Last week, quite a number of us came together via Zoom to listen to the first eight chapters of Mark's gospel read aloud and to share our reflections. We will do the same with the rest of the gospel next Tuesday evening. Mark's gospel, probably the first gospel to be written, is short and fast paced and it is likely it was read aloud in a similar way in the early Christian communities.
This church year we are particularly focusing on Mark's gospel in our Sunday services. Today we pick up the story in chapter three. Mark's account up to this point has told, in a vivid way, how God's kingdom is breaking into this world through the ministry of Jesus. The heavens are torn open and he is affirmed as God's beloved Son at his baptism. He speaks and acts with a startling authority, as he proclaims the good news, heals the sick, drives out demons, forgives sins, and calls the first disciples to follow him. From the early chapters of the gospel Jesus is drawn into controversy with the scribes and Pharisees (2:1-12; 2:15-17; 2:18-20; 2:23-28; 3:1-6) and the crowds are amazed: 'What is this? A new teaching – with authority!' (1:27). Indeed, through the rather breathless account of Jesus and his ministry in the first half of Mark's gospel everything builds up to the overwhelming question 'Who is this man?' (4:41; 8:27-30).
Jesus is certainly not presented as a meek and mild figure who utters a few platitudes about being nice to one another. He is an energetic figure, speaking and acting with authority, who confronts, challenges, liberates and heals, and does not shy away from confrontation. This Jesus provokes strong reactions from those around him; some respond with faith, others with skepticism and cynicism, and others oppose him vigorously.
In today's reading, we hear of some of those different reactions to Jesus: the reactions of his own family and the Jerusalem scribes.
We're told that the crowds flock round Jesus, so that he doesn't even have time to eat. He is so much in demand; people are desperate to listen to his teaching and to bring their sick to be healed. But his family seem to be none too pleased with all this and they try to restrain him. 'He's gone out of his mind' people were saying. Some commentators point out that a more accurate translation is that it his family who say this rather than just 'people'. If so, it seems a very harsh and shocking thing for his family to say about him. At the very least they are uncertain how to react to Jesus; perhaps they are embarrassed by him, they want him to calm down a bit and not to say and do such extreme things.
So Jesus doesn't seem to get a very positive reaction from his family at this point. But this is nothing in comparison with the serious charge of the scribes who accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan. Rather than acknowledging that it is by the power of God that Jesus drives out demons, they accuse him of being under the sway of Beelzebul, 'the prince of demons'. Speaking in parables, Jesus points out how illogical their claim is: how can Satan drive out Satan without being divided against himself and destroying himself? Rather, in what Jesus is doing, Satan is like a strong man who is tied up by another, even stronger man, so that his house can be plundered and destroyed. Using this parable to explain what is happening, Jesus implies that he is the 'stronger one' who can tie up the strong man, Satan, and destroy all the powers of evil. Earlier in the gospel, John the Baptist has said about Jesus, 'he is the one more powerful (stronger) than I'. Jesus is the 'Stronger One', and the demons themselves recognize his authority. (1:21-24; 5:7-8). Far from being in league with Satan, Jesus is the one who liberates human beings from his control. His exorcisms show that God's new age is dawning.
We may not feel very comfortable with talk about Satan and demons. But we are all aware of the presence of evil in different forms in our world, and that perhaps sometimes we are complicit in that evil through what we do and through what we don't do. In the presence of Jesus, evil becomes more visible; it's as if his light exposes the powers of darkness. He is the Stronger One who will bind up the powers of sin and evil and release us from their bondage. But of course, ultimately, the way Jesus does this is by taking the evil upon himself. As we read further in Mark's gospel we will hear how Jesus is arrested, bound, tortured and executed. It will seem for a while that the powers of evil have triumphed, and that in the end Satan, the 'strong man' has won. But Jesus is the Stronger Man and breaks the powers of death, and burst its bonds asunder as we sing in one of our Easter hymns. The powers of sin, darkness and evil do not have the last word.
