Luke 8:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The wise Psalmist leads us by saying, “I said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord; because my good things Thou needest not.” When we approach Him in this manner, He will accept us; such an offering will be dear and pleasing to Him. This is the spiritual sacrifice, as it is written, “Hath the Lord delight in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in our hearkening to His voice? Behold! to hearken is better than sacrifices; and to listen than the fat of rams.” For it is through obedience and attentiveness to God that every blessing arises, as our current lesson shows.

Some approached Christ to inform Him about His holy mother and brethren, to which He responded, “My mother and My brethren are they who hear the word of God and do it.” Let no one think that Christ dismissed the honor due to His mother or disregarded the love owed to His brethren. He, after all, spoke the law through Moses and commanded, “Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee.” How could He then reject love for His brethren, considering He instructed us to love not only our family but even our enemies? “Love your enemies,” He commands. What is Christ teaching? He aims to elevate His love towards those who are willing to submit to His commands, which I will explain. The greatest honors and deepest affections are due to our mothers and brethren. Therefore, if He declares that those who hear and obey His word are His mother and brethren, it is evident that He grants those who follow Him a love that is sincere and deserving of their acceptance. This encourages them to willingly yield to His words and submit wholly to His yoke through obedience. Moreover, it is affirmed by one of the holy prophets that God delights in those whose hearts are humble and reverent, “And on whom shall I look, except upon the humble and meek, and that trembleth at My words?” Just as our earthly fathers find joy in those sons who choose to do what is good and pleasing, so does the God of all cherish the obedient and grants mercy to those who genuinely listen to Him. Conversely, He rejects those who are disobedient and unyielding.

He admonished the Jews who fell into such wickedness, saying, “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if I then am a father, where is My honour? and if I am a master, where is My fear? saith the Lord Almighty.” We ought either to honor the Lord of all as our master or at least respect Him as our father, which is a greater and superior calling, for love alleviates fear. It is evident that there is no obedience without reward, nor disobedience without consequence, as God proclaimed through His holy prophet to those who disregarded His commands: “Behold, they who serve Me shall eat, but ye shall suffer hunger; behold, they who serve Me shall drink, but ye shall suffer thirst; behold, they who obey Me shall rejoice, but ye shall lament; behold, they who serve Me shall exult in happiness, but ye shall groan and wail from the contrition of your heart.”

Let us consider, even from the writings of Moses, the misery that disobedience has brought us. We have been banished from a paradise of delights and fallen under the sentence of death. Though created for immortality, we have become cursed, subjected to the bondage of sin. How then have we been liberated from our plight, and who has helped us amidst this great sorrow? It was the Only-begotten Word of God, who humbled Himself to our condition, being found in the likeness of man and becoming obedient unto the Father even unto death. Thus, the guilt of Adam's disobedience has been pardoned; the strength of the curse has been broken, and the reign of death has been diminished. Paul teaches this, saying, “For as by the disobedience of the one man, the many became sinners, so by the obedience of the One, the many became righteous.” The entire nature of humanity became guilty through the actions of the first man, but is now wholly justified in Christ. He serves as the new beginning of our race after the first one, thus making all things new in Him. Paul affirms this, writing, “Therefore every man who is in Christ is a new creation; and the former things have passed away: behold, they have become new.”

In His effort to draw us all towards obedience, Christ promises us surpassing honors and extends the highest love, declaring, “My mother and My brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Who among us would refuse to honor and express complete love for their mother and brethren? The powerful law of nature compels us to this truth. When we yield ourselves to the Savior's commands, we become His brethren and are regarded with gentleness and love before God's judgment seat. What could possibly be more honorable and good than this? What is comparable to such a splendid and desirable gift? For He takes us unto Himself so that where He is, we may also be. He has indeed promised us, “I will go, and make ready a place for you: and return again and take you with Me, that where I am, there ye also may be with Me.” Therefore, servitude in this capacity is a treasure of noble honors. This can only be fulfilled not by merely hearing the words of God but by striving to enact what is commanded. One of the holy Apostles teaches us this: “But become doers of the law, and not hearers only. If any be a hearer of the law and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he has observed himself, and gone away, and at once forgotten what manner of person he was. But he who hath looked into the perfect law of liberty, and wrought: not being a forgetful hearer, but an active doer, shall be blessed in his doing.”

