31Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. 32And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You."
33But He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brothers?" 34And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! 35For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother."
This is another difficult text for me, because as a mother, I really feel for Mary when it seems that Jesus is denying her as mother or her other sons as brothers.
First of all, I think Mary understands. Remember? Mary is the one who was asked personally to give birth to the child of God. She said let God's will be done. Even though it must have hurt, I think she knew the day would eventually come that He would need to devote Himself to His Father's work. Jesus helped prepare her for this day when He got separated from the family at age 12 and they finally found Him preaching in a synagogue.
However, I am surprised at the reactions and expectations of the others in the family. I'm sure Mary and Joseph would have recognized Jesus' work in God's calling. But wouldn't they have prepared other family members for this day? Mark 3:21 says when his own people heard about this, they claimed He was out of His mind. Is that why they brought their mother with to try to call Him from the synagogue in this verse?
Yes, here Jesus' family is a house divided. A house divided is caused by members who war against each other working for different goals. But a strong house is one in which everyone is working together toward a common good. Here Jesus says everyone working toward the will of God are part of a strong house, where all members are His brothers, sisters, and mother.
There may be times when we are struggling with our own house divided. The cause might be ours or someone else's in the family. But remember, we are never without family. If we but do the will of God, we can still claim membership in a very strong house, headed by Jesus. For we are also the brothers and sisters of Jesus! We can draw strength and support from this family even if we are having difficulties with our biological family.
And what of Mary? I can only draw encouragement from what is not said in the verse. Jesus didn't say to send her away. He didn't directly say she was not His Mother, just that he has many more mothers, brothers, and sisters. It didn't say he didn't go to see her afterwards. I know Mary is mentioned later in the scripture so I don't think their relationship was cut off at this point. In fact there is a lot that is not said in this passage. So I don't think this passage is meant as a means to clarify Jesus' separation from His family, rather to define the larger Christian family. As such, maybe I shouldn't be worrying about Jesus' relationship with his Mother by what it says here.