Help with Matt 12:46-50

We have a ~2000 year perspective and the gift of the Holy Spirit. They only had a few years.

Carl Emerson said:

46While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” 48But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 50“For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

It puzzles me that with all the first hand knowledge of Jesus wisdom and divine powers, that His own family seemed to relate from a distance. This includes Mary who had deep revelation about who He really was.

I assume He had the lifestyle of an itinerant rabbi and was always on the move - staying in homes of his followers.

Verse 50 even implies that His family were out of God's will.

This is a puzzle to me - there is little mention of them being among His followers.

Had unbelief crept in among His family members?

Your thoughts very much appreciated.

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Good Day,

Consider:

Mar 3:21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

In Him

Bill

Carl Emerson said:

46While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” 48But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 50“For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

It puzzles me that with all the first hand knowledge of Jesus wisdom and divine powers, that His own family seemed to relate from a distance. This includes Mary who had deep revelation about who He really was.

I assume He had the lifestyle of an itinerant rabbi and was always on the move - staying in homes of his followers.

Verse 50 even implies that His family were out of God's will.

This is a puzzle to me - there is little mention of them being among His followers.

Had unbelief crept in among His family members?

Your thoughts very much appreciated.

Click to expand...

Even those who believed in Him had a limited understanding of His significance.
John 6:14, 15. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Few had more insight into who Yeshua was than John the baptist, and yet he lost his way.
Matthew 11:2, 3. And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

I see these verses as more inclusive than exclusive. I think He was trying to make the point that all can be part of the family of God. Verse 50 is also not excluding His biological family, it is just clarifying who His family is. Of course your family is always the hardest to convince of anything. As seen numerous times.

A prophet has no honor in his own country’ (John 4:44). Christ also said ‘no prophet is accepted in his home town’ (Luke 4:16-30), and ‘Only in his home town and in his own house is a prophet without honor’ (Matt. 13:54-57), and ‘Jesus left there and went to his home town…When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked…Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James…Jesus said to them, “Only in his home town, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”…he was amazed at their lack of faith’ (Mark 6:1-6).

Carl Emerson said:

46While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” 48But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 50“For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

It puzzles me that with all the first hand knowledge of Jesus wisdom and divine powers, that His own family seemed to relate from a distance. This includes Mary who had deep revelation about who He really was.

I assume He had the lifestyle of an itinerant rabbi and was always on the move - staying in homes of his followers.

Verse 50 even implies that His family were out of God's will.

This is a puzzle to me - there is little mention of them being among His followers.

Had unbelief crept in among His family members?

Your thoughts very much appreciated.

Click to expand...

Remember when Jesus told one that wanted to be a disciple but had to bury his father first? He said ... let the dead bury the dead.

This is kind of the same.

As far as Jesus was concerned, there were two types of persons....those that were born from above, and those that were not. John 3.

Jesus was forming a NEW family....those that were His disciples and born from above...these were His new friends, brothers, parents.

It does not mean He didn't love His family,,,,it just means that God has to be first.

Love God
first and foremost or you cannot do anything else.
Without God we can do nothing. John 15.

Also, remember that James, Jesus' brother or half brother (we cannot be sure) did not believe who Jesus was until after Jesus' death and resurrection.
---no prophet is welcomed in their own home town --
perhaps His family was just too close....but, yes, Mary did understand who Jesus was.

Good question....

Carl Emerson said:

Verse 50 even implies that His family were out of God's will.

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It doesn't have to. I don't see that it does anyway. He was just making a point.

Wha?

Yes, his family wasn't with him at the time described in this passage. Is that hard to believe?

This is Jesus who is God's own Son saying any sinner can become His own mother or brother or sister. And we may share with Jesus in His own glory > John 17:22 > and experience being loved even as our Heavenly Father loves His own Son Jesus > John 17:22-26 > Jesus Himself has claimed this in prayer.

So, this is where He was going with those who followed Him. And He was letting people know His family did not decide what He did.

He was their family; so they could feel comfortable enough to call for Him, if they felt they had a reason, I suppose. And He had caller ID so He could decide if He accepted the call. And by then they likely knew this

Carl Emerson said:

Not at all because man's ways are not God's ways.

The matter I want to bring out is that they had lost faith in God and were no longer in God's will.

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This is one of the things I love about the Bible, many times it says how things are not how we hope they should be. His family had temporarily lost faith in him, how human of them! If your son or brother started claiming the things Christ did, wouldn't you have a bit of doubt? All who have faith are part of Christ's family, that doesn't mean we must have perfect faith. And when our faith falters, God doesn't abandon us, He still holds out His hand to us, despite our many imperfections. This, I think is part of the beauty of the Gospel.

Carl Emerson said:

46While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” 48But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 50“For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Click to expand...

Interpreting that passage depends in part on whether you think these "brothers" were older sons of Joseph from a previous marriage or not.

As we know from comparing the women at the foot of the cross, the Apostle John was Jesus' (younger) cousin. John seems to have looked up to Jesus from the beginning; the "brothers" seem to have needed some time. James and Jude seem to have come right in the end.

Carl Emerson said:

I don't see any mention of any of His family between the wedding at Canna and the Cross.

This would suggest to me that they weren't among his followers in a physical sense but I could be wrong...

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We should include this passage for consideration.
Jesus' brothers were trying to get him to go to the festival.
Interesting and controversial passage.

John 7:1-13
After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.
10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”
12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”
Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.