Introduction

Have you ever been interrupted in the middle of something? I used to hate it when I got interrupted growing up. What we are doing always feels so important, doesn't it? It feels like if I have to leave this task now uncompleted, it would be the end of the world to me. All of us have been interrupted, especially parents by nagging children. Being interrupted can be irritating and inconvenient at times. When we are deeply focused, when what we are doing is highly consequential, an interruption is the worst thing.

Here in Matthew this morning, we have what we could call unresolved tension: the unresolved tension of Matthew 12 as a whole. Jesus has systematically, as we have seen over the previous weeks, rebuked the Pharisees who attributed the works of Christ to the works of Satan. Now Matthew concludes this larger section by taking an untimely interruption from his family, and by his response, Matthew resolves the tension of the chapter. Because Jesus’ discourse here perhaps answers what many would have been thinking after hearing the Lord’s stern warning and rebuke in that parable that we concluded on last week.

The question that really came up is: who then are the children of God? As Daniel Doriani puts it, "who in Israel loves Jesus?" If it is not these Pharisees, as we have seen, and if even the nation as a whole is in spiritual danger, then who does? The outlook is grim. The nation is in flux. Many are believing, and many unlikely people have come to believe in Christ as the Messiah; but many more are unbelieving. They take offence at Christ. There is no room in the inn of their hearts for Jesus. And so if even these, the Pharisees, are outside the kingdom, then who is in the kingdom? Who is in the family of God?

It is here, in these words concluding this chapter, that Jesus makes it plain. He tells us of his true family. So I have two headings I want to guide you through this passage under: first, we want to consider an unwelcome disruption in vv. 46-47; and then secondly, an astonishing reply in vv. 48-50.

AN UNWELCOMED INTERRUPTION

So, an unwelcome disruption. Read again with me: "While he was still speaking to the crowds, behold, his mother and brothers were standing outside seeking to speak to him. Someone said to him, 'Behold, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to you.'"

The first point I want to make here is that Matthew explicitly connects the context and builds the scene in three different ways. Imagine all of these things happening in your mind’s eye to build the intensity of the situation here. First of all, note that there is a crowd: "while he was still speaking to the crowds." We know what it is like to be in a crowd, and likely here we really mean a crowd. Because we secondly note that his mother and brothers were standing outside. There is something about this crowd that means they have to remain outside rather than easily come inside. Thirdly, we learn that a messenger, perhaps even a youth, was needed to force his way through to get to Jesus on behalf of his family.

So this builds in our minds the kind of context we are in. Jesus is teaching, as is obvious, in some sort of a dwelling, as was typical, and the place is absolutely packed. There was no easy access to where Jesus was, but there was a mass of people clamouring to hear the teaching of Christ. This was often how Jesus found himself teaching. Remember Zacchaeus, who had to climb up that sycamore tree just to get a look at the Saviour? And so here we find that Christ is surrounded, and at some point they have shifted indoors and Christ teaches on.

There was a great urgency always about the teaching and preaching of Christ. I am reminded of the words of Mark 1:38: "Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby so that I may preach there also. For this is what I came for." This is the work of the kingdom here and now; no other task was of such earnest priority as this.

Now this fact will be something important to remember here. These are the details of how Matthew shapes the intensity of the situation for us. So imagine the busiest event that you have ever been to. Perhaps it is a wedding or a funeral in a small venue, and there are too many people for the size of the building, and you feel almost claustrophobic standing shoulder to shoulder with people, impossible to move. Matthew wants you thinking this way so that we can understand his response to this unwelcome disruption.

I would also say this by way of observation: it seems here that we are left with some doubt about the spiritual well-being of Jesus’ family. We presume, and likely rightly, that Joseph has long since passed; he is no longer on the scene. But here are his closest earthly family. But are they believing? We are perhaps supposed to wonder why they were not already here listening to Jesus. Why are they not inside? Why are they standing outside when everyone else is clamouring to get in? Are they not as interested as the people?

And critically, it seems that they thought nothing of interrupting Christ as he was preaching. It was customary, you see, for family to take priority in a person’s life. Since Joseph had died, Jesus would be considered the head, as it were, of the family. He must be accessible; he must be there at their every request. "Stop what you’re doing, Jesus. We need to speak to you." That was their presumption. They believed that they had this kind of unguarded access to Jesus.

