Matthew 12 verses 46 through 50. While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother

and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, your mother and

brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you. He replied to him, who is my

mother and who are my brothers. Pointing to his disciples, he said, here are my mother and

my brothers. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday morning, I was right in the middle of a sermon in this very room,

and I can't always say this, but on this particular Sunday, it did seem to be going quite well.

I felt like I was in the flow. You guys seemed to be tracking and then right there in the

momentum of it all, someone from our hospitality team who had been greeting at the door came in the

back and called out to me interrupting. Tyler, your mom and little brother are here. They want to

talk to you. My mom and younger brother live on the east coast. This would have taken a lot of

effort. If they did show up like that, it would have to be something really important. But remember

what I said, the sermon was going particularly well. So I said, who is my mother and who are my

brothers? Here are my mother and my brothers. And then I continued on with the sermon and the

greeter helped my family back to the airport. Now obviously that story is fictitious.

But if that had happened and you had watched it happen, I imagine you'd be pretty put off by my

response to my folks. You'd probably find it hard just to jump right back into the teaching.

Wouldn't you be thinking about my mom and how she might be feeling right now? Wouldn't you be

reevaluating me and your perception of me and everything that you would ever thought about me?

If we're going to see what Jesus is doing and hear what he's saying in Matthew 12, it's probably

going to have to start with us acknowledging that God incarnate, the gentle and lowly friend of

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