Doing the right thing!

Luke 8:19-21 Then his mother and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you." He said to them in reply, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it." Food for thought! I want you to get this scene in your head. Jesus is teaching. He is surrounded by a vast multitude of people. Meanwhile, His family shows up. Their arrival creates a moment of tension for everyone there. Jesus is teaching and His family is on the outside of the crowd. They can’t get to Him because of the multitude, so they send word through the crowd to tell Jesus to come to where they are. His family wants Him to stop His teaching, leave the multitude, and attend to them. They want Jesus to STOP whatever he is doing and attend to them. And it is not the first time. Mark 3:20-21 "Then Jesus went to a house [probably Peter’s], but a throng came together again, so that He and His disciples could not even take food. 21 And when those who belonged to Him ( His family) heard it, they went out to take Him by force, for they kept saying, He is out of His mind!" In this one, his family wants to even use force, if need be; he must stop. Is Jesus going to stop or what? Is he going to follow his family or what? Instead of stopping what He was doing and going to His mother and family, Jesus simply said, “Who is My mother, or my brethren?” The crowd must have been shocked. His mother must have been devastated. His brothers probably got angry. They had traveled all the way from Nazareth to get Him and He refused to even stop teaching to talk with them. Instead of trying to ease the tension, Jesus intensifies it. Instead of reaching out to his earthly family, He speaks to all the members of His spiritual family. Jesus used this moment as an opportunity to teach some eternal truth. This is a tense scene and the Lord’s reaction to His family seems cold on the surface. But His response to them was designed to teach some very important truths. The lessons. Sometimes it is our dear ones like mother, father, husband, wife and friends that stand in between us and God. Of course they don't do it out of evil intentions; Mary and the others weren't acting out evil intentions; they were trying to help Jesus, so they thought. This was a misguided help of good intentioned people, it was a disservice. Jsus, however used the occasion to teach us all that OBEDIENCE TO GOD, DOING GOD'S WILL, DOING THE RIGHT THING IS ABOVE EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY, including our dear ones.