April 8 / Matt. 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21

Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, and Luke 8:19-21

“Notice what you notice.” Two things strike me today. The first is very simple, one word – outside. I’ve always pictured Jesus preaching out in the open air with crowds all around Him. But each of these writers today has Jesus inside (presumably a house) with His mother and brothers “outside” wanting to speak to Him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd (Luke 8:19). Right away I recall the lame man and the “pallet through the roof” story. And there have been a number of similar occasions where we have seen Jesus “inside”, again presumably a house, possibly Simon Peter’s. I recall an earlier passage where it even mentioned that Jesus “went home” (Mark 3:20). So it appears that in Galilee, especially in Capernaum, Jesus had a “home” and spent time inside.

The second item is Jesus’ answer to His own question, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Mark writes, “…whoever does the will of God”, Matthew writes “…whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, while Luke writes that My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. (Luke 8:21) Matthew expands on Mark a bit, while Luke takes them both a step further, joining us to the Father when we hear and do His word. So there’s the challenge – hearing and doing. Thankfully we are in a church where we “hear the word of God” every Sunday. That leaves us the other 166 hours in the week for our “doing”. It’s Monday morning, let’s do it!

Slava Bohu!