Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps of The Salvation Army on February 17, 2008; Swift Current Corps on February 22, 2015; 614 Warehouse Mission on 06 May 2018; Alberni Valley Ministries on 21 April 2024 by Captain Michael Ramsay
To view the 2015 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/02/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html
To view the Toronto 2018 version click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2018/05/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html
To view the 2024 Alberni Valley Ministries version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2024/04/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html
On a quiet winter day somewhere here in northern Saskatchewan, there is this fellow – John. Now John has just finished a long tiring day of work and he is quite happy to be home. He comes in and sits down on his chair and picks up his newspaper.
Now John has a wife, Janet, and when she sees John sitting nicely in his easy chair there, she asks him what he is planning to do before dinner.
“Well, I’m planning to read my paper,” John answers, but from the look on Janet’s face he can tell immediately that he has actually gotten the answer wrong. That isn’t what he is planning to do.
He looks at her in that searching way, trying to discern what the right answer to her question could be: what is he planning to do? …Is he planning to - pick something up at the store? …Is he planning to …pick up the kids from somewhere? …Is he planning to…John didn’t know.
“Shovel Mrs McMillan’s driveway,” says Janet. “You’re planning to shovel Mrs McMillan’s driveway.”
“But its 40 below![1] …I mean…Yes dear, yes, Mrs McMillan’s driveway,” says John who, until this very moment, had no idea that he was planning to shovel their elderly neighbour’s driveway. So John grabs his shovel and heads out the door…
At just this time, as John heads outside, providentially around the corner of the house comes John Jr., his 15 year-old son: “What are you planning to do before dinner?” John Sr. asks.
“Play on the computer…” says John Jr. who, just like his father, has gotten the answer wrong. John Junior is of course now planning to shovel the driveway.
“Just let me put my school stuff away,” says Junior who is hoping to escape into the house and forget all about this plan to shovel Mrs McMillan’s driveway - that he never knew that he had made in the first place.
But Dad, who is wise to Junior’s plan, hands him the snow shovel, takes his school bag, sends him off to Mrs McMillan’s and then John promptly disappears into the garage so as to avoid finding out from Janet if indeed there is anything else he had planned to do that he didn’t know about…
Now as John Jr. is standing outside old Mrs McMillan’s driveway, who should come walking by but his little brother, Mark, and a group of his friends…Jr. yells to his 10 year-old brother and his seven or eight friends, “guess what you guys are planning to do?!”
Mark and his friends are all very good-natured and they do start out in earnest shovelling the walk but they only have 3 shovels between the eight of them and it doesn’t take too long for one of the boys to realise that this snow today actually packs quite nicely.
This friend of Mark then quite innocently makes one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and even more snowballs and stacks them beside the shelter of a hedge. When he has got a nice lot of snowballs in front of him, Mark, who has actually been working quite diligently, notices him and asks his friend - as forcefully as he can muster - “and what are you planning to do with all those snowballs?” to which his friend replies by throwing one right at Mark. Within 10 minutes the eight boys are in a full-blown snowball fight. Having completely forgotten about any of their work when John Sr., Dad, comes around the corner,
“What do you think you are doing?”
Now Mark, in the boldness of a 10 year-old surrounded by his friends, takes the initiative to show his dad exactly what he is doing and promptly hits him with snowball. This is too much for John who then dives behind the car where he and his eldest son assemble their own arsenal and try to hold off the pack of ten year-old boys.
They are now divided into two groups and they have quite a bit of fun until all of a sudden everyone goes quiet as John and all the boys notice Janet –mom- standing, arms crossed, asking, “And what are do are you doing?”
“Shovelling the snow?” Answers John - and indeed for the next hour that is exactly what John, John Jr. and Mark are doing with their three shovels as Janet and Mrs McMillan look on from her front room.
If you’ll turn with me to Mark Chapter 3, you’ll notice that today’s pericope, which was read from Mark’s gospel earlier, is also about a divided house and a bit of a family conflict as well. You remember, of course, how our story starts today, Verse 20 of Chapter 3 reads: “Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.” Verse 21, “When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’”
Jesus is portrayed here as almost a workaholic (not quite because of course Jesus’ shows through the dessert temptation account that he does not give into temptation – cf. Lk 4; Jas 1:13). He is working late and yes indeed he takes his work home with him and his work right now is casting demons out of people and he has a lot of work to do.
Can you imagine the scene? It is dinnertime. He comes to a home to eat with the twelve, his disciples, and there is so much going on. There are so many people crowding into the house that they aren’t even able to take time to eat. There must be people everywhere. This must be so noisy – and Jesus is just working away – he and his disciples are just ploughing through people healing them, casting out demons and doing what needs to be done.
