Who are Jesus' Mother and Brothers? - Mark 3:46-50
13th October 2026
Mt 12:46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand towards his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
We know from elsewhere in the New Testament that the brothers of Jesus did not believe that he was the Son of God and Messiah, until after his resurrection. And one suspects that some of the things that Jesus did and said were embarrassing to his family - as he challenged leaders; challenged religious rules; and I bet there were sniggering comments about his unusual birth. Mark ch3 tells us that, once … :
Mk 3:20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
Often the most difficult people to speak to, and the hardest to convince about the gospel, are one’s own family. I am sure that Jesus would have been quite difficult to have had as a brother. He was a man of divine character, but who was also a member of the family. The leading figures in religion and state thought that he talked too much and exposed too many disconcerting truths. He was an embarrassment to the family. Like my own mother finding that me being a missionary was, for her, socially awkward. However, the bible says that, “the common people heard him gladly.”
In our text, Jesus was expanding our understanding of true ‘family’ to include everyone who does the will of the heavenly Father. This was completely new. It was not a parable. It is an absolute truth. Jesus says that to obey his heavenly Father puts us into Jesus’ family.
As I am sure you know, in ancient Israel, your family was your tribe and your genealogy within it, and that was it. That was why the Old Testament story of Ruth was so radical and shocking, how Ruth the Moabitess, a foreigner, was brought into God’s family through faith in the God of Israel. In our text Jesus brings a new way of thinking about family, about who our real brothers and sisters are.
Our human families are all broken in various ways. Although our families can be supportive, and a great joy at times, there will always be serious disappointments, as I am sure you are all too well aware.
But Jesus’ saying leaves a big question lurking in my mind: What does, “Doing the will of my Father in Heaven”, actually mean? Do any of us so completely obey God that we know we are doing the will of God? The answer has to be a big fat “No!” How can we be sure that we are doing the will of the Father sufficiently to be in Jesus’ family? And what is doing the will of the Father in heaven anyway?
However, we have the answer in our New Testament. It’s not about being a busy bee ‘doing’ anything. But it is to sit at the feet of Jesus. It is believing who Jesus is, and what he has done on our behalf. As Jesus said in answer to the question put to him after the feeding of the 5,000 in John’s Gospel, when he was asked by the people of Capernaum:
Jn 628 … “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Yes, that’s it. It is to believe who Jesus is - God’s Son.
Cultivating a good family life is a good thing, and the New Testament gives extended instructions on family life and relationships, but it is not everything. If we put our natural family in place of God we will soon be disappointed.
Some people have almost no natural, earthly family, maybe even some of you here: no living brothers and sisters, no children or grandchildren. God however gives us the opportunity to be part of another family, Jesus’ family. And I don’t just mean being part of a local church, which is a good thing of course, but being in the family of faith in Jesus, which he seems to imply is far better. There is a sense that Jesus can be the brother or brotherly relationship which you never really had. He really does know us. He has a claim on us that our natural family has never had.
Believing who Jesus is and what he has done for us: believing in repentance and faith that Jesus is the only Son of God; that He died on the cross for our sins; that He was raised to life the 3rd day; bringing us the free gift of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. This is the most important thing, the most important obedience - sitting at Jesus’ feet, believing in him, as did these crowds gathered around him.
49 … stretching out his hand towards his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
This is a true family, because Jesus says so. What is more, it is an eternal, permanent and redeemed family that can never be taken from us. And it is ours.