But why are they seeking him at this moment, I wonder? Why are they seeking him? I think the context of Mark helps us here, perhaps. In Mark’s parallel account in Mark 3:20, just before these things happened, it says: "And he came home and the crowd gathered again to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When his own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of him, for they were saying, 'He has lost his senses.'"

Many thought that Jesus had gone mad, that he had made himself out to be a lunatic. This carpenter’s son from Nazareth teaching, preaching, saying all of these things, who does he think he is? He was meeting none of their expectations for who the Messiah was believed to be; he was totally out of character. Perhaps they were ashamed. Perhaps even his family thought this about Christ as well. Perhaps they were ashamed to have a member of their family who was so on the edge, a fringe sort of character. Perhaps they thought he was going to be part of a growing list of messianic pretenders, because Israel had seen these before. "That's enough, Jesus. It's time to go." They have sent the messenger, and that is enough.

Leon Morris says, "Jesus' earthly family seemed not to have understood exactly who he was and what his mission demanded." John’s Gospel really helps us here: John 7:5, "For not even his brothers were believing in him."

So here they come to Christ. What application is immediately apparent here for us? Well, I would say, firstly, beware of any hindrance to kingdom work. It is hindrance to kingdom work that creates the opportunity for Jesus’ response; it is the reason Matthew records it for us here. Be wary of any hindrance to kingdom work, friends. We must be very careful of intentional or unintentional blockades we might put in the way of those seeking to further the kingdom mission. We never want to find ourselves running against the stream of gospel labour and service, which is the most important work of all in the world. I wonder how many young people, for example, who are eager for opportunity in the church to serve, perhaps, if it is a young man, to get preaching opportunities, I wonder if they are neglected or disregarded by less ambitious Christians who have come to be, like Eli, insensitive to the calling of God.

Perhaps the second application would be that we must be wary of mistaking church proximity for nearness to God. The two do not always go together. You could have no better access to Jesus than to be his mother, than to be his brothers or sisters; and yet it proved at this point in time, at least, to be of little benefit to them. As Matthew Henry says, "Frequently those who are nearest to the means of knowledge and grace are the most negligent. Familiarity and easiness of access breed some degree of contempt."

This is almost certainly the case when we begin to tire of hearing the gospel, when we tire of Christianity and being taught Christian doctrine. It is familiarity that is so close to us, and it makes us think that these things are unimportant. We take Jesus for granted. We take the church for granted. We take the prayer meeting for granted. We take the Bible study for granted. What a scary thought. Guard and watch your heart, dear friends. Familiarity breeds contempt. Let nothing else interrupt you in those spiritual duties that you have to Jesus Christ. To paraphrase Billy Graham, he says it is insanity to think that you display so little desire for God in this life and yet proclaim that you want to be with him all the time in heaven.

Let us look at a second detail here in a quick and passing point. We notice that it said here that Jesus has brothers. Do not miss that. Do not miss that it says Jesus has brothers. Technically, these are half-brothers, of course. These are those who were born to Mary and Joseph after the birth of Christ. Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, of course; he was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Matthew even names Jesus’ brothers later on in chapter 13: James, Joseph, Simon, Judas; and he mentions his sisters as well in that later chapter.

Why do I mention this? Well, all of that flies in the face of erroneous doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church, which makes out that these are, one of the theories is that they are cousins; they are not actually brothers. Essentially, despite the plain reading here, the plain translation of the underlying word for brother, they do this to try and justify their doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary, a firmly held doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. What utter nonsense, all defended for the sake of their blasphemous Mariology! Christ has an earthly family: earthly sisters, earthly brothers.

AN ASTONISHING REPLY

Let us move on to our second heading: an astonishing reply in vv. 48-50. We have considered the unwelcome disruption by even Jesus’ family. Now, under an astonishing reply, we want to hear the answer of our Lord. What will he do? Read again with me: "But Jesus answered the one who was telling him and said, 'Who is my mother and who are my brothers?' And stretching out his hand towards his disciples, he said, 'Behold, my mother and my brothers!'"

A question for you here: in Jesus’ astonishing reply, does he in fact speak disparagingly of his family? Is he being dismissive here? Is there not some kind of disregard that we can detect? It is almost like he is speaking as if his mother and his brothers do not even exist. "Who is my mother," he says, "or my brothers?" What would Mary think when she heard Jesus say this? Put yourself in her shoes, perhaps. What would she think, hearing Jesus say that any who accept and believe his claims may take the kind of place that she has in his life? She bore him at her breast, she raised him, she fretted over him, she loved him when he was young and as a child. Now he is saying that others can be of equal importance to him as he is to her.

