The disciples said to him, “Your brothers and your mother are standing outside.” He said to them, “Those here who do the will of my Father, these are my brothers and my mother; they are the ones who will enter into the kingdom of my Father.”
Once again, we must pay attention to the contrasts in the saying. There are people outside and people inside. There are people who are blood relatives and people who are spiritual relatives. The disciples speak and then Jesus speaks.
Let’s look at each of those contrasting ideas. First, the disciples inform Jesus that his “brothers and mothers are standing outside.” But Jesus corrects them by saying that his true “brothers and mother” are “those here who do the will of my Father.” Those on the outside are not truly the brothers or mother of Jesus.
Those on the inside are the real brothers and mother of Jesus, and they are the ones who will “enter into the Kingdom.” In other words, those on the inside – his real brothers and mother – are one who will enter in. Those on the outside – who are not tracking with the things Jesus is saying and doing – are not on the inside and they will not enter inside the Kingdom.
We know from previous sayings that the concepts of “outside” and “inside” are themselves illusions. There is no such thing as being outside or inside since everything is one and the same. These concepts are metaphors. Being outside is a metaphor for the old way of thinking; the way of separation between us and them.
Being inside is a metaphor for realizing the new reality which is that everyone and everything is made One in Christ. Those who are “on the inside” are those who realize the truth, and those are the ones who are not only “inside” with Jesus, but they are also those who will be welcomed inside “the Kingdom of [the] Father.”
In the saying, both those inside and those outside are the brothers and mother of Jesus. But one group is only a brother or mother in the physical sense. Those who see the reality of Divine Unity are brothers and mothers of Jesus in the spiritual sense. The only difference is the realization of the Truth. When those outside realize the reality of Oneness, they will become like those on the inside.
As Jesus said in Saying 22:
“When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside, and the outside as the inside, and the upper as the lower, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male is not male and the female not female, and when you make eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then shall you enter [the kingdom].”
What makes us one with Jesus is the realization that we are One with the Divine which makes us one with everyone, everywhere. When we are not of this world, we are one with Christ which makes all of us one.
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Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.” He hosts the Second Cup with Keith podcast, and co-hosts the Apostates Anonymous podcast, and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
His latest book, Second Cup with Keith is available now on Amazon HERE>
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