'There came then His brethren and His mother, and, standing without,
sent unto Him, calling Him. 32. And the multitude sat about Him; and
they said unto Him, Behold, Thy mother and Thy brethren without seek
for Thee. 33. And He answered them, saying, Who is My mother, or My
brethren? 34. And He looked round about on them which sat about Him,
and said, Behold My mother and My brethren! 35. For whosoever shall do
the will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and
mother.'--Mark iii. 31-35.
We learn from an earlier part of this chapter, and from it only, the
significance of this visit of Christ's brethren and mother. It was
prompted by the belief that 'He was beside Himself,' and they meant to
lay hands on Him, possibly with a kindly wish to save Him from a worse
fate, but certainly to stop His activity. We do not know whether Mary
consented, in her mistaken maternal affection, to the scheme, or
whether she was brought unwillingly to give a colour to it, and
influence our Lord. The sinister purpose of the visit betrays itself
in the fact that the brethren did not present themselves before
Christ, but sent a messenger; although they could as easily have had
access to His presence as their messenger could. Apparently they
wished to get Him by Himself, so as to avoid the necessity of using
force against the force that His disciples would be likely to put
forth. Jesus knew their purpose, though they thought it was hidden
deep in the recesses of their breasts. And that falls in with a great
many other incidents which indicate His superhuman knowledge of 'the
thoughts and intents of the heart.'
But, however that may be, our Lord here, with a singular mixture of
dignity, tenderness, and decisiveness, puts aside the insidious snare
without shaming its contrivers, and turns from the kinsmen, with whom
He had no real bond, to draw closer to Himself, and pour out His love
over, those who do the will of His Father in heaven. His words go very
deep; let us try to gather some, at any rate, of the surface lessons
which they suggest.
I. First, then, the true token of blood relationship to Jesus Christ
is obedience to God.
'Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My
sister, and mother.' Now I must not be betrayed into a digression from
my main purpose by dwelling upon what yet is worthy of notice--viz.,
the consciousness, on the part of Jesus Christ, which here is
evidently implied, that the doing of the will of God was the very
inmost secret of His own being. He was conscious, only and always, of
delighting to do the will of God. When, therefore, He found that
delight in others, there He recognised a bond of union between Him and
them.
We must carefully observe that these great words of our Lord are not
intended to describe the means by which men become His kinsfolk, but
the tokens that they are such. He is not saying--as superficial
readers sometimes run away with the notion that He is saying--'If a
man will, apart from Me, do the will of God, then he will become My
true kinsman,' but He is saying, 'If you are My kinsman, you will do
the will of God, and if you do it, you will show that you are related
to Myself.' In other words, He is not speaking about the means of
originating this relationship, but about the signs of its reality.
And, therefore, the words of my text need, for their full
understanding, and for placing them in due relation to all the rest of
Christ's teaching, to be laid side by side with other words of His,
such as these:--'Apart from Me ye can do nothing.' For the deepest
truth in regard to relationship to Jesus Christ and obedience is this,
that the way by which men are made able to do the will of God is by
receiving into themselves the very life-blood of Jesus Christ. The
relationship must precede the obedience, and the obedience is the
sign, because it is the sequel, of the relationship.
But far deeper down than mere affinity lies the true bond between us
and Christ, and the true means of performing the commandments of God.
There must be a passing over into us of His own life-spirit. By His
inhabiting our hearts, and moulding our wills, and being the life of
our lives and the soul of our souls, are we made able to do the
commandments of the Lord. And so, seeing that actual union with Jesus
Christ, and the reception into ourselves of His life, is the precedent
condition of all true obedience, then the more familiar form of
presenting the bond between Him and us, which runs through the New
Testament, falls into its proper place, and the faith, which is the
condition of receiving the life of Christ into our hearts, is at once
the affinity which makes us His kindred, and the means by which we
appropriate to ourselves the power of obedient submission and
conformity to the will of God. 'This is the work of God, that ye
believe on Him whom He hath sent.'
So, then, my text does not in the slightest degree contradict or
interfere with the great teaching that the one way by which we become
Christ's brethren is by trusting in Him. For the text and the doctrine
that faith unites us to Him take up the process at different stages:
the one pointing to the means of origination, the other to the tokens
of reality. Faith is the root, obedience is the flower and the fruit.
He that doeth the will of God, does it, not in order that he may
become, but because he already is, possessor of a blood-relationship
to Jesus Christ.
Then, notice, again, with what emphatic decisiveness our Lord here
takes simple, practical obedience in daily life, in little and in
great things, as the manifestation of being akin to Himself. Orthodoxy
is all very well; religious experiences, inward emotions, sweet,
precious, secret feelings and sentiments cannot be over-estimated.
External forms, whether of the more simple or of the more ornate and
sensuous kind, may be helps for the religious life; and are so in view
of the weaknesses that are always associated with it. But all these, a
true creed, a belief in the creed, the joyous and deep and secret
emotions that follow thereupon, and the participation in outward
services which may help to these, all these are but scaffolding: the
building is character and conduct conformed to the will of God.
Evangelical preachers, and those who in the main hold that faith, are
often charged with putting too little stress on practical homely
righteousness. I would that the charge had less substance in it. But
let me lay it upon your consciences, dear brethren, now, that no
amount of right credence, no amount of trust, nor of love and hope and
joy will avail to witness kindred to Christ. It must be the daily
life, in its efforts after conformity to the known will of God, in
great things and in small things, that attests the family resemblance.
If Christ's blood be in our veins, if 'the law of the spirit of life'
in Him is the law of the spirit of our lives, then these lives will
run parallel with His, in some visible measure, and we, too, shall be
able to say, 'Lo! I come. I delight to do Thy will; and Thy law is
within my heart.' Obedience is the test of relationship to Jesus.
Then, still further, note how, though we must emphatically dismiss the
mistake that we make our selves Christ's brethren and friends by
independent efforts after keeping the commandments, it is true that,
in the measure in which we do thus bend our wills to God's will,
whether in the way of action or of endurance, we realise more
blessedly and strongly the tie that binds us to the Lord, and as a
matter of fact do receive, in the measure of our obedience, sweet
tokens of union with Him, and of love in His heart to us. No man will
fully feel living contact with Jesus Christ if between Christ and him
there is a film of conscious and voluntary disobedience to the will of
God. The smallest crumb that can come in between two polished plates
will prevent their adherence. A trivial sin will slip your hand out of
Christ's hand; and though His love will still come and linger about
you, until the sin is put out it cannot enter in.
'It can but listen at the gate,
And hear the household jar within.'
'He that doeth the will of God, the same is'--and feels himself to
be--'My brother, and sister, and mother.'