Well, here we must be reminded that these striking words of Christ would have no effect if Christ did not hold his earthly family in high regard. In his reply, he very much takes the example of an earthly family and that kind of treasured relationship that there is, and he says essentially that there is a heavenly family too. There is not only an earthly family; there is a heavenly family. So this does not diminish earthly relationships at all; rather, he shows that there is a kind of family with even greater significance than our own flesh and blood. There is; that is his point.

I love how J. E. Adams puts it. He says, "Spirit is thicker than blood. One's spiritual ties are closer than one's physical ties. The deeper family relations are those of brothers and sisters in Christ." I love that. So the first thing you need to realise is that far from disparaging his own family or the concept of family, he says that you people here before me, through faith as hearers and doers of the word of God, will be to me as family, as my own mother, as my own brothers and sisters. He speaks of the believer's adoption into the family of God.

My point here is easy to defend: that he pays no dishonour to his family or parents. We just need to be reminded that elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus spoke of reaffirming the fifth commandment to honour thy father and mother. So we are not going to lay a charge against Christ, are we, that he did not fulfil that command though he spoke it? No, that would be unwise.

Think for a moment to that scene at the cross. At his own death, he looks out with love to Mary as a sword pierces her own soul as she watches her son be crucified. And remember what he said; the Apostle John recalls it for us, as he was right there with her. John 19:26: "When Jesus then saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son!' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother!' From that hour the disciple took her into his own household." Even in the Lord’s crucifixion, he takes care to fulfil the duty of the eldest son for his mother and gives her to the Apostle John and into his home. Christ loved his mother.

So no, Christ does not neglect the ties of earthly family. But what they and what we have to learn most critically here, however, is that there is an even stronger bond than blood family that is to take ultimate priority in Christ’s church: it is the spiritual family. So by this unwelcome interruption, Jesus’ earthly family believed that their relationship to Christ by blood gave them greater access to him. Christ, of course, as the Son of God, immediately corrects this. There is a higher plane, he is saying. There is a deeper bond, one which it seems his brothers even did not understand, and they would not until after the resurrection. But those at Jesus’ feet, taking in his every word, marvelling at the Messiah, ready to obey, ready to follow, these are those who have access to Christ. That is Jesus’ point.

Commentator Michael Green says, "It is possible to be religious like the Pharisees and still not be part of the kingdom of God. It is possible to be physically related to the Messiah himself and still not be part of the kingdom of God." What even those closest to Jesus had to learn was the priority of the kingdom and the kingdom family above all. It is the same lesson that you and I must learn as well if we are to follow him.

To illustrate, consider where we have heard similar teaching by Christ before. Think back to the first of Jesus’ signs in John’s Gospel: the wedding in Cana. A crisis occurs, a nightmare situation: they run out of wine. Jesus’ mother comes to Jesus. John 2:3: "When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine.'" And then Jesus gives a response not at all unlike here in Matthew 12. It is another occasion to show the priority of the kingdom work for Christ, and that is exactly what he does. Trivial matters will fade into unimportance. John 2:4: "And Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.'"

Or take the occasion when Mary found herself being corrected by Jesus even as a twelve-year-old in the temple. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you." And he said to them, "Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in my Father's house?" Kingdom work always took priority for the Messiah. He was the incarnate Son on a heavenly mission.

Notice this beautiful eyewitness detail that Matthew gives us in v. 49 again. Only an eyewitness could record this: that he stretches out his hand towards the disciples. These people were no doubt sitting or standing, listening to Christ, packing the room and the doorways, and he stretches out his hand towards them. He says, "These are my true family." Friends, if you love Jesus Christ and you know his benefits today, including the forgiveness of sins, you are, in a way, to transport yourself into that room and to see Christ’s hand outstretched towards you. As you hear now preaching from God’s word, as you hear the word read, he is outstretching his hand to you through it and saying, "This is my family. These are my brothers. These are my sisters. This is my mother."

He is asked this question about family: who is it really that has access to him? Well, it is the believer. We will always, whenever we need him, have full authority to come to him. It will not be those with earthly ties only, but those with spiritual ties. And his hands extend over you and me if we are in him.

