Family Matters (June 9, 2024) Mk. 3.20-35

There was a time when political debates were a hot ticket item in most areas. There would be a large gathering of people who would come from miles around to hear candidates expound on what they stood for and the platform on which they were running. This was a time akin to a county fair. There would have been booths set up with food, groups trying to “persuade” voters with certain…enticements, and above all a large crowd of people, many of whom would not have seen each other since the last election debates.

In 1858 in the state of Illinois, there was a series of debates that brought people out of the woodwork to see and hear the two men running for the Senate seat. There was the incumbent, Stephen Douglas, the Little Giant, already known for his powerful oratory and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. He was running for reelection with his eyes on a bigger stage and prize, the presidential race of 1860. The other candidate was relatively unknown to many people in the state. Around the city of Springfield he was known as a successful attorney who had served one term in the House of Representative from 1846-1848. He was in many cases quite the opposite of Douglas: Tall (6’4” to Douglas 5’4”), roughhewn to Douglas’ suave and easy manner, a member of an upstart party founded only 4 years before (the Republicans) to Douglas’ establishment in the Democratic party. It seemed to be a clear cut and easy victory for Douglas, and many believed it would be. But Abraham Lincoln proved to be a fly in the ointment of the easy victory.

Lincoln was an opponent of the expansion of slavery in the territories where it was not already established. Douglas was a proponent of what was known as Popular Sovereignty (letting the majority of the people decide). It was this issue that Lincoln used to his advantage. Douglas supported in 1857 what was known as the Dredd Scott decision (allowing slavery to be in all the areas of the country) but said that it could be overturned by popular sovereignty. Here was where Lincoln put his very good rhetorical skills to use. He declared that with slavery, there must come a tipping point. His words when announcing his selection as the Republican candidate were, “A house divided against itself, cannot stand” in speaking to the issue of the North-South divide over slavery. In doing this Lincoln put the division of the country in the sight of everyone. He was being prophetic in stating that there has to be a point when divisions must be faced or the house (country, state, etc.) will no longer be united. In this series of debates, the issue of slavery (an issue that festered under the surface because of the divineness of it) was brought into the spotlight where it would stay until settled just a few years later.

This quote of Lincoln is directly from the Bible. If you did not hear it earlier, Jesus is saying this to many of his opponents who were saying that his power to heal and drive out demons and unclean spirits was from the prince of demons himself, Satan. But you may be asking, “What is going on in this passage? It sounded like there were two stories going on here.” You would be correct in that assessment. Mark is using a “sandwich technique” to highlight different stories with similar meanings. Let’s look for a few moments at what is going on here in the text.

When I say that Mark is using a sandwiching technique, it is like this. He is telling two stories at once using the first to begin the section (like one piece of bread), the next part is what is inside the sandwich, and returning to the first story, which would be like the second piece of bread. This technique tells two stories with one meaning and is a favorite of Mark.

In the first section (20-21) Jesus is at a house. We don’t know where, but it is a home. And the crowd is so great around him and his disciples that they cannot relax to eat in peace. Most likely there is standing room only. We see here that upon his family hearing about what is going on, they go to take possession (the Greek term can mean arrest; it is not a voluntary move. Today it would be an intervention) because they believe he is literally “outside of his mind”. What they were thinking was probably (in the tone of a mother), “What does he think he is doing running off like that? Leaving the family in a lurch? And what is going to happen to him if the authorities hear about what he is doing and saying? We need to step in and get him. Come on boys! We’re going to get your brother!”

But while they are heading to get Jesus, the religious authorities from Jerusalem show up. They have been watching and taking note of this upstart. Something is different about this one and if they are not careful, well, they know how Rome operates. They begin to state that what he has done he does because he is possessed, not by God, but rather by Beelzebul, a name that can mean many things, but in this case the prince of demons. In other words, all the good things that he has done (the healings, the casting out of demons) has all been done by evil spirits rather than by the power of God.

Jesus knows this and instead of doing what most of us would do (ignoring their statements and let the deeds stand on their own merits) he says “Come here for a few minutes. I would like to talk to y’all.” He then tells some parables about divisions. A kingdom, a house, even Satan, when they are divided, they cannot stand. They must fall. In fact, Satan’s fall has begun, not because he is divided, no. There is one who is stronger than Satan who has bound him and is right now plundering his house. Yep, that’s correct. The strong man who is plundering the house is Jesus. He is taking those who are God’s back from Satan and Satan can do nothing about it. Satan isn’t finished yet, but his end is no longer in question.

To make his point that he is of God, Jesus begins a statement with Amen (let it be so). He states that all will be forgiven their sins. This is not a blanket forgiveness; there still has to be repentance. But there is hope given for whatever has been done. But those who are saying that Jesus is possessed by an evil spirit, that what he is doing is done in league with Satan, have committed the unforgiveable sin. Many people were and are tormented about whether or not they have committed this sin. Let me help put minds at rest. If you worry about this sin, the fact that you are worried proves that you have not committed it. Those who have said that the good is done by evil, those are the ones who are in danger. For how can Satan do something that will ensure his own destruction and divide himself? These divisions do not make any sense and in fact back the opponents into a corner. Jesus sits back and awaits a response.

