Jesus Speaks to Women - Matthew 12

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”  Matthew 12: 46-50

Well, in my quest to find all the instances when Jesus spoke to women recorded in the Gospels, I've come across the passage above as the next instance when Jesus have some kind of interaction with women in Matthew.  

Although Jesus does not speak directly to a woman in this passage, He does speak about women...one in particular:  His Mother.  

I have to admit that this piece of Scripture is a bit perplexing to me.  But again, that's because I'm looking at it from the perspective of my limited human understanding.  I believe that if I were to be so bold as to place myself in Jesus' sandals, I might have a better glimpse of what Our Lord is trying to communicate here.  

Well, first of all, Jesus knew that His Mother and brothers were there to try to convince Him of being more careful about His public ministry.  They probably wanted Jesus to be less conspicuous.  And since He would not stop doing His work, well, He spared His earthly relatives the scene.  The other reason is that this was a teaching moment.  Jesus never allowed a teaching moment to not be taken advantage of.  And this is no exception.

This was another opportunity for Jesus to remind us that we are all His family.  We are all part of the Royal lineage of Christ, the King of Kings!  Those whom He chooses...those who follow Him...those are His family!  Notice the precious addition of the "sisters" in Jesus' reply.  It is He, not the one who comes looking for Him, who includes the "sisters" in the list of relatives.  I absolutely adore that!  He didn't have to.  Sisters, daughters or women for all that matter, are rarely mentioned when listing those in attendance to anywhere.  Only men were usually counted back then.  In this case, Jesus makes sure He includes the fact that sisters are also worthy of mention as significant members of His family.

Dear sisters in Christ, let's never forget that!  We matter to Jesus.  He knows we are here.  We count!  May we never listen to the lies of the enemy who wants us to believe we are insignificant or inadequate or unworthy to be among those loved by Our Lord!  May we always remember that even if the world forgets, Jesus does not.