‘And he answers them, saying, “Who is my mother and my brothers?” And looking round on those who sat round him he says, “See, my mother and my brothers. For whoever will do the will of God, the same is my brother and my sister and my mother”.'
So He looks round, and declares to all, that it is those who have gathered because they want to do the will of God by following Him, and coming under the Kingly Rule of God, who are his brother and sister and mother. As a result of this His earthly family had been replaced. His whole future and activity must now be spent on those who have responded to Him and begun to do the will of God. Because of Who He is as Messiah those who have come under the Kingly Rule of God, who are seeking to do the will of God as revealed by Him, are now His primary responsibility.
Thus at present neither His mother or His brothers, who had not taken up this position and were not considering the will of God, could have any place in affecting His life. They were currently replaced, because they were seeking to interfere where they had no right to do so, and their purposes and aims were wrong. They were not seeking the will of God, and were not therefore under the Kingly Rule of God, and that was primary. They were following earthly aims. As for Him His whole concentration had to be on His mission to introduce the Kingly Rule of God to men, and as a result His responsibility had be to those who truly followed Him and were within ‘the Kingly Rule' (i.e. were under the king). This was not a lack of filial loyalty. It was a recognition that His work transcended such loyalties. But He would still provide for His mother when she needed it most (John 19:26). She had not been replaced in His affections, only in His mission.
We need not conclude that He did not at some point meet His family at all at this time, as long as they were ready to meet Him on His terms, and He would undoubtedly have been pleased if they had opted to join His followers, But He wanted it to be clear that they must be seen as not coming first and as not being in a position to interfere with what He was doing.
So Mark's stress here is on the new position that Jesus was now showing Himself to be in, as The One Who was uniting Himself with the family of believers, the new community under God's Kingly Rule, and treating them as of more importance than His earthly family because they were His true Messianic family in view of their obedience to His Father. He had set aside His Apostles as leaders of the community, now He set Himself aside as its Head, and them aside as His family.
‘My brother and my sister and my mother.' The mention of sister brings out that women were included in the crowd around Jesus. He did not say ‘father' because ‘the family' had only one Father, even God (Matthew 23:9). It is quite probable that part of Jesus' aim in these words was to encourage this attitude of family fellowship among His followers. He wanted them to unite together in their common purpose to serve God, encouraging and strengthening each other. But the mention of ‘mother' could have no other significance than that His earthly mother was replaced (however cleverly some may try to argue against it). The significance of Mary as the mother of the Messiah and the bearer of the Son of God was now history. The only place that she could now have with Him was as a believer.
We note that this incident follows the suggestion that He belonged to a divided household (Mark 3:25). So now He had let it to be known that He belonged to another family, a family bound by the closest of ties, a more important family, a family of those in full submission to the will of God, a family that was not divided, a family to whom He gave His affection.
That this incident is connected with Mark 3:20 goes without saying. This method of mentioning something and taking it up later occurs elsewhere in Mark. Mark 11 is a prime example of it as we shall see.
Perhaps we might end this section by noting that Jesus did not mean that everyone in the house was a true believer. We know in fact of one who was not. That is why He put in His provisional, ‘whoever will do the will of God'. It was that that separated those ‘outside' from those ‘inside'.
‘And again he began to teach by the seaside. And there is gathered to him a huge crowd so that he boarded a boat and sat in the sea. And all the crowd were by the sea on the land. And he taught them many things in parables, and said to them in his teaching.'
‘And again he began to teach by the seaside.' The ‘again' refers back to Mark 3:7. The seaside was a favourite venue of Jesus and the use of a boat for this purpose seems to have been a regular feature of His ministry at this time. It acted as both a speaking platform, and as a means of avoiding being hemmed in by the crowds. This was very necessary as clearly the large open space meant that larger crowds could gather.
‘Parables.' ‘Parable' has a wide meaning based on the meaning of Hebrew ‘mashal' (which it translates in LXX) meaning a saying, a word picture, a proverb, a riddle, an ethical maxim, a comparison, and so on. Here it refers to the use of stories and mysterious sayings to make the people think. We are told that He used many such (Mark 4:33).
‘All the crowd were by the sea.' Note the emphasis on the fact that Jesus is again surrounded by crowds, but this time they are by the seashore. This is mainly a crowd of interested hearers similar to that in Mark 3:7 although no doubt including many of those in Mark 3:32.
‘And said to them in His teaching.' Note the inference here that He taught much more than we have a record of. These are to be seen as but examples.