“Sisters of Jesus”
“While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.
But he replied to the man who told him, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’
And stretching out his hand toward 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.’” (Matthew 12:46-50, English Standard Version)
“Jesus cares about relationships. In this Gospel passage he indicates that his family has room for all who do the will of God. Listening to God and acting on what we hear makes us not just friends of Jesus, but family. Not all members of a family see eye to eye on everything, but they all share a common bond. In Jesus’ family, the common bond is God. When our focus is on doing the will of God, we know that we are walking in the right direction.” (https://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/doing-gods-will-start-retreat/)
In many ways, this is an interesting passage from the Gospel of Matthew. But I noticed something the other day that I had never noticed before. The passage does not mention “sisters” at all until Jesus’ last statement. “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (vs. 50) And, of course, vs. 49 says that, as Jesus was saying this, he stretched out his hands “to his disciples.”
Now, this might not be worthy of comment except for one thing: In ancient Judah, women were not disciples. And yet, Jesus explicitly included women as being his disciples. In fact, one rabbinic saying says, “He who teaches Torah to a woman is like one who casts pearls before swine.”
This may well explain why Martha was so upset that Mary had left her to do all the cooking and cleaning (Luke 10:38-42). It may not just have been about Martha feeling as if she was doing all the work. Mary was “sitting at the feet of Jesus” for crying out loud! That is what disciples do! Who did Mary think she was?!
It is also worth noting that in the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-42), when the disciples (the male disciples) come back to Jesus after going away to procure some food, they were amazed that Jesus was talking with a woman (vs. 27). Men, especially holy men who were rabbis, were generally not supposed to talk with women.
We live in a day and in a country that prides itself on its openness to everyone. At least, that used to be the case. I am not so sure that we were ever all that good at inclusiveness. I am virtually certain that we are not good at it now. Apparently, about two-thousand years ago, Jesus did include women. In this way, as in many others, Jesus was way ahead of his time. Indeed, Jesus is timeless, as well as always timely.
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