Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 12:49

"And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren!" — Matthew 12:49 (ASV)

Behold my mother and my brethren — These words strongly assert a truth we all acknowledge. Although natural relationships involve duties that must not be neglected, spiritual relationships—our sense of brotherhood in a great cause and devotion to the same Master—are superior to them. When the two conflict (as in the case described in Matthew 10:37), the spiritual relationship must rightly prevail.

These words have naturally held a prominent place in the controversial writings of Protestants against what they consider the idolatrous worship of the Virgin Mother by the Church of Rome, and it is clear they have a direct bearing on it. They exclude the idea that her intercession is more powerful than that of any other pure and saintly soul. Although spoken with no apparent reference to the abuses of later ages, the words are a protest—made all the stronger by this fact—against the excessive reverence that has become a cultus, and the idolatry of dressed-up dolls into which that cultus has developed.