“Who is My Mother?”

Why does Jesus sometimes seem to push Mary away? For example: When people inform Jesus that his mother has arrived in Capernaum to see him, he says, “Who is my mother?” (My. 12:48). What does he mean by that? Far from disrespecting his mother, Jesus is honoring her – for he goes on to say “Whoever does the will of my Father is mother to me?” And Mary is the first to do the will of the Father. Indeed, these passages present Mary as a preeminent member of the supernatural family of disciples Jesus is forming. She is the first and model disciple. This event originally took place at Capernaum in Israel and this episode was recorded there during Edward Sri’s Holy Land pilgrimage last week.