And then another division comes. There comes word that Jesus’ family is outside, his mom and brothers want to “have a word with him”. Instead of respecting the family values he has grown up with and that we claim to treasure today, Jesus says, “Who is my family? This group here inside with me, the outcasts, the sinners, the poor, the hopeless, the ones who have given themselves to doing my will and the will of the God, these are my family. Tell that to those people waiting outside.” Dr. Brian Blount has said that he would not have wanted Jesus at a family reunion because one never knew what he was going to say. These last few verses confirm that. One can only imagine the hurt and shock of his “family” when they were told (probably by some embarrassed messenger who might have tried to soften the message) what had been said. Was this division permanent? Most likely not, as Jesus’ brothers do become his followers, and he tells his disciples to care for his mother from the cross. But the division of who was important, who was the ‘real’ family must have stung. Here was a man who had been born and raised in a culture where family was paramount and he is rejecting those who were in his immediate family. Why would he do this? Why would Mark report this egregious error? If one looks at the text, they were in the same group as the scribes. They did not believe that Jesus was from God. They just thought he was crazy. And that is the point Mark is trying to make: That those who should have believed and assisted in his ministry to those who were the downtrodden and outside of the “accepted” religion, were the ones who were trying to “restrain or arrest” him.

This is all about family matters. There can be two ways that these two words can be said and each of them makes a different statement. It can be said Familymatters. Or it can be said Family matters. Do you hear the difference? The first states that it is the family that matters while the second states that it is the matters of the family that matter. Jesus is telling those listening that there is a new family. This flew in the face of all that he was taught from an infant onwards. In the ancient Near East (and still today), the family unit (which included extended family, not just the “nuclear family”) was the source of comfort, community and all other things that we today associate with friends and others. It even extended into the religious community.

Those who were trying to stop Jesus, whether relatives or authorities, were not in themselves bad people. They were trying to keep the traditions, the laws, and the cohesion of their community together in the face of opposition from occupation. But their trust is misplaced, and they are angry. David Garland states that, “Vicious criticism of others in religious circles stems from a variety of motives: sincere distress over something radically new, genuine alarm over what is perceived to be heresy, a desire to reassure that we belong to the good guys by branding others as the bad guys, or a craven dread of losing power.”[1]They see that something new is breaking in and they do not like it. They see that this Jesus is associating with the “wrong sort” of people and that this will disrupt the structure that they have so carefully preserved. And his family sees that Jesus is rejecting them in favor of those “deadbeats, hookers, and losers.” So, there is criticism. And there is criticism today.

One commentator states who the new outsiders are that we see today that the church and families often deride: “…instead of lepers and demoniacs crowding around Jesus, we might see the strange bodies of the disabled. We might see soldiers with three-fourths of their bodies burned from a firefight in Iraq or other soldiers in prison reflecting on the horrors they witnessed and committed. We might see legless Afghan or Palestinian children. We might see a group of men reeking of cigarettes and coffee at an AA meeting. We might see a lesbian mother with a baby on her hip and gay men holding hands or holding their adopted child. We might see scruffy members of a mining community singing old-time hymns. When we think about who is near Jesus, it is not the morally perfect. It is just the diverse mess of humanity, with all of its moral, physical, spiritual beauty and imperfection. The only ones not in the picture, the ones not pressing in at the doors and windows, desperate and aching to be near Jesus, are the ones who think they know what religion and family life is supposed to look like”.[2]Are we the ones outside looking in?

The church today, and the world for that matter, has issues. We have demons to exorcise, and we can only do that with the help of Jesus. To quote Garland again, “The church must exorcise the demons of bigotry, intolerance, parochialism, chauvinism, racism, and sexism (and I add Christian nationalism)—all the isms that imprison humankind and impel them to devote themselves to inflicting pain on others.”[3]We believe that we have no demons, but take a hard look and you will see them, especially when it comes down to losing privilege of being the top dog. Philip Yancey states that the Church today is becoming more like the early Church in terms of its being distrusted and maligned…and we don’t like it. Jesus told us that this would happen. That our families might turn against us. For most of us, this was never a problem. We grew up in “Christian” homes. But for many around the world, it is a big problem. And many have become refugees because of their commitment to Christ. How are we welcoming them as members of the family, as brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers? We do that so well here at First Presbyterian, why can we not do it for others? Family matters to God and to us. Let us let go of the hold that we have on the power and things that keep us from doing what Jesus called us to do. The Good News is that Jesus has forgiven us. Will we be obstinate and not accept that forgiveness? The divisions that beset us can be healed when we reach out to one another as family. Are we ready to be healed? Amen.

[1] Garland, David E. Mark. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996. Print. The NIV Application Commentary. [2]Bartlett, David L. and Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3, Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) . Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition. [3] Garland, David E. Mark. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996. Print. The NIV Application Commentary.