(50) Whosoever shall do the will.--This is, then, what Christ recognises as the ground of a spiritual relationship. Not outward, but inward fellowship; not the mere fact of baptism, but that which baptism signifies; that doing the will of God, which is the essence of holiness--this is that which makes the disciple as dear to the heart of Christ as was the mother whom He loved so truly. Sister, and mother.--The special mention of the sister suggests the thought that those who bore that name had joined the mother and the brethren in their attempt to interrupt the divine work. Verse 50. - For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same (he, Revised Version; αὐτός: ch. 1:21, note) is my brother, and sister, and mother. He is fall; he sums up in himself all such relations. Observe that our Lord does not raise the question whether or not his mother and brethren now believed on him. He is only speaking of the claims of relationship as such. From Mark 3:21, however (which seems to refer to the same occasion), we may conclude that the motive for this endeavour to interrupt him lay in unbelief. If so, Mary was either unaware of this or had herself been over-persuaded into momentary impatience (John 2:3) and distrust. If the latter alternative be adopted, she forms a parallel to the Baptist (Matthew 11:3, note). which is in heaven, and which is good news from heaven, to sinners on earth; and which Christ came down from heaven to do, and to declare to the children of men: such as "hear the word of God and do it", as Luke says, Luke 8:21 that is, hear the Gospel, understand and believe it, and become obedient to the faith of it; these are in this near manner related to Christ, evidentially and openly, as well as those who were now present: the same is my brother, and sister, and mother; as dear to me, as such are to those, to whom they stood thus related in the flesh: and these natural relations serve to convey some ideas of that relation, union, nearness, and communion, there are between Christ and his people; all these relative characters may be observed in the book of Solomon's Song, to which our Lord may be reasonably thought to have respect; see Sol 3:11. |