In today’s passage of patristic interpretation, we conclude the twelfth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew.
The final verses of chapter 12:
While He was still speaking to the people, behold, His mother and His brethren stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him: “Behold, Your mother and Your brethren are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.” But He answered and said to the one who told Him: “Who is My mother, and who are My brethren?” And stretching out His hand towards His disciples, He said: “Behold, My mother and My brethren. For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
John Chrysostom, in this place, contemplates and explains these verses in a lofty and spiritual manner: “That very point of which I spoke earlier—that without virtue nothing is of any worth—is now also shown most clearly. I said that neither age, nor sex, nor life in the desert, nor anything of the sort is of any benefit when there is no good disposition. And now we learn something even greater: without virtue there is no benefit even in bearing Christ in the womb and giving birth to this wondrous Fruit. … ‘Who is My mother, and who are My brethren?’ Jesus says this not because He is ashamed of His Mother or rejects Her who bore Him; had He been ashamed, He would not have passed through Her womb. Rather, He wishes to show that she derives no benefit from this unless she fulfills all that is required. Indeed, this action of Hers arose from an excessive zeal for Her own prerogatives. She wished to show the people Her authority over Her Son, of whom She did not yet think in an exalted manner; therefore She approached Him at an inopportune time. Observe, then, the imprudence both of Her and of His brethren: they ought either to have entered and listened together with the people, or, if they did not wish to do so, to have waited until the end of the discourse and then approached Jesus. Instead, they call Him outside, and that publicly, thereby revealing an excessive concern for their own standing and a desire to show that they command Jesus with great authority. The Evangelist himself also indicates this with reproof: ‘While He was still speaking to the people,’ says the Apostle, pointing to this very thing. Was there no other moment?—as Matthew seems to say. Was it not possible to speak privately? And what did they wish to speak about? If about the true teaching, then they ought to have asked publicly and spoken before all, so that others might benefit; but if about their own matters, then they ought not to have been so insistent. If Christ did not permit His disciple to go and bury his father, lest his following of Christ be interrupted, then all the more should His discourse with the people not have been interrupted for trivial matters. From this it is clear that they acted out of vainglory, as John also indicates when he says: ‘For neither did His brethren believe in Him’ (Jn. 7:5). … Therefore, if Jesus had wished to renounce His Mother, He would have done so when the Jews were reviling Him. On the contrary, He shows such care for Her that even upon the Cross He entrusts Her to the beloved disciple and manifests great concern for Her. Yet Jesus does not act thus now out of disregard for Her or His brethren. Since they regarded Him as a mere man and were vainglorious on that account, He uproots this weakness—not by insulting them, but by correcting them. Do not, however, attend only to the words that contain a mild reproof, but also to the untimely boldness of the brethren, to who it was that reproved them, and with what intention. Jesus did not wish to offend them, but to deliver them from a grievous passion, to lead them gradually to a right understanding of Him, and to persuade them that He is not only the Son of His Mother, but also the Lord. Then you will see that this reproof befits Him perfectly and is beneficial to His Mother, while at the same time being most gentle. He did not say to the one who spoke to Him of His Mother: ‘Go, tell My Mother that She is not My Mother’; rather, He answers: ‘Who is My mother?’ In saying this, Jesus had yet another purpose. What was it? That neither they nor anyone else should rely on kinship ties while neglecting virtue. For if even for His Mother there is no benefit in being His Mother if she lacks virtue, then still less can kinship save anyone else. There is only one true nobility—the doing of the will of God—and it is superior and more exalted than bodily kinship. … Jesus did not say: ‘She is not My mother, nor are they My brethren because they do not do My will.’ The Lord did not condemn them; rather, speaking with His characteristic gentleness, He leaves it to their free will to desire this different kind of kinship. ‘For whoever does,’ says Jesus, ‘the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.’ Therefore, if they wish to be His kinsmen, let them follow this path.”
