Jesus Names His True Family in a Crowded HouseBible World
3:31Mark 3:31
There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him.
This call from His family came after He had healed a blind and mute man, when the Pharisees claimed He had done it by Satan's power, and He had warned that rejecting the Holy Spirit removes the means by which God leads people to repentance and faith. The brethren who came with the mother were the sons of Joseph.
At that time He was spending entire nights in prayer and was thronged through the day by great companies while teaching and healing, so that He had no time so much as to eat, and the strain of that labor alarmed His relatives. Standing outside and sending to call Him, they meant to draw Him away from His work in order to stop that manner of labor and make Him act more prudently, out of anxiety for His health and reputation.
The brothers were far from sympathy with Him, being filled with astonishment and dismay at the reports about Him, thinking His incessant labor was wearing Him out, unable to account for His attitude toward the Pharisees, with some fearing His reason was becoming unsettled. They had heard the Pharisee charge that He cast out devils by Satan's power, felt keenly the reproach and compromise to their own honor through being related to Him, knew what tumult His words and works created, and were alarmed at His bold statements and indignant at His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees.
Their indignation was heightened by what He had said just before they came, when He upbraided the cities where most of His mighty works were done because they did not repent, pronouncing woe on Chorazin and Bethsaida, declaring Capernaum would be brought down to hell, and declaring it would be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon and for Sodom in the day of judgment. They induced Mary to unite and go with them, knowing that His love for her would add to their influence and help them prevail upon Him, whether by persuasion or constraint.
Jesus used their arrival to teach that spiritual kinship with Him belongs to whoever does the will of His Father in heaven, and that such doers are His brother and sister and mother. That teaching about spiritual kinship comforts believers by showing how He regards them. Their appeal did not turn Him aside, for He was so absorbed in serving people and carrying out His mission that His family could not draw Him away from it.
This call from His family came after He had healed a blind and mute man, when the Pharisees claimed He had done it by Satan's power, and He had warned that rejecting the Holy Spirit removes the means by which God leads people to repentance and faith. The brethren who came with the mother were the sons of Joseph.
At that time He was spending entire nights in prayer and was thronged through the day by great companies while teaching and healing, so that He had no time so much as to eat, and the strain of that labor alarmed His relatives. Standing outside and sending to call Him, they meant to draw Him away from His work in order to stop that manner of labor and make Him act more prudently, out of anxiety for His health and reputation.
The brothers were far from sympathy with Him, being filled with astonishment and dismay at the reports about Him, thinking His incessant labor was wearing Him out, unable to account for His attitude toward the Pharisees, with some fearing His reason was becoming unsettled. They had heard the Pharisee charge that He cast out devils by Satan's power, felt keenly the reproach and compromise to their own honor through being related to Him, knew what tumult His words and works created, and were alarmed at His bold statements and indignant at His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees.
Their indignation was heightened by what He had said just before they came, when He upbraided the cities where most of His mighty works were done because they did not repent, pronouncing woe on Chorazin and Bethsaida, declaring Capernaum would be brought down to hell, and declaring it would be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon and for Sodom in the day of judgment. They induced Mary to unite and go with them, knowing that His love for her would add to their influence and help them prevail upon Him, whether by persuasion or constraint.
Jesus used their arrival to teach that spiritual kinship with Him belongs to whoever does the will of His Father in heaven, and that such doers are His brother and sister and mother. That teaching about spiritual kinship comforts believers by showing how He regards them. Their appeal did not turn Him aside, for He was so absorbed in serving people and carrying out His mission that His family could not draw Him away from it.