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Home Luke 8:19-21 NRSVue

Luke 8:19-21 NRSVue

19Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” 21But he said to them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE)

“Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.”

Reflection on Luke 8:19-21

Inspiration from 2025-09-23 Daily Prayer

There is a time to pray with others and a time to pray alone. Sometimes the clamour of a crowd can  keep us from finding Jesus. In his own life on earth Jesus loved to go aside into a quiet place and be alone with his beloved Father. 

Because of the Incarnation and his coming amongst us as one of us and by his life, death and resurrection, Jesus has become our brother and made all who seek to follow him his new family. In having the one Spirit of Jesus within us, we are united together and become brothers and sisters of each other. Let us join with Jesus in his prayer for unity among all Christians.

Further reflection

There is your family, Lord Jesus: Mary, and the others of the household - perhaps Joseph was already dead. Now you widen it. We become your family not by birth, nor by being female, nor by rituals, but by hearing and acting on God's word. You welcome me into the same intimate relationship with you as Mary your mother.

Our prime relationship in life is our relationship with God. This explains why Jesus' words about his mother and brothers. Even the strongest family bonds and ties fit into a prior relationship we all enter into at conception - we belong to God before we belong to anyone else. Our relationship to each other is deepest in our common belonging to God. Our relationship with God grows by listening to his word, praying over his word, and translating his word into christian life and service.

Jesus is not disowning his mother, but rather pointing to her greatest glory: that she could say to God's messenger: /Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word/

The deepest of human family relationships - being a mother and brother - are not as full as the relationship we have with God in Jesus. Mary would have understood this - that her deepest bond with her Son was not just physical birth, but in hearing and doing the word of God which became flesh in her. Our time of prayer is our daily time of hearing this word.