Sermon Tone Analysis

Copyright February 19, 2023 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

The most important question anyone will ever be asked to answer is this one: “Who is Jesus?”

Is He really God become man or is He someone else?

Once we answer that question, the next question to be answered is: “What do I do with (or how do I respond to) this Jesus?”

Today we will see two groups of people grappling with this very question.

They draw two different conclusions. . .

both wrong.

This leads to some important teaching from Jesus.

The conclusions come from two very different groups: Jesus’ family and the religious leaders.

The Familial Diagnosis

20 One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again.

Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat.

21 When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away.

“He’s out of his mind,” they said.

It is, of course, natural for a family to be concerned about other family members.

When the mother and brother of Jesus heard about the crowds and that Jesus and his disciples were not able to eat, they were concerned.

Their diagnosis however is pretty harsh: He’s out of His mind or we might say, “he is not thinking clearly.”

It couldn’t have been easy growing up with Jesus as your brother.

It is always hard to go through school following a sibling that excelled.

How much worse it would have been to follow someone who was sinless!

No matter what happened in the family, Jesus was never to blame!

We don’t know what kind of relationship existed in the family.

The phrase “tried to take him away” is a strong Greek word that means to arrest.

In other words, their backup plan was to forcibly capture him and take him away.

But why did they think he was crazy?

First, we are told he wasn’t eating (perhaps they thought He was working Himself to death).

Second, he was traveling with a group of “common” people, and third, he kept antagonizing the powers meaning the Jewish and Roman leaders by implying He was the long-awaited Messiah.

They had watched him grow up . . .

He did not seem like the Messiah to them.

They may have concluded he was suffering from delusions of grandeur.

Jesus spoke about this phenomenon when he was back home in Nazareth.

He said, “A prophet is without honor in his own hometown.”

Some of you have probably had that experience.

After you became a believer, you went back to your old friends to tell them about your faith in Christ.

You may be surprised they couldn’t see past the person you once were to consider the possibility that you might now be something or someone different than you used to be.

This is why we read the back part of the passage:

31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him.

They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them.

32 There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.”

33 Jesus replied, “Who is my mother?

Who are my brothers?”

34 Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers.

35 Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

I suspect when Jesus said these words there were some who gasped.

The words sound dis-respectful.

However, don’t forget that the siblings of Jesus believed he was going crazy.

They were ready to take Him away and keep him (if they could) in isolation.

Jesus is not saying family relationships are not important.

He is saying, if one must choose, our relationship with God and our relationships with fellow believers are actually more important.

We have an obligation to try to share our faith with family members, but we cannot and must not allow family members to keep us from faith.

Let me point out one other interesting but side issue from these verses.

Let me quote R.C. Sproul,

“It is interesting that the term “brothers” here is used throughout Mark to mean siblings from the same parents, which makes a strong argument against the Roman Catholic teaching that Mary remained a virgin after Jesus’ birth (Rome teaches that the term can refer to other relatives).

In any case, Scripture refers numerous times to Jesus’ four brothers or half-brothers, and here they accompanied their mother to speak with Jesus “against the Roman Catholic teaching that Mary remained a virgin after Jesus’ birth”

The family of Jesus thought He was crazy, but the religious leaders drew a different conclusion.

The Conclusion of Religious Leaders

22 But the teachers of religious law who had arrived from Jerusalem said, “He’s possessed by Satan, the prince of demons.

That’s where he gets the power to cast out demons.”

In some respects, this passage is somewhat confusing because there is no reference here to Jesus casting out any demons.

However, in parallel passages (the same account in the other gospels; Matthew 9:32, 12:22; Luke 11:14) these words follow Jesus healing a person demon-possessed.

The gospel writers did not record all record everything Jesus did.

They used source material for what they were trying to show about Jesus.

Since Jesus was going against the status quo (in other words he was going against what the religious leaders believed), they concluded He must be working for the Devil.

They accused Him of being demon-possessed.

It sounds like a rather extreme conclusion, and yet, we are sometimes quick to do this even in our day.

If someone has a different emphasis to their teaching, a different view of a secondary issue of belief, or if their experience is different from our experience we may hint (or even say) they are being led astray by the Devil.

Rather than be open to expanding our view of God and what He is doing, we are quick to limit God and define true faith by our experience.

This will not only damage our own faith, but it will also tarnish the image of the Christian community and push others away (sometimes permanently) from faith in Christ.

Jesus was not going to let these teachers of the Law get away with such an outrageous statement.

Let’s follow His argument.

23 Jesus called them over and responded with an illustration.

“How can Satan cast out Satan?” he asked.

24 “A kingdom divided by civil war will collapse.

25 Similarly, a family splintered by feuding will fall apart.

26 And if Satan is divided and fights against himself, how can he stand?

He would never survive.

27 Let me illustrate this further.

Who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man and plunder his goods?

Only someone even stronger—someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house.

Jesus says three things in response to this crazy talk.

First, If Satan was working through Jesus to cast out demons, Satan is actually fighting Himself.

Jesus says these words which we so often attribute to Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, “A Kingdom divided by civil war will collapse” or, from the Bible in Lincoln’s day: “if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

Jesus was saying if he is working by the power of Satan, the Devil is a terrible strategist.

He was, in essence empowering Jesus to cast out others who were also working for Satan!

It would be like one group of soldiers turning to fire on their own ranks!

Second, Jesus conceded Satan is a strong power.

He says the only way you can defeat a strong and powerful being is to be more powerful than they are.

Jesus says in essence, not only am I not working for Satan (because that would be foolish); the very fact that I am able to cast out demons shows I have authority over Satan and the demons.

This is such an important point to grasp.

Satan and the Lord are not two EQUAL powers who are fighting for domination and victory.

Satan has ZERO authority over Christ and Christ has ABSOLUTE authority over Satan.

Satan can only work if God gives him permission to work.

He does this for some greater purpose than we can presently see.

The third thing Jesus says is the most powerful.

He describes what is commonly known as the unpardonable sin,

28 “I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, 29 but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.

This is a sin with eternal consequences.”

30 He told them this because they were saying, “He’s possessed by an evil spirit.”

How were these men blaspheming the Holy Spirit?

They were attributing the work of God as originating from the Devil.