Photius I of Constantinople offers a very profound explanation of this Gospel passage, yet does not agree with John Chrysostom: “However, it is possible that someone, reasoning not far from the Gospel, might say that the Saviour uttered these words not in order to diminish the honor of His Mother, nor to deny natural kinship and love—by no means—but that Jesus, while rendering due honour to His Mother, nevertheless chose rather the salvation of men and their instruction than concern for Her. For it was for their sake that there were His Mother, His birth, … His dwelling and abiding among men, His voluntary Cross and death with criminals, and then His burial and Resurrection. … For Jesus says: ‘He who does not leave father and mother,’ and so forth, ‘is not worthy of Me’ (Matt. 10:37). That is, the one who does not choose first My saving teaching, counsel, and love for Me shall fall away from the infinite goods and blessedness in which all those eternally delight who choose My commandments and divine love before kinship ties. Demonstrating the ease and attainability of this commandment, the Saviour Himself fulfills it first and prefers the instruction of those who listen to Him over contact with His Mother, as though He were saying: ‘Just as I, teaching you and labouring for your salvation, have placed concern for My Mother in a secondary position, choosing rather to save you; so also you must subordinate every kinship and affection arising from bodily ties to your own salvation and the keeping of My teachings and laws.’ For this same reason Jesus did not permit a man to go and bury his father—not as an exhortation to despise one’s father, by no means! nor to deny kinship or mock love—but as a perpetual lesson that the salvation of the soul must be chosen before any bodily bond or inclination…
I am aware of the opinion of certain of our blessed Fathers, which I often and in many respects approve with admiration; yet in this matter I would not commend it. In refuting an impious position, they arrived at the following thought: that the Mother of Jesus, experiencing something human and overtaken by a certain vain imagination—as is characteristic of the female nature—took pride in Her Son and wished to proclaim openly and widely Her joy that She had become the Mother of such a Son; therefore She came while He was teaching, so that when the people glorified Him for such teaching, they might also glorify Her together with the Son. Thus, the Saviour, purifying others from passions of the soul, wished also to deliver His Mother from such weakness, and therefore uttered words having the sense of rebuke: ‘Who is My Mother, and who are My brethren?’ This is what those said to whom such a thought occurred. Yet an examination of the truth shows above all that the Mother did nothing of the sort and had no proud conceit. For She did not approach Jesus unannounced while He was teaching, nor did She appear in the midst of the assembly, nor interrupt the word of instruction, nor say anything boastful; rather, with great reverence, standing outside, She merely made it known that She had come—or perhaps She did not even announce it verbally, but wisely deemed that a glance would convey the message. Is this characteristic of one who would vainly seek glory, who would desire to boast and be puffed up on account of the greatness of Her Son? What would a servant do differently if necessity compelled him to approach his master? Therefore, the words of Jesus addressed to His Mother do not constitute a prohibition, nor a correction of weakness by rebuke, for no such weakness was present.”
Thus, we observe here that both in the interpretation of Chrysostom and in that of Photius there are profound spiritual truths, and although they differ in certain respects, this does not mean that they are mutually exclusive.
Isidore of Pelusium also speaks of the practical counsel that the preaching of the word of God should not be hindered. He says: “Let nothing serve as an obstacle to the Gospel of the Lord, and let distraction not accompany spiritual teaching; let no noise interrupt a beneficial discourse. For Christ Himself did not heed the call of His Mother and brethren, who wished to see Him, while He was expounding His teaching and labouring for the salvation of those who listened to Him, thereby showing that the spiritual must be chosen before the bodily. Thus, His disciples also declined to attend to the tables, although this was necessary for the poor (see Acts 6:2).”
Jerome explains to whom the Lord’s words mystically refer with regards to who may be counted as His mother. Jerome writes: “My mother is she who daily gives birth to Me in the souls of the faithful; My brethren are those who do the works of My Father. Therefore, Jesus did not deny His Mother, as Marcion and Manichaeus supposed, who thought that He was born of some imaginary being. Christ chose the Apostles before His bodily relatives, so that we too might prefer the spirit to the flesh in our love. ‘Behold, Your mother and Your brethren stand outside, seeking to speak with You.’ Some interpreters understand by the brethren of the Lord the sons of Joseph by another wife, following the folly of the apocrypha and speaking of a certain woman Melcha or Elcha. We, however, understand by the brethren of the Lord not the sons of Joseph, but the sons of Mary, the sister of the Lord’s Mother; she was the mother of James the Less, Joseph, and Jude, who, as we read in other Gospels, are called the Lord’s brethren. ‘Is not His mother called Mary? And His brethren James and Joses and Simon and Judas?’ (Matt. 13:55)… Let us explain this passage in another way as well. The Lord is speaking to a multitude; He teaches the people within the house. His Mother and His brethren—that is, the synagogue and the Jewish people—stand outside and wish to enter, yet they are unworthy of His word. Although they asked, sought, and sent a messenger, the answer given to them was that they were free and could enter, if only they themselves chose to believe. Nevertheless, they could not enter except at the request of others.”
Gregory the Great describes the distinction between a person as the brother and sister of the Lord and as His mother in the following words: “A man who approaches the faith may become the brother of the Lord; yet the question remains in what way he may become His mother. We must understand that such a person becomes Christ’s brother and sister through faith, and His mother through preaching. For the one who proclaims the word, as it were, gives birth to the Lord, whom he implants in the hearts of his hearers; and he becomes His mother when, through his preaching, love for the Lord is born in the heart of his neighbour.”
The very conclusion of the twelfth chapter may be brought to a close with the interpretation of Gregory Palamas: “The Lord Himself says that He regards us as His kindred: ‘For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother’ (Matt. 12:50). Do you see by what this most exalted kinship is acquired? By a God-loving manner of life, by a virtuous way of living, by conduct in accordance with the divine commandments, for this indeed is the will of the Most High Father. But the one who does not perform the will of the Most High and heavenly Father is so far removed from kinship with Him that he even enters into kinship with the adversary of God. Therefore the Lord also said to the Jews: ‘You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will to do.’ And when they replied that they were the children of Abraham, He said to them: ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham’ (John 8:44, 39).”
Based on patristic interpretations and adapted for the contemporary reader by Stanoje Stanković.
