Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother

 And they went into a house.  Then the multitude came together again, so much 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 the Pharisees began to plot with the Herodians against Him,  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 much 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."   Here is a response to Jesus' fame; it is unseemly, in some sense, to His extended family.  And there is also the hostility of the rulers in Galilee which must alarm them -- and now His ministry is far beyond Galilee, across all communities of the Jews.  For the most part, they cannot understand Him or His ministry (see also John 7:1-9).

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 scathing term used by the Jews for a god worshiped by the Philistines (2 Kings 1:2-16).   Here the scribes call this god the ruler of the demons.  Jesus speaks of individuals and factions fighting one another in a kingdom.  My study bible says that the impossibility of demons fighting against themselves illustrates the irrational pride and envy of the Pharisees in their opposition to Jesus.  We note that until now they Pharisees were plotting with the Herodians (those who support Herod, ruler of Galilee) against Him; now the scribes come from Jerusalem to attack Him.   Christ, as liberator, can bind Satan the "strong man." 

"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."   Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, my study bible says, is blasphemy against the divine activity of the Spirit.  That is, blasphemy against pure goodness.  To sin against the Son of Man is more easily forgiven because the Jews did not know much about Christ.  But they know the divine activity of the Holy Spirit from the Scriptures.  This will not be forgiven because it comes from a willful hardness of heart, and a refusal to accept God's mercy.    My study bible goes on to say that the Fathers of the Church state clearly that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not an "unforgivable sin," nor does Jesus ever call it "unforgivable."  According to St. John Chrysostom, such blasphemy would be forgiven if a person repented of it.  Jesus makes such a declaration knowing that those who are blaspheming the Spirit are calling pure, 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."  Jesus' relatives haven't yet understood His identity and mission, according to my study bible.  But more importantly, Christ -- as His ministry is expanding -- is pointing to another type of family, that based on a spiritual unity in obedience to the will of God.  He doesn't condemn His family nor is He putting them down in some sense; rather He is affirming the communion of those who love God.  Here it should be noted also that brother in the traditional usage in the Middle East (and indeed, in Scripture) can refer to a number of extended relations.  Abram called his nephew Lot "brother" (Genesis 14:14); Boaz spoke of Elimelech, his cousin, as his "brother" (Ruth 4:3); and Joab called his cousin Amasa "brother" (1 Kings 20:9).   Since Mary had one child, Jesus, it is assumed here that these brothers are either step-brothers (sons of Joseph from an earlier marriage, as he was an older man when Mary was betrothed to him); or they are cousins.  At the Cross, Jesus commits His mother to the care of John His disciple (John 19:25-27).  This would be unthinkable in their culture if Mary had other children to care for her.   And indeed, such an act itself affirms Jesus' discussion of family as union in spiritual reality.

As Jesus' ministry and fame expands, so does the understanding He gives of what the Kingdom entails.  There are those outside of it, and those inside of it.  Every unity is based upon the will of God, and those who seek to do and live this will.  The active will of God in the world is the Holy Spirit -- the pure, active living mercy of God at work in the Person of the Spirit.  To love the Spirit is to embrace the family that Christ calls us to.  To call the Spirit's work somehow evil is to truly blaspheme against God, to commit a type of sin that is the most serious Jesus will ever name.   His teachings in this regard speak to us of a type of perception it is important to honor, to cultivate, and to understand.  How can we know the active love and mercy of God at work?  It is this to which He calls our attention and asks our focus.  This is the goal for which all of our worship practices orient us.  It is the purpose of constant prayer; indeed, even of studying the Scriptures.  And if we but think about it in the context of today's passage, this is the true goal for which the scribes and Pharisees endlessly study Scripture, and somehow they have missed it.  They call Jesus' work in the world the work of demons.  They claim He heals and casts out demons by the power of Satan, of Beelzebub, the "ruler of the demons."  In their jealousy and envy, their rivalry to Christ, it is they who resemble the world of demons -- their irrationality gives us a clue to that.  There is no logic and no sense to what they say and the accusations they make against Him.  Somehow it is among them that the center cannot hold, so to speak, and truth is nowhere to be found.  They are blind even to the good He is doing.  We go back to His question to them in Thursday's reading, which they refused to answer, but met in stony silence:  "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"   Where is the love of God, the embrace of the work of the Holy Spirit?  It is this question we must constantly ask ourselves in today's world, in which we are bombarded with messages about what is "correct" and what is not.  We can look around ourselves, and in our world, and see what does good and what does evil, what saves life and what kills -- what needlessly divides and makes false accusation only to serve material power.  We must constantly be on our guard about the same deceptions, perhaps magnified in greater strength by the destructive power modern methods of rule allow, such as weapons and telecommunications and the spread of falsehoods upon which people are encouraged to act.  Oh yes, we live in a modern world with the same temptations, perhaps even magnified, but Christ still stands in the middle of it.  He still calls us to the unity of family in the Holy Spirit, in the love of God and seeking to do God's will above all else.  Beyond that, He still calls us, as good servants, to discernment, and to understand of every would-be prophet, any wolf in sheep's clothing, that by their fruits you shall know them.  We are called to be His ever-watchful and alert servants -- and to truly know Whom it is we serve.