From Heaven With Love

Christ's Real Brethren

While Jesus was still teaching the people, His disciples brought the message that His mother and brothers were outside and desired to see Him. “But He replied to the man who told Him, ‘Who is My mother, and 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 Father in heaven is My brother, and sister, and mother.’” RSV. HLv 216.3

All who receive Christ by faith are united to Him by a tie closer than human kinship. As a believer and doer of His words, His mother was more nearly and savingly related to Him than through her natural relationship. His brothers would receive no benefit from their connection with Him unless they accepted Him as their personal Saviour. HLv 216.4

Their unbelief was a part of the bitterness of that cup of woe which He drained for us. HLv 217.1

The enmity kindled in the human heart against the gospel was most painful to Jesus in His home. His brothers looked on Him as in need of their counsel. They thought that if He would speak things acceptable to the Pharisees, He would avoid disagreeable controversy. They thought He was beside Himself in claiming divine authority. They knew that the Pharisees were seeking occasion to accuse Him, and they felt He had given them sufficient occasion. HLv 217.2

They could not fathom the mission He came to fulfill, and therefore could not sympathize with Him in His trials. Their coarse, unappreciative words showed that they had no true perception of His character. Instead of comforting Him, their spirit and words wounded His heart. His sensitive nature was tortured, His motives misunderstood, His work uncomprehended. HLv 217.3

His brothers often presumed to think that they could teach Him who understood all truth. They freely condemned that which they could not understand. They thought they were vindicating God, when God was with them in the flesh, and they knew Him not. HLv 217.4

These things made Jesus’ path thorny. So pained was Christ by the misapprehension in His own home that it was a relief to go where it did not exist. He loved to visit the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, for in the atmosphere of faith and love His spirit had rest. Yet often He could find relief only in being alone and communing with His Father. HLv 217.5

Those who are called to endure misapprehension and distrust for Christ's sake in their own homes may find comfort in the thought that Jesus endured the same. He bids them find companionship in Him and relief in communion with the Father. HLv 217.6

Those who accept Christ are not left as orphans, to bear trials alone. As members of the heavenly family, He bids them call His Father their Father. He has toward them an exceeding tenderness, far surpassing what our father or mother felt toward us in our helplessness. HLv 218.1

When through poverty a Hebrew had been forced to sell himself as a bondservant, the duty of redeeming him fell to the one nearest of kin. See Leviticus 25:25, 47-49; Ruth 2:20. So the work of redeeming us fell on Him who is “near of kin” to us. Christ became our kinsman. Closer than father, mother, brother, friend, or lover is the Lord our Saviour. We cannot understand this love, but we can know it to be true in our own experience. HLv 218.2