His family no doubt is worried about his health. They are no doubt worried because he’s not eating anything. They are no doubt worried because he is not taking enough time for himself. He is not taking time to relax. He is just working, working, working – without a break – this can’t possibly be healthy can it? Is it any wonder that his mother and brothers, throw up their hands when they hear all of this and say, Verse 21,“He is out of his mind” – “he’s crazy” – “he’s nuts.”[2]
How do you respond to those whom you love who won’t stop working? Well, Jesus’ family decided that it is time to go and take charge of him. They are going to make him rest and take care of himself. (Now this is interesting because the Greek word KRATESAI is actually the same word that is used when you go to ARREST someone. So this is serious.) They are concerned about him and if Jesus won’t take care of himself, they will take matters into their own hands, they will take charge of him because, as they understand it, “he is out of his mind.”
“He is demon possessed,” the teachers of the Law say. “He is [even] possessed by Beelzebub…the prince of demons,”[3] Verse 22 records the learned, esteemed, intelligent, and respected teachers as saying – “[It is] by the prince of demons [that] he is driving out demons.”
So this is interesting. Both Jesus’ family and the religious experts agree that Jesus is not acting normally here. He is out of his mind; he is demon-possessed. And again, in this crazy scene, we can probably understand what they are saying to some degree, can’t we?
Jesus understands and he answers the teachers who –unlike his biological family (cf. 3:31-32)[4] - are right there, near, or even in the house with him and his disciples. Jesus understands what they are saying.
Now what the Pharisees might actually be doing here is certainly more than just looking out for his well-being, like is his family -probably. What they might be doing is more than just mocking him or writing him off. What they may be actually in the process of doing is gathering evidence or at least inspiration to formulate an official charge against him.
In our society today we think nothing of people using the language of demon possession and witchcraft: we hear it everyday on TV, radio, in pop culture and in casual colloquial language. It is so common that many times we don’t even twig when we hear it but it was different in Jesus’ day (cf. Dt. 18:10; 1 Sam 28:9; 2 Ki 19:22; 2 Chr 33:6; Micah 5:12; Na 3:4; Gal 5:20).
Witchcraft is a serious crime. It was a sin punishable by death (cf. 1 Sam 28:9).[5] These religious teachers cannot be left to make these remarks unchallenged. It must be addressed. They are in essence accusing Jesus of divination, of witchcraft, of sorcery, and in those days (unlike today) people won’t stand by and let that evil go unchecked.
And Jesus won’t let these accusations go unchecked; he speaks to them in a couple of very short parables or metaphors.
Verse 23ff: “So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.
Think about it in terms of our world today…
Afghanistan is torn apart. It has been balkanized and polarized for many, many years; so when we -and our allies- launched the most recent attack on their country. The country didn’t stand. They were already divided. And now as we are sending our soldiers around their country hunting for people, the people not surprisingly aren’t rallying behind us en masse but neither are they taking up the cause of the resistance against us en masse and things there are now worse than they ever have been in anyone’s memory.[6] Civilians are dying and the drug trade there -which had been virtually eliminated before we invaded- it now provides the bulk of the world’s opium supply.[7] A divided house cannot stand. How can they ever be liberated, if they cannot even be united? How can we ever be liberated if we are not united?
This is the kind of thing that is playing out in our very houses here today. If husband and wife aren’t on the same page, how can their children grow up in the strength of a solid family? If mom won’t stop yelling at dad and dad stops coming home altogether, how can little Janet learn to be kind to her future husband and how can little John learn to stick it out when life gets difficult? If the house is divided, how can it stand?[8]
We’ve seen in this country, Canada, very quickly, the results of divided houses, haven’t we? Many of these houses are no longer standing: “Between 1965 and 1988, Canada's divorce rate went from being one of the lowest among industrialized nations to being one of the highest.”[9] Divided houses do not stand.
Like with John and his sons, John Jr. and Mark, from our introductory story, when they were divided, their work did not get completed and they faced the wrath of mom.
This is what Jesus is telling his accusers. He is saying that if he is on the same side as Beelzebub, if he is on the same side as the devil, he wouldn’t attack him because then he would be in essence – if he WAS working for the devil – by attacking him, he would be destroying himself.
Casting out demons is like shovelling the walk in our earlier analogy. If that snowball fight had persisted then that driveway would never have been shovelled.
If Jesus were working for the devil why would he cast devils out? Why would he let them continue to play in driveway of the demon-possessed man’s soul? He wouldn’t. He doesn’t. Jesus comes out as stern and as commanding as Janet and orders that driveway cleared.
There can be many reasons and motives for the Pharisees to accuse Jesus of working for the enemy but he lets them know that their argument doesn’t make any sense.
