Mark 3:31

‘And there come his mother and his brothers, and standing outside they sent to him, calling for him.'

Earlier the crowds had come to Jesus (Mark 3:8). And now His relatives had come. But what a different reason there was for their coming. Mark probably intends us to see ‘standing outside' as significant. They were of those who were on the outside, not of those who ‘came in'. Indeed they wanted Him away from His listeners so that they could carry Him off with them (Mark 3:21).

So they sent someone in to bring Him out to them (they dared not go in and seize Him with so many people there). No doubt Mary was the bait. Surely He would come out to His mother. But she was standing among the unbelievers as one with them and she could therefore have no say in what He did. That is why He could not respond to her. She was seeking to interfere with His mission. The fact that Jesus' father did not come may indicate that he did not approve of this interference. Or it may signify that he was already dead.

We should not be too surprised at her attitude (unless we have unjustifiably over-exalted her). Although a good and godly woman she was still an earthly woman. She had pondered much in her heart (Luke 2:51), and had had confidence in what Jesus could do (John 2:5). But she was not fully at one with Him in His mission (John 2:4 and here) and clearly did not like it, and thus was mistakenly trying to interfere. Understandably she vacillated between the fact that He had come from God on the one hand, and her own doubts and prejudices, and especially what she had seen happen to John the Baptiser, on the other. She did not want that to happen to Him. She had been happy at the thought of being the mother of the Messiah (Luke 1:35; Luke 2:46) but had had no comprehension of the suffering Servant, or any willingness for Him to be such. Only His later ministry and the resurrection would cause her to change her mind about that (Acts 1:14; note the lack of mention in Luke 8:2 and compare Mark 8:19. And even by Luke 23:49; Luke 23:55; Luke 24:10 she was not one of the number).

Naturally she would be there at the cross, for it was the Passover and it was her custom to be in Jerusalem for that, and He was the son of her flesh. What mother would not have been there under such circumstances? And there Jesus made provision for her care (John 19:27). But note that that is precisely how John interpreted it. He did not go to her home, he took her into his. He recognised that as a result of the words of Jesus He had a responsibility to care for her as a man has responsibility to care for his own mother, because Jesus had asked him to do so, presumably because Joseph was now dead. Thus Jesus committed His mother to the care of His best friend who was also at the cross. In all this there is not even a hint of the later myths and absurdities that would grow up around Mary.