A 40-DAY JOURNEY WITH THE KING: Lenten reflections from Mark’s Gospel (10)

 

“Then [Jesus] went home; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat.  When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”  And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” (Mk. 3.19b-22)

     After a reprieve in chapter 2, the demons make a return in chapter 3.  After the confrontation with the Pharisees in the Capernaum synagogue (3.1-6), Jesus withdraws to the seaside as the ever-growing crowds of seekers-after-healing throng around him.  Jesus comes up with a strategy that will both take advantage of the topography and protect him from being trampled by those he seeks to help – he teaches the crowds from the safety of a fishing vessel floating a safe distance from the shore (3.7-10).  Jesus is like a magnet, drawing all who are sick and demon-possessed towards himself (cf. 6.56).  As usual, it is the demons who offer homage to Jesus and recognize who he is (3.11-12).  When Jesus appoints 12 of his followers to be his “apostles”, the “job description” is quite straightforward – proclaim the message and cast out demons (3.14-15; cf. 1.39).

     Once Jesus returns home, the crowd again mobs his house (3.19-20; cf. 1.33; 2.1-2).  People began to say, “He has gone out of his mind”.  Upon hearing this, Jesus’ family attempts to “restrain him” (3.21).  Then the scribes from Jerusalem escalate the attack – they accuse Jesus of being possessed by Beelzebul, and of casting out demons by the power of “the ruler of the demons” (3.22).  Here we get a clear glimpse of the dangers of Jesus’ approach to holiness/wholeness.  As Jesus ventures beyond the safe confines of the community of “the clean” in order to bring wholeness to those outside, he finds himself in a “no man’s land” – with the forces of darkness in front of him and “friendly fire” coming from behind.  Motivated by spite, jealousy, wounded pride and fear, the scribes accuse Jesus of being one of “them”, one of those whom he had been healing.  It’s a time-honoured strategy – when someone’s activity creates a situation that you feel is not to your advantage, you seek to tear down that person, to discredit them and in this way, take back the power you feel you have lost.  It is easier to attack the one who is creating a new reality than to adjust to the demands of that reality.  Many will resist the kingdom of God because it means losing the status they have managed to attain as they built their own kingdoms – realms where they are in control.  As Milton’s Satan famously put it in Paradise Lost, “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven”.

     Jesus does not merely shrug off this attack on his credibility.  After a series of riddles which demonstrate the absurdity of his opponents’ accusation, he then implies that his exorcisms, far from being evidence of him being demon-possessed, are actually proof that the foundations of Satan’s kingdom are crumbling, as “the stronger man” plunders the dungeons of the lord of darkness (3.23-27).  Jesus implicitly claims that his authority over unclean spirits is incontrovertible evidence that the Spirit of God is at work in and through him.  Now, Jesus launches a devastating counter-offensive against those who slander him – Jesus indicts them of having committed an unforgiveable, “eternal” sin (3.28-30).  The shoe is indeed on the other foot – it is Jesus’ adversaries who are now accused of blasphemy (3.29; cf. 2.7).

     As will happen again and again towards the end of the narrative, the crowd prevents Jesus’ being “restrained”, this time by his family (3.21, 31-32; cf. 12.12; 14.1).  Upon being informed of his mother and brothers’ request to see him, Jesus makes a radically controversial statement about family, something that was sacrosanct in the culture of the time, and indeed, in many cultures to this day (as we sometimes say to justify being inconvenienced or perhaps even wrong behaviour: “they’re family”).  The formula “mother/brothers” appears five times in as many verses (3.31-35).  What Jesus says here must be held in tension (perhaps) with his twice-recorded quoting of the fifth commandment (cf. 7.10-12; 10.19; cf. also 10.29).  What Jesus says here may have been considered by some who heard him to be tantamount to him disowning his family: “Who are my mother and my brothers?” (3.33).  This obviously rhetorical question (cf. 3.32) has the force of “What about my family?”  Jesus then identifies the crowd sitting around him – those who are doing the will of God by listening to him – as his family (3.34-35).