If a person has these three options: 1) Help at the soup kitchen, 2) Go to Church for prayer, 3) clean their house, which is the best choice? You’re right, it’s “4”—which reads, “it depends.” It depends on what God’s will is at that moment.
It is told that young Dominic Savio was shooting pool during community recreation time. One of his fellow novices asked him what he would do, if he knew he had but one more hour to live. Without hesitation, he said, “I’d try to win this game of pool.” What we are doing does not matter as much as why we are doing it.
Jesus gave this same lesson one day to his disciples (Matthew 12:46-50).
“While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.’”
Jesus was put on the spot. No one was more important in his life than his mother and brothers, and yet he ignored their request and kept on teaching. The fact is there was someone more important to him than his family members, namely, his heavenly Father. God’s will came first for Jesus.
Then he went on to make a surprising statement:
“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
We wonder why his mother and his brother didn’t show up for the meeting between Jesus and his disciples. After all, his mother was a disciple, and maybe his “brothers” were too. What was their agenda that was so important as to interrupt Jesus? Those disciples who were sitting in front of Jesus were the most important persons in the world, because they were listening the Word Incarnate himself. No one else on the planet was connected more closely to the Messiah than they were. And wasn’t this at the heart of the Father’s will, that people reverence and follow his Son?
The relationship that Jesus sought to have with his disciples ran deeper than his family ties. In fact, at the Last Supper Jesus said that he was the Vine and the disciples were branches. His desire was that they abide in him, and he abide in them. How much closer could two people get than living inside of one another. There is no greater union than this.
Jesus was no ordinary rabbi. His goal was not just to teach his disciples wisdom or train them in the ways of holiness. His goal was to establish a relationship with than that ran deeper than anything this world has ever known. A rabbi would take his relationship seriously, but at the end of a day, his family was more important—and so, he would go home and send his disciples away. Jesus was their home. His disciples remained with him until one day they would participate in his very identity, as sons and daughters of the living God.
When we aspire to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we must be prepared to go far beyond Church attendance, Bible study, helping at Church events, and saying our prayers. To fully do God’s will, we aspire to be true “mother and brothers” of Jesus, by abiding in him.
“Whoever loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him” (John 14:23).
