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    Christ’s Real Brethren

    While Jesus was still teaching the people, His disciples brought the message that His mother and brothers were outside and wanted to see Him. “But He answered and said to the one who told Him, ‘Who is My mother and who are My brothers?’ And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and 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.’”HH 146.3

    All who receive Christ by faith are united to Him by a tie closer than human family connections. As someone who believed and acted on His words, His mother was more nearly and savingly related to Him than she was through her natural relationship. His brothers would receive no benefit from their connection with Him unless they accepted Him as their personal Savior.HH 146.4

    Their unbelief was a part of the bitterness of the cup of woe that He drank for us.HH 146.5

    The opposition kindled in the human heart against the gospel was most painful to Jesus in His home. His brothers looked on Him as needing their counsel. They thought that if He would speak things that the Pharisees could accept, He would avoid disagreeable controversy. They thought He was mentally unbalanced in claiming divine authority. They knew that the Pharisees were looking for an opportunity to accuse Him, and they felt that He had given it to them.HH 146.6

    They could not grasp the mission He came to fulfill, and so they could not sympathize with Him in His trials. Their coarse, unappreciative words showed that they had no true understanding of His character. Instead of comforting Him, their spirit and words wounded His heart. His sensitive nature was tortured, His motives misunderstood, His work uncomprehended.HH 146.7

    His brothers often presumed to think that they could teach Him who understood all truth. They freely condemned things that they could not understand. They thought they were vindicating God, when God was with them in the flesh, and they did not recognize Him.HH 147.1

    These things made Jesus’ path thorny. Christ was so pained by being misunderstood in His own home that it was a relief to go where such misunderstanding did not exist. He loved to visit the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, because in the atmosphere of faith and love, His spirit had rest. Yet often He could find relief only in being alone and communicating with His Father.HH 147.2

    Those who are called to endure misunderstanding and distrust in their own homes for Christ’s sake may find comfort in the thought that Jesus endured the same. He invites them to find companionship in Him and relief in sharing their hearts’ concerns with the Father.HH 147.3

    Those who accept Christ are not left as orphans, to bear trials alone. He invites them as members of the heavenly family to call His Father their Father. He has great tenderness for them, far more than what our father or mother felt toward us in our helplessness.HH 147.4

    When a Hebrew had been forced to sell himself as a slave because of poverty, the duty of redeeming him fell to his nearest relative. See Leviticus 25:25, 47-49; Ruth 2:20. So the work of redeeming us fell on Him who is a “close relative” to us. Christ became our “redeeming relative.” Closer than father, mother, brother, friend, or lover is the Lord our Savior. We cannot understand this love, but we can know it to be true in our own experience.HH 147.5

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