Mt 12:46-50
God’s will: Matthew presumes that Jesus and his disciples are inside a house, while his mother and his brothers appear outside. In Mark, who is Matthew’s source for the narrative, there is a crowd “seated in the circle” (Mk 3:34) around Jesus. Matthew changes the group in the inner circle for two reasons.
God’s will: Matthew presumes that Jesus and his disciples are inside a house, while his mother and his brothers appear outside. In Mark, who is Matthew’s source for the narrative, there is a crowd “seated in the circle” (Mk 3:34) around Jesus. Matthew changes the group in the inner circle for two reasons.
First, Mark portrays the disciples as slow to comprehend; they never come to understand who Jesus is. For Matthew, the disciples are members of his community. They are the inner group who know who Jesus is, understand his teaching and preaching, and put his words into practice.
Second, Matthew has already specified the conditions for discipleship (cf 8:18-22; 10:37-39)—the breaking of family ties. Now Matthew’s Jesus, the Master, must demonstrate that no family ties can get in his way either. In other words, what Jesus asks of his disciples, the breaking of family ties, he himself does.
Natural kinship with Jesus counts for nothing. What does count? For Matthew, it is doing the will of the heavenly Father. This, of course, is Matthew’s theme of righteousness, correct behavior, emphasized once again. The authentic family of Jesus is composed of those people who behave as God wants. This new family is Matthew’s community, his church.
Those who are baptized into the community (cf 28:19) become brother, sister, and mother to Jesus. By doing the will of the heavenly Father, people become sons and daughters of God and brothers and sisters and mothers of Jesus.