Jesus uses the analogy also of robbing a house. Jesus says that, Verse 27, “In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.”
If Jesus were on the same side as the devil, why would he even want to rob the devil of his prize? He wouldn’t. If he was working for the devil, then he would not be freeing this man from Satan’s power; because by casting out the demons, he is weakening the Republic of Evil and in the process strengthening the Kingdom of God and when one is at war, one tries to kill one’s enemies and one’s not allies. And this is what Jesus is saying: Jesus is showing those present that indeed he is intentionally attacking the devil’s dominion, freeing his captives, liberating his territory and in these stories Jesus is reminding us, in effect, that no one intentionally kills with ‘friendly fire.’ If Jesus were on the same side as Satan, he says in this parable, he would not rob him of his prize. Instead, as Jesus is more powerful than Satan, by freeing the demon-possessed man, he binds the metaphorical strong man and robs his house.
Jesus makes his point. He makes his point well. We realise, as we have seen, that divided houses cannot stand. Houses cannot be robbed without first taking care of the security guard, as it were. But Jesus doesn’t stop at making this point.
You’ll notice that this story doesn’t end here. Jesus now has some strong words for the people who are accusing him of working for the Beelzebub. He says, Verses 28-30, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”[10] He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”
So do you see what the author of Mark here is doing as he relates this story about Jesus? He is showing us that Jesus is warning the Pharisees not to say that he is demon-possessed. He is telling them point blank that all other sins will be forgiven – EXCEPT for blaspheming the Holy Spirit – He says that there is no sin as bad as this one that they may be committing here. Calling the Holy Spirit evil, rejecting God in this way. There is nothing worse Mark tells us that Jesus says here.[11]
But what about Jesus’ family? Remember that as the Pharisees said ‘he has an evil spirit (v. 30)’, his own family said that he was ‘out of his mind (v. 21)’ and they came to take charge of, or even ‘arrest’ him; what about his flesh and blood relatives?
What does Jesus say when they arrive to ‘take charge of him (v.21)?’ Verse 31. You’ll notice that they even don’t come in. It says that they were still standing outside. They don’t come into where Jesus and his disciples are working. They don’t come in to arrest him, to take him home. They, instead, want Jesus to come out to them.
I’ve seen people act like that. It is never a good thing. People who refuse to face others seemingly are either more concerned about themselves than others (fear of embarrassment or whatever else) or else they just plain realise that they are not in the right. People who have travelled all that way and are there anyway, people who don’t go in but stand back and send someone else to do their bidding, they cannot be up to any good, can they? Maybe.
Even if they are more saintly than some of the cowards of today’s world and even if there is a noble purpose to their refusing to enter, Verses 31 & 32 say, they send someone in and the crowd tells Jesus that his family- his flesh and blood – those who think he’s out of his mind for doing the will of God – those who gave birth to and grew up with him – Jesus’ family is here. The crowd tells Jesus, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
What does Jesus reply? What does Jesus reply? This is important to our story, I think. Jesus replies, verse 33ff, “‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’…Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.’”
So this is interesting isn’t it? Jesus doesn’t go out to his family in this story. In fact, he denies them, doesn’t he? His mother and brothers are not supporting his doing the work of God and he is not acknowledging them.
Just like Jesus told the Pharisees, that “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven” because they said he has an evil spirit. He says of his mother and brothers, who went out to take charge of him, “Who are my mother and brothers?” They are not those who are my flesh and blood if they are opposing the work and will of God.
My family, Jesus says, is “whoever does God’s will.” In our passage here today, the author of Mark has revealed a great truth to us. The family of God is not necessarily the educated, the theologians, scholars and the pastors. The family of God is not necessarily those who are born into the churches and their loved ones.[12] The family of God is quite simply those who do the will of God, which, of course, we discern as we pray and read the scriptures.
So today, as we have looked at divided houses – that of the parable, that of the different Jewish teachers in Mark,[13] that of Jesus’ own biological family – as we have looked at these divided houses, we have some things to consider from Mark Chapter 3. In this story of the divided houses, are we really members of the family of God, or are we more like some of those who were not acting that way in this story?
Are we like the Pharisees? They knew a lot about God, probably more than anyone but they though they knew better than Jesus. Do we think we know more than God? Do we reject, by our words and/or actions, that Jesus Christ is real in our society today? Do we treat what he says and does as if it is not truly of God? This is what the Pharisees did in today’s story. Are we like them?
Or are we like his biological family? They grew up with him. They knew him but they wanted to ‘take charge’ of him. Do we ever want to ‘take charge’ of Jesus, like his family whom Jesus did not even acknowledge in this story? Do we try to ‘take charge’ of him and mould him to our idea of what Jesus and God should be rather than to let him teach us? This is what his family was doing in this story. Are we like them?
