Mark 3:20-35

Mark Volume 2

Part 5: Lunatic, Liar, Lord

I went to a fairly large church growing up in Dallas.  It was a historic church that did a passion play every year while I was in junior high and high school.  The play was called, MESSIAH, and it would run for a couple of weeks every year.

As a bit of a nerd, my deepest desire during the play was to be cast as one of the disciples.  These were the best roles.  You’re in every scene looking shocked or surprised at what Jesus did.  And if you were lucky enough to be James, John or Peter, it was a guaranteed speaking part.  

I am not sure if it was my 5’5 110 lb frame that kept me from being cast as a disciple or the fact that my hair was blazing blonde, but I was never chosen as a disciple. 

Nope, instead, year over year, I was always cast a the boy possessed by a demon.  

Now, I am not sure what a demon possessed kid would look like in the 1st century, but I can tell you what a few moms from the 1980s and 1990s thought a demon possessed kid looked like in the 1st century.

First, they would cover me with make up that looked like black soot.  I guess they thought a demon possessed person had been rummaging around hell.  I mean they put it on my face, my hair, around my eyes, on my arms…covered.

Then, they would put a bunch of make up on me that looked like cuts.  I guess these moms assumed that a demon possessed kid rummaging around the fires of hell would also be playing on rocks or something.  

They through like a potato sack on me with rips and burns…and then I had to hiss and contort my body.

Not sure this is what it would look like in ancient times, but to these moms, this was perfect…well, almost perfect.

They made (right before my scene) go brush my teeth but not spit because I was supposed to foam from the mouth. 

While I could’ve been John the beloved, or foul mouthed Peter…I mean, I would’ve settled for Judas…at least he got to hold a prop.

Nope, I would stand in the hallway covered in soot and sores with a mouth full of my own toothpaste spit.

Now, to be honest, I got rather good at determining which toothpaste produced the most saliva.  I became a bit of a connesieur in the toothpaste spit game.

Arm in Hammer…too dry.

Colgate…although refreshing…not the right consistency.

Crest with Scope…too green.

The perfect one was the OG crest.  No frills.  No bells and whistles, it created a great foam.

So, the song would cue and I would pounce on stage like a drunken Pomeranian, and my dad who also played the demon possessed boy…the director must not have liked the Kennedys…my dad would approach Jesus who was played by a middle aged Bible College professor, who worked out all season and tanned to look like the perfect Jesus.  

And as my dad approached Jesus…I would contort, spit, and foam.

The music would get quiet and my dad would say his line…

“Lord, help us in our unbelief.” Except we were from Texas…everybody had a draw…even Jesus when he recited his lines, so my dad would say…in his Thick Texas Oklahoma Draw…”LORD HELP US IN OUR UNBELIEF.

Now, my dad is a great man…great human being…would give you the shirt off his back…but a thespian…he was not.  And he would say it with hand motions.

And Jesus—played by a tanned Bible college professor—would heal me.

From chaos to calm. From demon to lamb. Still covered in soot… and Crest.

Now here’s what’s interesting…

In that play, the only people who ever challenged Jesus were the Pharisees.

But when you read the Gospel of Mark… that’s not true.

Everyone had a reaction to Jesus.

As C. S. Lewis famously said:

When people encounter Jesus, they are left with three options: He is either a lunatic, a liar, or Lord.

And that’s exactly what we see in Mark 3.

The Structure (Quick Insight)

Mark uses a literary technique called a sandwich (A–B–A):

A → Jesus’ family thinks He’s crazy

B → Religious leaders say He’s demonic

A → Family returns

All to answer one question:

Who is Jesus, really?

And what we see play out is Jesus either being a lunatic, liar or Lord. 

Let’s look at the first.

THE LUNATIC OPTION

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 3:20-21

20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” 

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 3:31-35

31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” 

Now, Jesus had been doing some amazing stuff around the Galilee up until this moment…fame was spreading.  Everywhere he went, the crowds pressed in on him.  Yet, the Bible tells us that his family thought the he was going crazy.

See, they say…HE IS OUT OF HIS MIND.

The Greek wording is even more explicit: “they went to seize him, believing that Jesus had gone berserk”

And at this time, his brothers were not followers…

BIBLE VERSE

John 7:6

5 For not even his brothers believed in him. 

It is difficult to imagine that anyone could think that Jesus had lost His mind. His reason was the most perfect; His logic the most pure; and His preaching the most profound. No one ever spoke like He spoke—with such clarity or depth.

However, his siblings thought he was nuts. 

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 6:3

 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?”

Now, I want to point this out because if you grew up catholic, you were probably taught that Mary was a perpetual virgin, but scripture does not seem to indicate this because Jesus was the first of a pretty large family.

Now, I have always wondered why his brothers and sisters would have thought he was nuts.  Why would they be so concerned.  Will to them…

Jesus Walked Away From Security

Jesus ministry starts at the age of 30.  This would have been considerably older than what we think of 30 now.  The cultural context is crucial for understanding what “30” meant. In the first-century Mediterranean world, a person of twelve was well along in their life span, with nearly a third of those surviving infancy dead before age six, 60 percent dead by the mid-teens, 75 percent dead by the mid-twenties, and 90 percent dead by the mid-forties.

He would have been quite mature and would have worked as a carpenter or TEKTON which is the greek word for his trade.  

A TEKTON would’ve have been more like a skilled craftsmen in both would and stone.  And near Nazareth was a large important city known as Sepphoris. Herod the Great owned a royal palace in Sepphoris, and after his death (4 BCE) his son Herod Antipas made it his capital until he founded Tiberias on the Galilee. 

