“As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you nursed!’ But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!'”
When I heard this verse yesterday it really intrigued me. What instantly leapt to my mind is when we perform a song in church or whatever and then this friendly auntie waddles up to you and tells you that you sing very well or that you're very handsome or that your mum is so fortunate or that you're so fortunate to be raised by your mum, and sometimes, even how much they wished their children will be like you...
and really, it feels like this verse is addressing just that.
As Jesus was teaching, a woman, probably awestruck by his teaching, blurted these words. Apparently the word "rather" does not have the adversative force we tend to have in English and so it means something just like "and".
So I don't want to go so extreme here. Jesus didn't say "no my mother is not blessed to have me", he was acknowledging that Mary was indeed blessed to have him, but he wanted to emphasise something else.
"Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
He doesn't want the lady to miss this. It is one thing to marvel at Jesus, it is another to be consumed by that marvel that you fail to notice the implications it has for yourself.
If Jesus is really that good with the word of God then the appropriate response is to listen to him and keep the word of God.
If the anthem was really that well sung then please let it have a place in your life. Don't stop at the marvelling, don't let the marvel close your heart from the work of God.
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