RBWords

     The Gospel According to Luke "softens" this incident.  In the older Gospel According to Mark [3:21}, the reason Jesus' family came to see him was to "seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."  Jesus' relationship to his family would be problematic.  After years of work in Nazareth, in what would be middle age for a male of that time (30 years old), after a period as a disciple of John the Baptist, he began a controversial preaching ministry.  This controversy would reflect on the "honor" of his family in Nazareth!  Since the primary social bonds of the time were family, clan, and tribe (Jesus was of the tribe of Judah), his statement that, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it...." would have amounted to a separation from them.  Since Christian tradition holds that Jesus was an only child, he would have been the primary care-taker of his presumably widowed mother.  Who was taking care of her?  There are lots of things at work in this scene.

     The Gospel According to Luke does present the mother of Jesus as someone who did hear the word of God and acted on it.  Perhaps this is why Luke softens the scene by eliminating the reason Mark gives for the relatives showing up.  Later on, claims to authority based on kinship with Jesus may have been a problem in the community at large.  What Jesus tells us is that our relationship to him rests on hearing the Word of God and acting on it.  Nevertheless, we can also see that Jesus had to deal with troublesome relatives just as we sometimes have to.  Their concerns may be legitimate, but occasionally something greater and more transcendent may demand that a family member act in accord with it.  Christian faith has divided more than one family, and Jesus' family was no exception!  AMEN