Why would a young woman agree to the atrocity of having her own baby murdered? There are no ties as deep as the bond between a mother and a child. And yet, daily, thousands of mothers are choosing to separate themselves from the little ones they bear in their wombs. What are the competing ties that these young women have? Is it the pressure that comes from a boyfriend or a relative? Is it the issue of money and convenience? Is it fear about her reputation?
We humans have inner connections that sometimes take priority over what is more important in our lives.
Jesus also had “inner connections” that prompted him to put even his mother and brothers in second place, to other ties (Matthew 12:46-50).
“When Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brother appeared outside, wishing to speak to him. Someone told him, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.’”
Now, if you were Jesus, what would you have said? Probably, “Please tell them that I will be with them in about fifteen minutes after I finish my talk.” That would have been a reasonable and polite response that his mother and brothers would understand.
Yet Jesus said something shocking instead. He ignored his own mother and used this as a teaching moment.
“But he said in reply to the one who told him, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and brothers.’”
Ouch! Notice that though Jesus was speaking to the crowds, he stretched out his hands toward his little family of disciples who were set apart from the crowd. These were the ones who left everything, families included, to follow Jesus. Not all of Jesus’ relatives became disciples. In fact, we read in the gospels, that some of his relatives wanted to “put him away”. Jesus had deeper ties with this ragtag group of followers than he did with his own mother and brothers. Of course, Mary was also a disciple, and it seems Jesus was saying that his ties with Mary as a disciple were stronger than his ties with her as natural mother.
Jesus elaborated:
“For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
And what is the will of the heavenly Father? Isn’t it to turn our lives over completely to Jesus and accept him as Savior and Lord? Isn’t it to make him our top priority even more important than our children, our brothers and sisters, our grandchildren, our parents? When we accept Jesus into our lives, our ties with him go deeper even than our ties with family members.
Jesus was not concerned about hurting his mother’s feelings or shocking the crowd with what may have seemed a disrespectful comment. As deep as his love was for Mary, his love for the heavenly Father ran deeper. And those who put the will of his heavenly Father above all else, including family, jobs, and personal interests, became connected with Jesus in the deepest possible way.
This puts before us the question, “Who is most important in my life family members or Jesus?” And “What is most important in my life, my own desires or God’s will?” Have I made the decision to move from being one of the crowd who attended Jesus’ ceremonies to being one of the disciples who gave up everything to follow him?
When we are baptized, we are connected more with Jesus than we are with our parents who brought us to the waters of baptism. As we grow in the Christian life there comes a time when we are called to affirm our baptismal identity. This is not always easy. Sometimes it means we must step away from those we love to follow Jesus because we’ve come to love him even more.
In Jesus we have ties that run deeper even than blood ties. Our family connections end at death; our Jesus tie continues for all eternity.
