SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/13/2022 8:12 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2
“The Power of Relationships”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
12:46-50
Message of the verses: “46 While He was
still speaking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers were standing
outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47 And someone said to Him, "Behold,
Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to
You." 48 But He answered the one who was telling Him and said, "Who
is My mother and who are My brothers?" 49 And stretching out His hand
toward His disciples, He said, "Behold, My mother and My brothers! 50 “For
whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and
sister and mother.’”
In our last SD which came from the book of Mark we
got a better idea of why Jesus’ mother, brothers, and sisters came to see him,
and we concurred that they were greatly concerned about His welfare and were
even fearful with some of His hometown friends that He has “lost His senses
(Mark 3:21). MacArthur writes that “His
condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees continued to grow in intensity and
seriousness, and those leaders, in turn, were accusing Him of doing His work by
Satan’s power. Their plan to destroy
Jesus (Matt. 12:14) was probably already rumored among the people. Jesus’s mother and brothers were therefore
hoping to dissuade Him from continuing His work and perhaps hoped He would flee
to a safe place until the religious leaders forgot about Him or lost
interest. His family was on a rescue
mission to save Him from imminent death.”
I
suppose that when one reads through this paragraph that many would think that
the incident that was going on would be an embarrassment, but Jesus as neither
embarrassed nor resentful. We know that
He loved and cared for His family, and He truly understood their concern, even
though they were misguided about who He truly was and what He had to do. Jesus did not, in fact, respond directly to
the request of His family but rather used the occasion to teach and important
truth: “49 And stretching out His hand toward His
disciples, He said, "Behold, My mother and My brothers!”
Jesus was in no way renouncing His family as He
loved them even more than they loved Him.
Remember that His last request from the cross was for John to care for
His mother as seen in John 19:26-27, and through His gracious love His brothers
eventually came to believe in Him as can be seen from Acts 1:14.
I
will conclude this SD on this Sunday morning by again quoting from John
MacArthur’s commentary on Matthew where he writes: “The Lord’s purpose in referring to His
disciples and His mother and brothers was to teach that He invites the entire
world into His intimate and divine family.
Anyone can enter His spiritual family bu trust in Him, and the family of
God is the only family that ultimately matters.
“Even
being a member of Jesus’ own earthly family did not merit salvation by virtue
of that relationship. Jesus’ invitation
therefore extended to His natural mother and half brothers, because they, too,
needed to be saved from sin. Apart from
personal faith, they were not more spiritually related to Him than any other
human being. ‘All of those, and only
those, who believe in Me are spiritually related to Me,’ He was saying. For whoever does the will of my Father who is
in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.’”
3/13/2022 8:33 AM
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