“Whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35)
One day when Jesus was preaching, His mother and brothers stood outside. They wanted to speak to Him. And this was not to be a friendly talk! The Bible says that “they went out to seize Him, for they were saying, ‘He is out of his mind’” (Mark 3:21). Jesus’ family did not go as far as the Pharisees who claimed that Jesus was possessed by the prince of demons (Mark 3:22), but they certainly had wrong ideas about Him. And being His family members, they assumed they had some influence over Him.
The crowds told Jesus that His mother and brothers were seeking Him. But He did not respond to their request. Instead, He explained that shared faith and obedience to God the Father is more important than biological kinship. “Whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother”, Jesus said (Mark 3:35, Matthew 12:50).
This may have hit Mary hard. Jesus basically said that she was not more important to Him than any of His other followers. However, other stories show that Mary was a woman “who did the will of God”, and thus was part of Jesus’ spiritual family. She really was Jesus’ mother — in more than one way.
Are you a member of Jesus’ family?