WHEN Jesus of Nazareth propounded the problem of human relationship in the four words, "Who are my brethren?" his closest kindred confronted him. His drastic summary of the whole matter in the reply, "Whosoever shall do the will of God," has startled students by its very simplicity. The Christ-teaching, as recorded in the Scriptures is, in one continuous sequence, the doctrine of universal love. He who came to preach the allness of God, good, who came bringing a new commandment of love, could not confine within the limits of his own immediate family the immortal concept of brotherhood which it was his mission to make manifest on earth.
Mrs. Eddy says, "Jesus acknowledged no ties of the flesh" (Science and Health, p.31); he taught that no barrier of race or nationality separated those whose goal was the Father's kingdom. The fundamental basis of the great Teacher's words and works was love in its largest signification; and when the question of human relationship arose, Jesus used the occasion to express a higher ideal of family than his followers had yet conceived. On page 469 of our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy thus describes the wider outlook of the Christ-idea: "With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science."
Our Master's query, "Who are my brethren?" has been criticized as cold and hard by those who have not penetrated his meaning, and who have imagined that he repudiated his own people; but Jesus did not seek to exclude his mother and brothers from the limitless circle of divine intelligence, for he included all in the embrace of Love. He sought, however, to lift the veil of ignorance and to give to the world a new horizon of thought. A false concept of kindred was exposed and destroyed by the light of Truth, enabling us to follow the higher vision of Christ Jesus into the realm of Mind, and to perceive something of the unity of God's children under the one standard, that of Spirit, where no imaginary divisions, the outcome of material calculations and deceptive data, mar the harmony of being.
