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And they went into a house. Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, "He is out of His mind." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub," and, "By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons." So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.
"Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation" -- because they said, "He has an unclean spirit."
Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You." But He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brothers?" And he looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother."
- Mark 3:19b-35
Yesterday we read that after healing a man on a Sabbath in direct confrontation with the religious leadership, Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him. So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him. For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him. And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, "You are the Son of God." But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known. And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, "Sons of Thunder"; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.
And they went into a house. Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. Again, in Mark's usually brief Gospel, we're given a significant detail. No one could even take a meal in this house, so great is the demand for Jesus, and the numbers of those who crowd around Him.
But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, "He is out of His mind." Here is another significant detail. Members of His own extended family are alarmed at what is happening in this ministry. He's drawing a huge attention to Himself, and they can't understand it. It gives us a special message about the power of the gospel: not everybody is going to understand it. Not everyone of "His own" accepts Him as Messiah, nor even that God is present in Him and in His message.
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub," and, "By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons." So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house." "Beelzebub" or Baal was the prince of "the dung heap" or lord of "the flies" -- a satirical title for a god worshiped by the Philistines (see 2 Kings 1:2-16). Here the leadership call him the ruler of the demons. My study bible says, "The impossibility of demons fighting against themselves illustrates the irrational pride and envy of the Pharisees in their opposition to Jesus."
"Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation" -- because they said, "He has an unclean spirit." My study bible says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is blasphemy against the divine activity of the Spirit; in other words it's a blasphemy against pure goodness. It says, "A sin against the Son of Man is more easily forgiven because the Jews did not know much about Christ. But blasphemy against the Spirit, whose divine activity they knew from the Old Testament, will not be forgiven because it comes from a willful hardness of heart and a refusal to accept God's mercy." My study bible adds that Church Fathers are clear that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not an "unforgivable sin" nor does Jesus call the sin "unforgivable." St. John Chrysostom tells us that blasphemy against the Spirit is forgivable if a person repents of it. Jesus makes this statement because He knows that those who blaspheme the Spirit are calling pure and divine goodness "evil," and that they are beyond repentance by their own choice.
Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You." But He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brothers?" And he looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother." We remember that in the tradition of the Near and Middle East, the word "brothers" is used for extended family and kin. Perhaps, as we're told above, they don't understand His mission and identity, and they've come calling for Him again. But Jesus' statement here isn't to deny His family, so much as it is to express the true and broad nature of real family. His mission is to do the will of God, His Father. This is something that surpasses all else -- and by extension, whoever does the same is His brother and sister and mother. Jesus makes His mission and loyalty clear.
We're given a strange sense of division here in today's reading, a kind of delineation along particular and strong lines. We don't usually think of Jesus as One who causes division; He is the uniter. He's the One in whom we are united. But rejection of His mission creates delineation, separation. This is a very important distinction, one that is significant to the whole of the gospel, and even to our understanding of faith. It's also necessary to our understanding of divine justice. At its center is precisely Jesus' statement about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. God's work in the world stands of itself as a kind of arbiter, a lodestone, the true pole of essential goodness. It's how we respond to that holy work in the world that separates and makes potent the reality of faith. And it's along this same sort of division that notions about family and kinship are expressed in today's reading. His mother and brother and sister is whoever does the will of His Father. Those who accuse Him of working by demons may do nothing by insulting Jesus as human being, but the reality of the subject here is the work that's being done by the Holy Spirit, God's work in the world that happens through this ministry of Jesus. And that's what's being blasphemed as coming from Beelzebub or Baal, from the ruler of the demons. To blaspheme the Spirit, the work of God in the world, is to violate true justice. They are condemning essential goodness, holiness by this blasphemy. And Jesus knows they will not repent of that statement but carry it to its final end. It's the same pole that separates Him from the extended family or clan members that think He's out of His mind; they simply don't "get" what is happening. The gospel message hasn't reached them. We'll get many instances in the Gospels where familiarity somehow fails to create real faith, even may add a barrier to faith and the perception of the work of the Spirit, the truth of the Gospel. In all four Gospels, Jesus states that a prophet has no honor in his own country (see Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24, and John 4:44). The delineation is clear: the lines aren't drawn among conventional understanding of who is in "our group," who is related to us, who is our family or kin and even countrymen. There is one pole, and that is God, and everything else, in spiritual sight, really depends upon how we relate to God and to God's work in the world (the Holy Spirit, as Jesus says above). This is what really takes priority in true judgment, and it's a dividing line that passes through everything we think we know and see. The Gospels make this clear in many statements by Jesus, particularly when He warns the disciples later on about what is to come as Jesus gets closer to open confrontation with the authorities (see Matthew 10:35, Luke 12:53). St. Paul writes, "The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12 NKJV). He gives us the sharpest, strongest picture of delineation by the word of God, the gospel message that calls us to faith, the work of the Spirit in the world. If we are to understand the power of faith and Jesus' message, then we are called to this place that separates everything else from us but the truth in the heart. It's how we respond to true goodness, regardless of circumstances or situations or ties or loyalties, that really brings justification or not, and true "right-relatedness" or righteousness -- or that separates us from the good. It's the power of the Spirit, a living holiness, that constitutes true goodness or righteousness. And it's this living reality that brings us true ties. Blasphemy of that living reality separates us from true goodness. What's in your heart?
