Luke 8:19-21 Then came to him his mother and his brothers, and could not come at him for the press.… (An Epiphany Sermon): — Successive steps in Christ's revelation of Himself. 1. At twelve years' old, though He must be about His Father's business, yet He remained subject for the present. 2. At marriage-festival — "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" a clearer Epiphany, and yet "Mine hour is not yet come." 3. His friends, His mother, seek Him. He utters words which show that in the higher spiritual relationship claimed for His disciples there is no room for sex; the tie of brotherhood and motherhood a faint type only of the close communion between the redeemed and the Redeemer. 4. At last, dying, He commends His mother to the disciple, "Behold thy mother," as if to show that the human relationship had ceased for Himself and her. Natural relationships are swallowed up, the spiritual eclipsing them. Results of acknowledging this fact. I. DISCOMFORT. II. CONSOLATION. III. PRACTICAL EFFECT ON OUR LIVES, viz., our future relationship will be decided not by our present earthly ones, but by our birth of God. (O. Warren, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then came to him his mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press.WEB: His mother and brothers came to him, and they could not come near him for the crowd. |