Jesus Speaks to a Crowd About His BrethrenBible World
3:33Mark 3:33
And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren?
The question was spoken just after Jesus had a second time healed a man who was possessed by a demon and was blind and mute, when the Pharisees repeated the charge that He casts out demons through the prince of demons. It came just after He warned that attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan cuts off the fountain of blessing. Speaking against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character may be forgiven, because through the Holy Spirit the soul may see its error and repent and have its guilt washed away in the blood of Christ. But he who rejects the work of the Holy Spirit places himself where repentance and faith cannot come, because God works upon the heart by the Spirit and willful rejection cuts off the channel by which God communicates, until when the Spirit is finally rejected there is no more that God can do for the soul.
It was asked when His brothers, having drawn Mary to join them, came to stop His work. They were out of sympathy with Him, astonished and dismayed by reports that He spent whole nights in prayer and days so thronged by crowds that He had no time even to eat, believing He was wearing Himself out and fearing His reason was unsettled. They felt keenly the reproach of the Pharisees' charge that He cast out demons by the power of Satan, and knew the tumult His words and works created. They were alarmed at His bold statements and indignant at His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees. They decided He must be persuaded or constrained to cease that manner of labor, and used His love for Mary to try to make Him act more prudently.
When He was told that His mother and His brothers were waiting outside and seeking to speak with Him, the point at issue became who counts as His brethren, raising the question of who His mother and brothers truly are. His answer is that those who do His heavenly Father's will are His brother and sister and mother, making obedience to God the basis of spiritual kinship with Him that is not limited to family ties. This comforts believers because Christ regards them as His family, and His followers should regard those who serve Christ with self-denial and sacrifice as bound to Him and to one another. His earthly family could not draw Him away from His work, for He remained absorbed in carrying out His mission to help people.
The question was spoken just after Jesus had a second time healed a man who was possessed by a demon and was blind and mute, when the Pharisees repeated the charge that He casts out demons through the prince of demons. It came just after He warned that attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan cuts off the fountain of blessing. Speaking against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character may be forgiven, because through the Holy Spirit the soul may see its error and repent and have its guilt washed away in the blood of Christ. But he who rejects the work of the Holy Spirit places himself where repentance and faith cannot come, because God works upon the heart by the Spirit and willful rejection cuts off the channel by which God communicates, until when the Spirit is finally rejected there is no more that God can do for the soul.
It was asked when His brothers, having drawn Mary to join them, came to stop His work. They were out of sympathy with Him, astonished and dismayed by reports that He spent whole nights in prayer and days so thronged by crowds that He had no time even to eat, believing He was wearing Himself out and fearing His reason was unsettled. They felt keenly the reproach of the Pharisees' charge that He cast out demons by the power of Satan, and knew the tumult His words and works created. They were alarmed at His bold statements and indignant at His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees. They decided He must be persuaded or constrained to cease that manner of labor, and used His love for Mary to try to make Him act more prudently.
When He was told that His mother and His brothers were waiting outside and seeking to speak with Him, the point at issue became who counts as His brethren, raising the question of who His mother and brothers truly are. His answer is that those who do His heavenly Father's will are His brother and sister and mother, making obedience to God the basis of spiritual kinship with Him that is not limited to family ties. This comforts believers because Christ regards them as His family, and His followers should regard those who serve Christ with self-denial and sacrifice as bound to Him and to one another. His earthly family could not draw Him away from His work, for He remained absorbed in carrying out His mission to help people.