brethren: for whosoever shall do the will of My Father who is in heaven; he is My brother, and sister, and mother."

But meanwhile, what was He going to do? Was He merely pronouncing judgment on Israel? Far from it. While He yet was speaking to the people one came and told Him, "Behold, Thy mother and Thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with Thee" (ver. 47). The Lord immediately takes this opportunity to show that He no longer acknowledged mere relationships according to the flesh. He had special relationship with Israel, "of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came." He owns it no longer. They would not have Him, and will become the tenement for the devil in all his power — their last state to be worse than their first. But, says the Lord, I am going to have a new thing now — a people according to My own heart. And so He stretches forth His hand toward His disciples, and says, "Behold My mother and My brethren." His only true relations were those who received the word of God, and did it. "Whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother" — He renounced all earthly connection for the present time. The only tie He acknowledges now is relationship to a heavenly Father, formed through the word of God received into the soul.

The chapter closes with the significant incident concerning the mother and brethren of Jesus. As a matter of fact they came in a wrong spirit, as is seen by consulting Mark 3:21 and 31. That, however, is not the point here. The Lord took occasion by their intervention to disclaim a merely natural relationship, and to show that what was going to count henceforth was relationship of a spiritual nature. In this figurative way He set aside for the time the old link formed by His having come as the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, and showed that the link now to be recognized was that formed by obedience to the will of God. The Jews as a people had rejected Him, and He now disowns them. He owns His disciples as being in true relation with Him, for feeble though they were, they had begun to do the will of His Father in heaven.

But the Servant of Jehovah, in that wisdom which had come from above, turned the occasion to account in His preaching of the kingdom of God. He did not meet with an angry rebuff this unwarrantable interference which sprang from natural affection, although it was ignorant affection, blind to His heavenly mission. But the Lord used the incident as a text, so to speak, for the announcement of the fundamental principle of the kingdom which was at hand. The effort made by His kindred to influence Him led Him to declare that obedience to the will of God is the only reliable foundation of divine relationship, while it necessarily takes precedence of every other claim. "Looking round on them which sat round about him, he says, Behold, my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."

The relatives of the Lord ("His brethren") mentioned in verse 21 now come to the house where He was, His mother with them, asking to see Him. Though they could not get in because of the crowd, the word was passed to Him. Of course He knew the reason for which they had come (v.21). Was their natural relationship to Him going to influence Him to cease declaring the Word of God? He asks rather, "Who is my mother my brethren?" Then He insists on the far higher claims of a spiritual relationship. Looking at those who sat to hear His Word, He said, "Behold my mother and my brethren!" He did not leave this matter at only hearing the Word, however, but declared that those who do the will of God were His real relatives: their relationship to Him was vital. Thank God His mother did have this vital relationship to Him also, but she needed the reminder that the mere natural relationship is much inferior to the spiritual.

This leads to the last section of this chapter, in which the Lord indicates that He is completely setting aside His merely natural relationship to Israel. He is told that His mother and His brethren were standing outside, desiring to speak with Him. Of course His mother is typical of Israel, the nation of whom Christ was born; while His brethren typify the people of the nation to whom He is naturally related.

But He makes it emphatically clear that this relationship is nothing compared to that with His Father, and those who did the will of His Father. Those who merely knew Christ after the flesh have no claim on Him whatever. Believers no longer know Him in this way (2 Cor.5:16), but as having died and risen again, the Head of a new creation. Of course, while He disclaimed the mere natural relationship, it is clear that Mary had a far nearer relationship then this, the same relationship that every believer has; and His care for His mother is seen beautifully at the cross (John 19:26,27).

A striking instance of this is given in Matthew 12:46-50. Our Lord was discoursing to the people. As He was thus engaged His mother and brethren stood outside, desiring to speak with Him. When told of this our Lord answered, “Who is My mother? and who are My brethren?” Then stretching His hand in the direction of His disciples, He 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.”

Thus He spoke in relation to the sphere of God’s work and service, calculated to produce in the minds of His disciples the idea of a relationship nearer and closer and altogether different than any earthly tie. The earthly tie was on a different plane from the spiritual. The one is not to set aside the other. The natural must not intrude upon the sphere of the spiritual; the spiritual should not set aside the natural.

The answer of the Lord to His mother and His brethren is worthy of our most devout attention: "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And 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." (Matt. 12:48-50.)

Although we are mainly concerned in our meditations with the personal history of Mary, it is not altogether possible to pass over the profitable instruction of this incident. As to Mary herself, the lesson is very much the same as that given to her at Cana of Galilee. Engaged as the Lord was in doing the will of God in His blessed service, He could not allow an interruption even from His mother according to the flesh. In His devotedness to His Father's "business," He had nothing to do with her. (See John 2:4.) And herein we are permitted to see Him as the true and perfect Levite. When Moses, before his departure, blessed the tribes of Israel, he said of Levi: "Who said unto his father and mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: but they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant." (Deut. 33:9; see also Ps. 69:8.) How blessedly is all this exemplified in Christ in the scene under our consideration! He was for God wholly and entirely, and thus outside of all the claims of natural relationship. He was indeed the Leader of His people in every path in which He calls upon them to walk. (See 1 John 2:6.) In like manner He fulfilled God's thought of the Nazarite, inasmuch as in all the days of His separation He was holy unto Jehovah; for while His Nazariteship is maintained now in another way, and in another condition, for in that He liveth, He liveth unto God, He was absolutely for God in all His earthly pathway.

Together with this we learn that He had formed His most intimate ties with His disciples, for stretching forth His hand towards them, He said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. What precious grace He thus displayed, declaring before all His entire identification with that poor and feeble remnant who were following Him with such halting steps, and who yet, through His care and support, were continuing with Him in His temptations! Doing the will of His Father, and they were doing it in listening to His call, they were brought into the blessed circle of which He was both the centre and the Head, and in which He found His delight. (Ps. 16:3.) We may yet see how tenderly He cared for Mary when His service was over, and this, too, was a part of His perfection as man on the earth; but it is none the less true that He owned as the closest of all ties those which knitted Him to the children God had given Him. (Isa. 8:18.)