Out of His Mind

Mark 3:20-35 is arranged like a sandwich. On the outside is Jesus' family, who hear what is happening and set out to take charge of him, because people are saying he is out of his mind. In the middle are teachers of the law from Jerusalem, who say something far worse: that he is possessed by Beelzebul and drives out demons by the prince of demons. Then the family arrives, and the story closes.

It is a startling passage. The Son of God is thought mad by his relatives and demonic by the religious experts. Mark could have left the family's opinion out. He includes it, perhaps because the early church knew what it was like to be misunderstood by those closest to them.

Jesus answers the scribes with logic. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. If Satan is driving out Satan, his end has come. Nobody can plunder a strong man's house without first tying him up, and that, Jesus implies, is exactly what he is doing. Then he gives the warning about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which has troubled tender consciences ever since. In context it is aimed at people who looked at the Spirit's work in Jesus and called it the work of the devil, with eyes open and hearts set. It is not describing someone who is afraid they have committed it; such fear is itself evidence of a heart the Spirit is still working on.

Then the family. Jesus does not go out to them. He looks around at those sitting near him and says that whoever does God's will is his family. It is not a rejection of Mary. It is a declaration that the deepest bond is not blood.

There is comfort here for anyone whose faith is misread by relatives, and there is a caution for anyone quick to diagnose another's zeal as imbalance. Jesus was called mad for doing exactly what the Father sent him to do. If you are misunderstood for following him, you are in good company, and you have been given a family that understands.