Proper 5: Gospel, Mark 3:20-35                                                  

Mark 3:20-35

If you read the accounts of the gospel writers you will encounter the disciples asking questions about their Master. Not just to their Master, but to one another about Him. But even before that, the tighter circle of the Nazarene’s family has questions of their own. And they turn into assertions in this week’s gospel. In the early chapters of Mark’s (Peter’s) account, we see Jesus busy already as a worker of miracles. And that really is the focal point of Mark. Not so much teaching, but power on display.

Even early on, the family of Jesus is struggling with this “divine intervention” in their otherwise normal lives. With all the heaped-on attention toward Jesus, they “went out to seize him, for they were saying, ‘he is out of his mind’” (Mark 3:21b). Yep. They were perplexed.

The outright opponents of Jesus went even further. While opposition from family is always sticky and painful, the religious professionals were coming to even darker conclusions: “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons” (v. 22). So the family thinks Jesus is crazy and the scribes believe he is the seat of demon activity. How far will the devil go to turn us away from the truth of Jesus? As far as he believes he needs to.

It’s one thing to think Jesus is a bit unbalanced. Especially if he lives under your roof. But to attribute the miracles gaining glory for Israel’s God to demons? Well that is downright, well, demonic. And Jesus says so. (3:28-29) It is the eternal or unforgivable sin. You cannot believe Jesus is indwelt and empowered by devils and at the same time have faith that saves. Utterly impossible.

There’s room for misunderstanding and misinterpretation. And Jesus has patience for both. But the steel trap of the mind that has settled that Jesus comes from hell cannot be helped. Jeremiah wrote most accurately, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it”(Jer. 17:9, NKJV)? Yes the heart apart from God is wicked and an apt receiver for the worst the devil can muster. He will push as far as he is able. No doubt about that.