Even though the previous arguments are sufficient for the conviction of righteous individuals, I will add for their benefit the insightful words of the blessed Paul: “For the land that hath drunk in the rain that hath come oft upon it, and bringeth forth the root serviceable for them for whose sake it is tilled, receiveth a blessing from God. But if it bring forth thorns and thistles, it is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing: and its end is to be burnt.” Just as rain nurtures the hearts of those who listen, so does the Savior bestow the word of spiritual comfort—the sacred doctrine of salvation. If, then, a person is wise, he will produce the fruits of a bountiful harvest; yet if he is careless and negligent, he has no claim to virtuous praise and will yield thorns instead of grapes. What will his end be? We learn from Isaiah, who states, “For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the man of Judah: a plant new and well-beloved: and I looked that it would bring forth grapes, but it brought forth iniquity, and not righteousness, but a cry.”

Israel was punished for neglecting the fruitful works that were befitting and pleasing to God, as shown where He declares, “But now I will shew you what I will do to My vineyard. I will take away its fence, and it shall be wasted: and I will rend its wall, and it shall be trampled under foot. And I will abandon My vineyard: and it shall not be pruned, nor tilled: and thorns shall grow up in it as on waste ground; and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.” It is clear to all that God gives no regard to the wicked soul that bears thorns. Such a soul is left unprotected, exposed to any who would plunder and characterized as a site for thieves and wild beasts, devoid of spiritual consolation. This unprotected state is represented by the absence of rain. When Israel faced these trials, the Psalmist mourned and addressed the Almighty, saying, “The vine that Thou broughtest out of Egypt, Thou castedst out the nations and plantedst it.” He continued, “Its shade covered the mountains; and its boughs were as the cedars of God: it sent forth its branches to the sea, and its foliage to the river.” He pleaded for their suffering, lamenting, “Why hast Thou broken down her hedges so that all the wayfarers pluck her? The boar out of the wood destroyeth her: and the ass of the desert feedeth upon her.”

The unprotected soul, deemed unworthy of heavenly guarding, becomes prey to malicious forces, being plundered by Satan and his angels. To avoid falling into such dire tribulations, let us submit our minds to Christ, the Savior of all. Let us not just receive the Word of God but also act upon it; for if we choose to do so, He will crown us with high honors, for He is the distributor of crowns. To Him, and with Him, to God the Father be glory and dominion with the Holy Spirit, forever and ever, Amen.

Her brothers accompanied her, intending to bring Him home. However, the Lord deftly rejected this deceptive plot of His adversaries. “What is the significance of pointing out mother and brothers to Me? The Son of Man indeed has a mother and brothers. Yet for the Messiah, those who hear and embrace the word of life, these are truly His mother and brothers.”

In sending out the Apostles to preach, He declared: “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37); by not permitting one of His disciples to attend his father's burial, He set an example for them on how to uphold His commandments. Thus, at the first opportunity, He illustrated that following the will of His heavenly Father took precedence over meeting the desires of His earthly Mother. Nevertheless, this should not be interpreted as a rejection or disregard for His Mother; He demonstrated His love for Her at the Cross when He entrusted her care to His beloved disciple.

Our understanding of the events during the Lord’s ministry, particularly during the time of the Apostles’ preaching to the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 10:6), is limited. This lack of knowledge is due to the absence of the Apostles at that time, those dependable witnesses who contributed to the accounts forming our Gospels. The gaps in the Evangelists’ narratives lend credence to their reliability: they refrained from discussing matters of which they had no firsthand knowledge or credible information from others who did witness these events. This absence aligns with a lengthy period. The Apostles, sent out two by two, divided the regions of Palestine inhabited by Jews among themselves, dividing their mission into six sections, but it would take time for them to cover even one sixth of these areas without haste. The duration of their preaching remains unknown; all we have is the assurance that they returned before the Passover (John 6:4), which was the third Passover following the Baptism of Jesus.

It was as if Jesus was saying: “Why do you seek to divert Me from fulfilling the will of My Father in Heaven for the will of My earthly mother? Who is My mother? And who are My brothers?” Then, gesturing towards His disciples, He declared, “Here are My mother and My brothers; for whoever does the will of My Father in Heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” As Luke the Evangelist adds, “My mother and My brethren are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice” (8:21). Through these words, the Lord did not distance His earthly mother from the joy of hearing and acting upon the word of God; she had embraced and lived according to the word more fervently than anyone else. Instead, in keeping with her own example of humility in the face of human admiration, He exalted all who hear and practice the word of God, or as Blessed Theophylact describes it, without diminishing the natural bond of kinship, He enriched it with a bond of virtue.