The New Testament tells us that
Jesus grew up in a large family with several siblings, presumably children born
to Mary and Joseph after the birth of Jesus. We know his brothers’ names—James,
Joses, Judah, and Simon—and that he had more than one sister (see Mark 6:3). We
might assume that Mary the mother of Jesus would be first in line to enter the
household of God, followed by the rest of Jesus’s mortal family. After all,
biological kinship has been privileged throughout history.
An incident during the Savior’s
ministry suggests that many bystanders assumed Jesus would give special access
to his mother and half brothers. While Jesus was teaching in Galilee, Mary and
her other sons were kept from him because he was surrounded by many people. The
crowd somehow relayed a message to Jesus that “thy mother and thy brethren
stand without, desiring to see thee.” Much like the townspeople, we may expect
Jesus to part the crowd and usher in his immediate family. But that is not what
Jesus did. Instead, he told the multitude, “My mother and my brethren are these
which hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:19-21; see also Matthew 12:46-5;
Mark 3:31-35). I imagine Jesus making a large sweep with his arm over the crowd
and he said, “these.” Jesus described those who make up his family as the men,
women, and children who hear and willingly follow the word of God.
So, what of Mary his biological
mother? Is she part of the household of God? Yes, because she heard the word of
God and obeyed it. Yet she did not get a free pass because she was biologically
related to the Lord. (Camille Fronk Olson, “’No More Strangers or Foreigners,
but Fellowcitizens,’” in The Household of God: Families and Belonging in the
Social World of the New Testament ed. Lincoln H. Blumell, Jason R. Combs,
Mark D. Ellison, Frank F. Judd Jr., and Cecilia M. Peek [Provo, Utah: BYU Religious
Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022], 16)
