The New Family Business: Hearing and Doing Text: Luke 8:19-21
Introduction: A Clash of Kingdoms
In our day, as in every day, there is a constant pressure to domesticate Jesus. We want to make Him manageable, to fit Him neatly into our existing categories. We want Him to be a good family man, a respectable teacher, someone who affirms our most cherished institutions without turning them upside down. We want a Jesus who blesses the status quo. But the Jesus we meet in the gospels is not tame; He is a lion. He does not come to bless our arrangements; He comes to establish His own. He is not interested in fitting into our world; He is busy creating a new one.
This brief account in Luke's gospel is a startling and potent example of this very thing. On the surface, it appears to be a simple family matter, a mother and her sons trying to get the attention of their increasingly famous relative. But underneath this mundane exterior, a profound theological principle is being declared. Jesus uses this interruption not as a distraction from His ministry, but as the very platform for it. He is here to redefine the most basic institution of human society: the family. He is not dishonoring His mother or His brothers. He is elevating a new principle of relationship, one that is not based on blood and water, but on the Word of God and the blood of the covenant.
We live in an age that idolizes the biological family, on the one hand, or seeks to completely dismantle it on the other. Both are errors. The family is a covenantal institution established by God, to be honored and cherished. But it is not ultimate. There is a loyalty that transcends even the sacred bonds of mother, brother, and sister. There is a family that is eternal. Jesus is not just starting a new movement; He is constituting a new people, a new humanity. And the entrance requirements have nothing to do with your bloodline and everything to do with your posture toward the Word of God.
This passage forces us to ask a fundamental question: to whom do we truly belong? What is our primary identity? Are we defined by our earthly connections, or by our heavenly calling? Jesus's answer is clear, sharp, and revolutionary. It establishes the priority of the Kingdom of God over all other claims to our allegiance.
The Text
And His mother and brothers came to Him, and they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd. And it was reported to Him, "Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see You." But He answered and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it."
(Luke 8:19-21 LSB)
An Inconvenient Interruption (v. 19-20)
We begin with the scene itself, a picture of Christ's immense popularity and the physical barrier it created.
"And His mother and brothers came to Him, and they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd. And it was reported to Him, 'Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see You.'" (Luke 8:19-20)
Jesus is in the middle of His teaching ministry, and the crowds are pressing in. The word has gotten out. This is not some quiet seminar in a back room; this is a popular movement. The hunger for the Word is so great that it creates a literal wall of people around Him. Into this scene come His mother, Mary, and His brothers. We know from other gospels that His brothers included James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55). This fact alone, incidentally, is a straightforward refutation of the Roman Catholic doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity. These are His adelphoi, His brothers, born to Mary and Joseph after the miraculous birth of Jesus.
They are "standing outside." This is significant. They are on the periphery, not in the center of the action. They are outsiders to the inner circle of disciples who are hanging on His every word. Why are they there? The parallel accounts give us a clue. In Mark s gospel, this event happens right after Jesus's family has concluded that He is "out of his mind" and has come to take charge of Him (Mark 3:21). John's gospel tells us that at this point in His ministry, "not even his brothers believed in him" (John 7:5). So this is not a simple social call. It is likely an intervention. They are concerned, perhaps embarrassed, by Jesus's radical claims and His conflict with the religious authorities. They want to pull Him aside, to talk some sense into Him, to bring Him home before He gets Himself into real trouble.
The message is relayed to Jesus. "Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside." The assumption of the messenger, and likely of the crowd, is that family takes precedence. Of course He will stop what He is doing. Of course He will go out to them. The claims of blood are paramount. This is the natural, reasonable, and expected thing to do. But Jesus is in the business of upending natural expectations. He is here to establish a supernatural reality.
The New Covenant Family (v. 21)
Jesus's response is not rude, but it is radical. He seizes the moment to make a kingdom-defining declaration.
"But He answered and said to them, 'My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.'" (Luke 8:21 LSB)
With this one sentence, Jesus redefines kinship. He does not deny His relationship to Mary and His brothers. He honors His mother from the cross, ensuring her care. His brothers, most notably James, would later become pillars of the church in Jerusalem. But He subordinates that earthly relationship to a higher, spiritual one. He establishes a new family, a new clan, and the defining characteristic of this family is its relationship to the Word of God.
Notice the two components. The first is to "hear the word of God." This is not just about auditory perception. In the context of the preceding parable of the sower, it means to hear with understanding, to receive the Word into a good and honest heart. It is to recognize the voice of the Shepherd. This is the entry point. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). You cannot be part of God's family if you are deaf to His speech.
But hearing is not enough. The second, and inseparable, component is to "do it." This is the constant refrain of Scripture. James, the brother of our Lord, would later write, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22). Jesus concludes His Sermon on the Mount with the same principle: the wise man is the one who hears His sayings and does them (Matthew 7:24). This is not legalism. This is not earning your way into the family. This is the evidence of genuine sonship. Obedience is the family resemblance. We prove we are children of God by doing the things that please our Father. Hearing without doing is the dead faith of demons. It is the rocky soil or the thorny ground. True, saving faith is a faith that works. It is a faith that obeys.
This statement is a profound declaration of Jesus's own authority. What is "the word of God" that they are to hear and do? In this context, it is the very words that Jesus is speaking. He is the Word made flesh (John 1:14). To hear and obey Him is to hear and obey God. He is establishing a new covenant community, and He is the center of it. Allegiance to Him, demonstrated by obedience to His Word, is what constitutes membership in this new family. This is a loyalty that trumps all others.
Conclusion: Adopted by the Word
So what does this mean for us? This short, sharp encounter is packed with gospel truth. It tells us that the family of God is not a matter of ethnicity, heritage, or biology. The apostle Paul says that "not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel" (Romans 9:6). Bloodline does not save you. Being born into a Christian family, being baptized as an infant, being a member of a church, none of these things automatically make you a member of Christ's true family. The defining mark is a living relationship with the Word of God.
This is a great leveling. The door into this family is open to anyone, regardless of their background. The qualification is not what is in your veins, but what is in your heart and what is demonstrated by your hands. Do you hear the Word? Do you receive it as the very speech of God? And does that hearing transform itself into doing? Does it change the way you live, the way you speak, the way you work, the way you love?
This is also a great comfort. Our earthly families can be a source of immense blessing, but they can also be a source of pain and rejection. For many who come to Christ, their decision is met with opposition from the very people who should be closest to them. Jesus Himself experienced this. He tells us that allegiance to Him can bring division, setting a man against his father and a daughter against her mother (Matthew 10:35). But in the same breath, He promises something better. He promises a new family, a hundredfold of brothers and sisters and mothers and children in this life, and in the age to come, eternal life (Mark 10:30).
The Church is this family. It is the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:19-20). We are brought into this family not by natural birth, but by a supernatural new birth. We are adopted. God sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" (Galatians 4:6). And as members of this family, our primary loyalty is to our Father in heaven and to our elder brother, Jesus Christ. Our defining business is to hear His word and to do it. This is the family that will last forever, when all earthly ties have faded away. This is the family whose members are identified not by a shared surname, but by a shared, joyful obedience to the Word.