His earthly family could hold this position through faith as well. Isn't it wonderful when our family know Christ? There is a sense in the Christian life where, if you have family that do not know Christ, there is almost a sense of estrangement. Though you love them, though you are there for them always, there is this sense of estrangement. Many of you know what this is like. But what a blessing it is when you have family with earthly bonds, blood bonds, and also the greatest spiritual bond! What a blessing that is.

Perhaps Matthew’s words earlier here, where he says that they were standing outside, are a little more ominous than we might at first realise. Even his earthly family must be saved and believe in him to know him. They must move from being earthly family to spiritual family. Fortunately, of course, we learn later on that they would all believe, even his brothers.

Notice here in these closing verses, the point is that Jesus clearly redefines and names those whom he will consider his true flesh and blood. You do not need to be of the tribes of Israel; you do not need to know Christ according to the flesh and be a Jew. Paul makes it clear who the true children of Abraham really are. Romans 2:28: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outwardly in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God." Spiritual children are the flesh and blood of Christ. They are his family. He has established that bond. He has put you in union with himself. He has adopted you into his family through faith.

Coming to the final verse here, look at v. 50 again: "For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother." Jesus makes it plain that it is the doer of the word, the doer of the will of the Father, whom Christ considers his true family. As one commentator says here, he commends "the dignity" of such a person in this way: the dignity of the believer. But without doing the Father’s will, there is no access to him.

So this makes us ask: what is the Father’s will? Does Christ mean that my good works, as I try to do what I think is the will of God, are going to make me part of his family? Not at all. Scripture refutes such teaching. The meaning is simply that Jesus links doing the Father’s will with a faith-filled response to himself.

In Matthew 16, to go forward, one of the critical high points in the Gospel, it is there that Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. And what does Jesus say? "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." It is knowledge of the Son that is revealed by the Father. It is the Father’s will that the Son be believed upon and understood. To confess Jesus as the Christ is to do the will of the Father; it is to believe.

Matthew 17:5, at the transfiguration on the mountain, the Father audibly speaks and commands his disciples, "Listen to him!" Doing the Father’s will there means believing in him as the Messiah, as his works attest. Listen to him!

People, you see, are nearest to God not, as we commonly imagine, when we can pray extended prayers, though that is a good thing; we are not nearest to God, as some imagine, when we can read at length the Bible every day, though that is a good thing. In Scripture, we are always confronted with the fact that those who are nearest to God are those who hear the word of God and obey it and act upon it, like a wise man who builds his house upon that foundation. You do not need to be a great prayer or a great reader capable of going deep into the Scripture to have that kind of nearness to God, do you? Even a simple Christian can be such.

Jesus gave similar statements in Scripture. Luke 11: "while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said, "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed!" And he said, on the contrary, "Blessed are those who pray really long prayers"? No! "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."

So I ask this morning: are you a doer of the Father’s will? You are hearing the word; the next part is up to you. His will is that you behold and believe his Son and follow him. His will is that you would die to yourself, repent of your sins, and be washed. His will is that you would pick up your cross and follow after the Saviour who lived and died for you.

What are you relying on this morning, brothers and sisters? Many think themselves a part of the family of God because they are long-term church attenders, because their father was a pastor, because they are the son or daughter of an upstanding elder or a deacon or a servant of Christ, or that their parents were great pillars of Christ in the community, and they think their name is on their parents’ ticket. Not so. Many think their religious activity will make them part of God’s family. But I say again: before you work for Christ, you must be saved by Christ and apart from works.

What is the Father’s will? John 6:40: "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day." What a promise!

Conclusion

As we close, notice this final detail here in v. 50. Jesus says, "whoever", whoever. Here he shows us the breadth and depth of the spiritual family that he came to redeem and form. Your ethnicity, your gender, your history, your background, whether Jew or Gentile, it will not keep you out. It will not keep you out.

William Hendriksen said this: "it means "black and white, male and female, young and old, rich and poor, bond and free, educated and unlearned, drawn from the world of the Jews or that of the Gentiles." Friends, there is no excuse. There is no barrier to entry. Receive Jesus today. Hear this word and act upon it. Be saved from this evil and adulterous generation that even now we live in. Become a child of God and follow Jesus. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."