Luke 8:21

‘But he answered and said to them, “My mother and my brethren are these who hear the word of God, and do it.” '

So He replied that the ones who had a right to His attention now were not His earthly family, but His ‘heavenly' family, those who heard the word of God and did it, those who responded to Him. This undoubtedly included those mentioned in Luke 8:1. Now that He had begun His ministry family ties were broken. All His efforts must now be concentrated on His future task with no outside interference.

“My mother and my brethren.” Note that He does not suggest that any were His ‘father'. He had only one Father, and that was His heavenly Father. The believers were all His family under their Father.

‘Hear the word of God, and do it.” They are good ground and fully responsive (compare Luke 6:46), unlike Mary and His brothers.

Had their purpose been friendly and helpful there is little doubt that Jesus would have found time to see them. They could have come to Him ‘inside'. But they forfeited that right by the reason for which they came. However hard we may try to do so, we cannot hide the fact that at this stage His mother was one of His greatest hindrances. She had not let go of her grown up son, and thought that she could interfere in His ministry to its detriment. She did not necessarily doubt His mission. She, along with His brothers, was just certain that He was going about it the wrong way (compare John 2:1; John 7:4, where incidentally the brothers give the opposite advice to what they wanted to force on Him here, again wrongly). But we should note that we never receive any hint that she changes her mind and follows Jesus until after the resurrection (Acts 1:14), although naturally she was present at the cross where in her weakened state Jesus put her in the care of the Apostle John (John 19:26).

(God in His wisdom knew that it would not be good for too much attention to be turned on Mary, and allowed her to backslide a little from her original commitment, but the church in its desire for a mother figure later ignored His efforts, something which has been to the detriment of many people as their eyes have been taken off Jesus. Sadly she had tried to do that while on earth, and her tradition and statues are doing the same thing now).

Some have tried in the interests of the hypothesis of Mary's perpetual virginity to suggest that these were not brothers of the whole blood, not sons of Mary. But nowhere is that even hinted at, and had they been older than Jesus it would have been one of them who was the current ‘son of David', not Him. Even at the time of Tertullian (200 AD) it was acknowledged that they were full sons of the whole blood. It is significant that not one of the Gospel writers presents them as other than brothers.

‘But he answered and said to them, “My mother and my brethren are these who hear the word of God, and do it.” '

So He replied that the ones who had a right to His attention now were not His earthly family, but His ‘heavenly' family, those who heard the word of God and did it, those who responded to Him as Messiah. This undoubtedly included those mentioned in Luke 8:1. Now that He had begun His ministry family ties were broken. All His efforts must now be concentrated on His future task with no outside interference. The indication was that now if they were to have a part in Him they too must become followers.

And from this point on up to the end of this part Luke turns the attention in the proclamation of the Kingly Rule of God towards an emphasis on the Messiahship of Jesus, as symbolically rejected by Israel, but revealed to those who are chosen. As such The Kingly Rule of God though His Messiah is revealed by His power over nature, His power over evil spirits, His power to remove uncleanness, His power over death, and His revealed right to establish and feed a new community, a new Israel. And yet in contrast we are also warned that it was to be a Messiahship of suffering.