The Thursday after the Eighth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 30, 2026 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 12:46-50 (NKJV)
12:46 While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. 47 Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.”
48 But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49 And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
Devotion
“Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?”
Those words could sound harsh if we did not know our Lord. But Christ is not rejecting His mother. He is revealing something greater. He is showing where true kinship is found. The world builds identity through bloodlines, traditions, tribes, and earthly loyalties. Christ gathers a family through His Word. “Whosoever shall do the will of my Father…”
That does not mean salvation is by works. The Father’s will is first that sinners hear His Son, believe His promise, and live by faith. Faith then bears fruit, just as our Lord teaches—good trees bear good fruit. That fruit does not create the tree. It reveals what the tree already is. So also with Christians. The baptized do not earn their place in God’s household. They live from the life already given to them in Christ.
There is great comfort here for those who have lost relationships for the sake of the confession. Some are mocked by family. Some are isolated by friends. Some know the ache of division because of doctrine. Christ says you are not alone. In His Church, you have brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers; a communion built not by bloodlines, but by the blood of Christ.
Collect: Grant to us, Lord, we beseech Thee, the Spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do anything that is good without Thee, may by Thee be enabled to live according to Thy will; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