Or are we like his true family, the family of God, the disciples and others with them here, who were doing what Jesus was telling them to do? Do we in our daily lives discern through prayer and the Scriptures the will of God, and seek to do it - because it is only then that we will we truly be Jesus’ brother and sister and mother. It is only then will we truly be a part of the family of God. And this is what Jesus wants of us. He wants us to be members of his family and heirs in His kingdom.
Let us pray…
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[1] As I was informed that a snowball fight at –40 was not probable in Northern Saskatchewan, let’s assume for the sake of the story that John is speaking in hyperbole here.
[2] Cf. C.L. Mitton. The Gospel According to Mark. London: Epworth, 1957, p. 26: “If they reveal his family's failure to understand him, they are also a measure of their concern for him.”
[3] Cf. Williamson Jr. Interpretation: Mar., Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1983, p.84. Beelzebub literally means, “Lord of the flies”; this was a derogatory term derived from ‘Beelzebul’, which was the name of a Canaanite deity. By Jesus’ time the words had come to be associated with the accuser, Satan, the prince of demons. Cf. also RCH Lenski. The Interpretation of St Mark’s Gospel. Minneapolis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1964, p.148.
[4] Walter W. Wessel Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Mark/ Introduction to Mark, Book Version: 4.0.2 suggests that the family is probably in Narareth but Jesus himself in Capernaum. RCH Lenski, pp.5-20 discusses the idea that he is possibly even in the house of John Mark himself. Lamar Williamson Jr., p.83, points out Jesus may now be at the house of Simon and Andrew. Either way his blood family does not appear to be actually with him now, cf. v.31.
[5] Cf. also Gal 5:20 for a NT comment on its seriousness
[6] Esp. re: drugs which had been albeit eliminated as a problem before our invasion according the UN and other sources: http://opioids.com/afghanistan/index.html Andrew North BBC correspondent in Kabul, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/ 3476377.stm states that since the invasion “an opium farmer may be earning 10 times as much as the government soldier or policeman whose job it is to enforce the law against growing the crop.” And the number of civilian deaths has greatly risen as a direct result as well: http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html
[7] “U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer.” - Afghanistan, Opium and the Taliban: JALALABAD, Afghanistan February 15, 2001
[8] CBC put our rate at almost 40% in 2002: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/05/04/divorce040504.html cf. Ambert, Dr. Anne Maire DIVORCE: FACTS, FIGURES AND CONSEQUENCES. Child and Family Canada. http://www.cfc-efc.ca/docs/vanif/00005_en.htm
[9] http://family.jrank.org/pages/191/Canada-Divorce.html">Canada - Divorce
[10] Walter W. Wessel Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Mark/ Book Version: 4.0.2l: The words of v. 29—"will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin"—have caused great anxiety and pain in the history of the church. Many have wondered whether they have committed the "unpardonable sin." Surely what Jesus is speaking of here is not an isolated act but a settled condition of the soul—the result of a long history of repeated and willful acts of sin. And if the person involved cannot be forgiven it is not so much that God refuses to forgive as it is the sinner refuses to allow him. Ryle's famous words are great reassurance to any who might be anxious about this sin: "There is such a thing as a sin which is never forgiven. But those who are troubled about it are most unlikely to have committed it" (J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [New York: Revell], 2:59). On the other hand, those who actually do commit the sin are so dominated by evil that it is unlikely that they would be aware of it
[11] Ibid: "because they were saying, `He has an evil spirit'"—suggests an explanation for the unforgivable sin. Jesus had done what any unprejudiced person would have acknowledged as a good thing. He had freed an unfortunate man from the power and bondage of evil (cf. Matt 12:22; Luke 11:14). This he did through the power of the Holy Spirit, but the teachers of the law ascribed it to the power of Satan. Taylor (p. 244) says that the sin described here is "a perversion of spirit which, in defiance of moral values elects to call light darkness." Further, Mitton says, "To call what is good evil (Isa 5:20) when you know well that it is good because prejudice and ill will hold you in bondage, that is the worst sin of all. The tragedy of the `hardening of heart' (as in Mk 3:5) is that it makes men capable of committing just this sin" (Gospel of Mark, p. 28). Perkins, Pheme. NIB VIII: The Gospel of Mark, p. 547: The evangelist’s comment in V. 30 shows that the judgement saying is directed against those who have charged Jesus with using Satan’s power.”
[12] Grant, F.C. The Gospel According to St. Mark. Vol. 7. IB. New York: Abingdon, 1951, p. 694: “In place of broken family relations, ostracism and persecution, was the close and intimate relation to the Son of God.”
[13] With Jesus on one side and his opposition on the other…
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