This makes me think of C. S. Lewis' Narnia story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Aslan, the Lion (who is like the figure of Christ in the Narnian world) is compelled by a 'deep magic' to offer himself to the White Witch to be bound and killed on a stone table, dying in the place of the traitor Edmund in order to save him. When she has killed Aslan, the White Witch gloats in her triumph, believing that she can now kill Edmund too and rule over all Narnia. But, unknown to her, there is a 'deeper magic' at work through Aslan's self-sacrifice, and he is proved the Stronger One as he bursts his bonds and comes back to life.
The characters in the Narnia story have to decide whose side they are on: are they with Aslan or the White Witch? Can they recognise the powers of good and the powers of evil? This is what the scribes in our gospel story refuse to do. They call Jesus 'evil' and accuse him of being in league with Satan. They denounce Jesus, the Beloved Son, in whom God's presence is at work, as being opposed to God. Later, they will accuse him again of blasphemy and urge Pilate to pronounce the death sentence on him. (14:53-65).
Jesus has stern words for the scribes who refuse to recognize the power of God's Spirit at work in him. By accusing him of being in league with Satan they are calling good 'evil'. This is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and this sin can never be forgiven, Jesus says. These are strong words! Many sensitive Christians over the years have lived with a terrible dread that they might have committed this 'unforgivable sin', John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, being one of them. And someone was talking to me only recently about a friend who is troubled with such fears. But if we are worried about whether we have committed the unforgivable sin, that is a sure sign we have not done so! Jesus is not talking about a particular action, however bad, but about a decided hostile mind set which calls good 'evil' and evil 'good'. Such a total opposition to the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit makes it impossible to receive his gracious forgiveness.
Having silenced the scribes with their hostile accusations, Jesus still has his family to deal with. It seems they still want to persuade him to tone down what he is doing, to restrain him in some way. Jesus is told your 'mother and brothers are outside, asking for you'. They are 'standing outside', an expression used elsewhere for the opponents of Jesus. It certainly seems that Jesus' family are not fully supportive of what he is doing; they are doubtful, resistant, skeptical. This is not, of course, the last word on Jesus' family. Mary, his mother, is portrayed elsewhere as having great faith in Jesus, though still sometimes misunderstanding him, and Jesus' brothers are later numbered among the early Christians (Galatians 1:19; 1 Corinthians 9:5), with his brother James leading the church in Jerusalem (Acts 15).
But at this stage they are still skeptical. However, Jesus will not be distracted by the demands and expectations of his family. Indeed, he goes further. '"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he says. And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."' In a society in which close-knit family ties were extremely important, Jesus' attitude seems rather shocking. He is emphasizing that he is drawing a new family around himself; and that loyalty to him is more important than any other loyalty. (Of course, this does not mean that we stop caring for our actual families and blood relatives. Far from it! Jesus elsewhere talks about the importance of marriage and care for one's parents.)
Some of us may find that this story about the resistance of Jesus' family speaks into our own situations. I know that many people here (including David and me) have family members who do not share our faith in Christ. It is encouraging to remember that the brothers of Jesus do not remain skeptical, but come to faith in him later. This little incident in our gospel reading today, however, is a reminder that, like Jesus, we should not be drawn into the skepticism of those close to us. While continuing to love our human families, we also need the support and encouragement of our brothers and sisters in Christ, in the fellowship of the Church.
'Who is this man?' is the question which hangs over the first half of Mark's gospel. Jesus provokes a strong reaction from those around him, and people respond differently. This question is still relevant to us today. How do we respond to Jesus? Who do we say that he is? If we read the gospel of Mark carefully, it is very hard to reduce Jesus to a mildly interesting historical figure, a good person who said a few inspiring things about loving others. The gospel presents Jesus as a man of authority and energy, who forgives and heals, who confronts sin and evil and releases us from its bondage, and who calls us into a new family and a life of discipleship.
Let us pray that we will never be tempted to call good 'evil', that we will not be among those who 'stand outside' at a distance from Jesus, but that we will be among those that are drawn around him, together, as brothers and sisters, learning more of who he is and what it means to follow him.