He said to them in reply, "My mother and my brothers
are those who hear the word of God and act on it."
Jesus is inviting us to an intimate relationship with him. We can be as close to him as his own mother, if, like her, we her the word of God and act on it. How do we respond to God's call on our lives? Do we ask that God's will be done as Mary does? Or do we question, negotiate, and generally respond with less than all that we are? It's easy to take the Zechariah approach when we encounter new and unknown experiences and begin to doubt. It is harder to take the Mary approach and be honest enough to still ask our questions, but to ask them trusting that there is an answer.
They completed this house on the third day of the month Adar,
in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.
Jesus is one who is greater than the temple. All of the preparation and celebration that goes into the dedication of the house of God at the time of the prophets Haggi and (a different) Zechariah. And only the high priest could enter the holy of holies once a year with blood not his own for the sins of the people (see Hebrews 9:25). But Jesus is forever beyond the veil that kept the holy of holies separate from the world. And we are united with him there. Or we can be, if we accept him in faith as Mary does. Jesus lives forever as an offering to the Father on our behalf. That means that our union with him must share in this offering of all that we are to God for the sake of the word. It is easy to see this in the life of Mary who is doubly the mother of Jesus, both biologically, and in that no one has ever heard the word of God and acted on it as she has.
I rejoiced because they said to me,
"We will go up to the house of the LORD."
And now we have set foot
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
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