Antipas immediately set to work to rebuild Sepphoris and its wall, employing craftsmen from villages all over Galilee. It was Sepphoris that Josephus called the “ornament of all Galilee” and “the strongest city in Galilee” Antipas probably granted Sepphoris the rank of capital of Galilee

And Nazareth where Jesus grew up was about an hours walk.  Most likely meaning that he and his father had steady work building in this all important city.

Yet, Jesus chose to leave that security of steady work to become a “preacher…” a “faith healer…” poor roving from city to city.

So, to his brothers and sisters living in nazareth…he had lost his mind because…

He traded security for a calling.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

But not only that…

Jesus Walked Into Danger

The Galilee was a hotbed of Roman resistance, and Jesus associated with zealots.  Jesus deliberately associated with tax collectors and others considered morally dubious, people the Pharisees viewed as beyond redemption.

Tax collectors occupied a particularly despised position in Roman-occupied Palestine, seen as collaborators with the occupying power who exploited their fellow Jews through extortion and fraud.

Galileans were perceived as less educated and probably more dangerous.  When Jesus went into that region to preach, he would be 15 miles away from people he knew and loved, and he traded the safety of home for the wild west.

He traded safety for a people.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

And…

Jesus broke societal norms.

Jesus ate with sinners, violated the sabbath customs, touched lepers, talked to samaritans, and engaged with gentiles.

All of these things were unusual at best. 

He traded reputation for mission.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

Bottom line:

From the outside… Jesus looked irrational.

“He’s out of His mind.”

And let’s be honest—this still happens today.

When someone:

gives generously

forgives radically

prioritizes calling over comfort

The world says:

“That’s crazy.”

But, radical living will be radically misunderstood. And not just by his family…many…many others. 

2: The Liar Option

If his family thought he was a lunatic.  The scribes though he was a liar.

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 3:22

22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”

The members of Jesus’ immediate family were not the only ones who journeyed to Capernaum looking for Jesus. Israel’s religious elite—scribes who came down from Jerusalem—also had a keen interest in finding Jesus, though not with the intent of saving His life. Their short-term strategy was to slander Jesus in order to turn public opinion against Him; ultimately, they wanted Him dead.

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 3:6

6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. 

They knew they could not deny the reality of His miraculous, supernatural power, they devised a smear campaign that would call into question the source of it.

Hearing the crowds seriously consider the possibility that Jesus might be the Messiah, the scribes and Pharisees panicked. 

 If you can’t disprove it, discredit it.

So…

They lied about him.

They cast doubt in people’s minds

They called him the devil.

All of this was to try to change people’s minds about this popular messiah.

If they cannot deny his power, they will say that he is lying about where his power is coming from.

For the Pharisees and scribes to attribute the power of Jesus to Satan rather than the Holy Spirit was the highest form of blasphemy and placed them in eternal jeopardy.

We must begin by remembering that Jesus could not have used the phrase ‘the Holy Spirit’ in the full Christian sense of the term. The Spirit in all his fullness did not come until Jesus had returned to his glory. It was not until Pentecost that there came to men and women the supreme experience of the Holy Spirit. Jesus must have used the term in the Jewish sense of the term. 

Now in Jewish thought the Holy Spirit had two great functions. First, he revealed God’s truth; second, he enabled that truth to be recognized. That will give us the key to this passage.

So, by calling his power into question they were really attacking the truth of who he was. And, I am sure many bought this option too.

Why this matters:

This isn’t just disagreement—this is willful rejection of truth.

They saw:

the miracles

the authority

the transformation

And still said:

“That’s darkness.”

This still happens today.

People don’t always reject Jesus because of lack of evidence…

Sometimes they reject Him because of what it would require.

But, there were some in the crowd that did not see him as a lunatic or a liar…some saw…

3: The Lord Option

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 3:23-30

23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. 

28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” 

Now, Mark will get to the heart of sandwiching these stories together.  

I want you to notice that by claiming Jesus is a lunatic how that is a families attempt to bind him.  

I want you to notice that by claiming Jesus is a liar is the pharisee way to bind his messianic power.

Jesus is basically turning the tables.  He says that he cannot be bound but his arrival is an indication that the strong man…satan is now bound by him.  

He is saying with his arrival, the strongman no longer has power.  

I want you to get this.  Follow Mark’s train of thought.

At the start of Jesus’ ministry, he comes up from the waters of baptism and here is what Mark says…

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 1:12-13

12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. 

Jesus goes to the wilderness to overcome the devils tactics.  The “strongman” is no more in Jesus world.  He has to submit.

Jesus steps into the synagogue for the first time, and look what happens…his first demonstration of power…

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 1:23-27

23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

The “strongman” has to submit.

In Mark chapter 2, Jesus heals the paralytic, but he gets to the root of the matter…forgiveness of sin.  The “strong man” bound.

What is Mark driving at?  I think in his own way he is showing what Luke tells us in Luke 4…

BIBLE VERSE

Luke 4:1&16-21

4 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness…

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,  to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

In other words, the strong man has no more power because a bigger and greater strong man who is not a lunatic, he is not a liar, but he is the Lord to set you free from the strong man.

No listen, if these things are true.  If he is the Lord and has power over the strongman, what can he do for you.  What do you need his help to help you bind that old wimpy strongman and replace his with something more powerful?  What can he set you free of? What does he need to release in your life?

Now here’s the question Mark forces on us:

What do you do with Jesus?

Not what your family thinks. Not what culture says.

What do YOU say?

Because neutrality is not an option.

You will land in one of three places:

“He’s crazy”

“He’s deceptive”

or… “He’s Lord”

He is either Lord of all or Lord of nothing at all for you.  

The story in Mark is a demonstration of who he is, what he is, and that will never change, so how can he set you free today.