Mother, brother & Sister

No privileges

Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside,
asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him,
“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mathew 12: 47–50)

When some interpret this as a not-so favourable response to Mary and his brothers, many others point out the fact that Mary’s life fits the tag of disciple (one who does the will of the father) perfectly well. But Jesus expands his family to include everyone who does the will of his father.

I think there is another message too from the passage. Being part of his family doesn’t give any privileges or privileged access to Jesus in any way. Mary never demanded for any privileges in her life. When John and James (the brothers) asked for privileges, they got a mouthful from Jesus. Following Jesus and thus being part of his family is not giving many privileges and that is a difficult lesson for many of us to accept.