Challenging the Authority of Jesus (Mark 3:20 to 35)
Our reading this morning describes two challenges to the authority of Jesus. They are very different challenges; the first is from his family who we would expect to be on his side and the second comes from some teachers of the law who we would expect to oppose his authority at every opportunity. The challenges also differ in that they come from one group of people who know him very well as a person and one group of people who know him primarily by reputation. I would also suggest that one of the challenges is intentional and the other unintentional.
Jesus's popularity was such that he was frequently followed by large crowds not only wishing to hear him preach and teach but seeking healing for themselves, members of their family, or their friends. The healing was not limited to people with physical illness but included those with mental and spiritual problems. When we consider Jesus is power to heal and his skill as a teacher, we should not be surprised that so many people sought him.
In a world where medicine as a science was poorly developed and illness often meant being excluded from society, finding someone like Jesus must have seemed like a gift from heaven (which of course he was). When a new miracle drug is announced today, sufferers of the disease it is intended to cure will not only rush off to their doctor to see if they can be treated with the drug but will, more importantly, be given new hope.
To the crowds who sought out Jesus it was the offer of hope that drove them. His healing offered hope of a radically different and new life, not just to the individual who was healed but to his or her family. His teaching offered hope of a radically different and new spiritual life that need not end with earthly death. We should not underestimate the oppressive impact of Jewish rituals and laws on ordinary people. They faced a constant struggle to understand exactly what they needed to do in order to get themselves right with God.
Even when they understood what was needed they faced a struggle to do what was required; and that was for the lucky ones who were not considered to be outcasts merely as a consequence of an illness they suffered. There are so many examples of this in the Gospels. The woman who suffered from haemorrhages, the lepers, the mentally ill and those who were possessed could not live even remotely normal lives and had little contact with other people who avoided them for fear of being, themselves, made ritually unclean.
Little wonder then that the crowds following Jesus numbered many thousands and, who their own desperate need, were oblivious to his need for food, time to pray or just simply to rest. When we remember how many times Jesus responded to the crowds out of compassion even when he was tired, we can have some grasp of how much pressure was placed upon him by people in need. In our reading we are told that, "Jesus entered the house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat".
In the same way that Jesus's popularity generated huge crowds of people seeking his help and love, his popularity generated an endless stream of people seeking the destruction of his reputation and an end to the threat he posed to the power of those in authority.
I am a pretty busy person and confess to finding it difficult to say no when I am asked to do something. Much of the time this is because I genuinely enjoy doing the things I am asked to do. Nonetheless, I occasionally find myself with days when I am too busy and my family and friends become concerned for me. I like to think that their concern is much more a consequence of love than the fact that I can get irritable when I'm tired. Usually their concern results in them offering me help with the tasks I have undertaken and there can be no doubt whatsoever that I could achieve only a small proportion of what I do without that help; especially the help given by my wife Pauline.
From time to time, their concern manifests itself in an encouragement for me not to do the work I have agreed to do. They can see that when I may have to work very long hours and may not have the time to spend with them that we would have liked; leaving something undone might be a possible solution. A lot of the time they are right but every now and then they are wrong because they don't have enough sight of the reasons that the work must be done or the impact that it will have if I do not do the work.
Let's look at the beginning and the end of today's reading which, together, make one story. Mark frequently uses the device of beginning a story, telling a second story, and then ending the first story; especially where he sees a connection between the two. In verse 21 it says, “When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” At the end of the reading we find out what happened when they arrived and sent someone in to speak to Jesus. Having been told that his mother and brothers were outside looking for him, Jesus says, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Then pointing to those around him he says, “Here are my mother and brothers; whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother".
Their decision to go and take charge of him is one driven by love and they are clearly determined to go to his aid. The words used in Greek for ‘take charge of him’ are very forceful and are used later in the gospel to describe his arrest. I have been surprised by the number of commentators who take the words, “He is out of his mind", to mean that they think Jesus is mad or deluded.
How can Mary, the woman who responded with obedience to the angel Gabriel's announcement that she would give birth to Jesus after being told, that, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end”, consider him to be deluded? How can Mary, the woman who witnessed the extraordinary events following his birth in Bethlehem consider him deluded?
They were concerned that the pressures placed upon him, and the tiredness it would bring, would make it difficult for him to be rational about doing too much and accepting the need to rest; in exactly the same way that my family are concerned when I am working too hard. They would also be acutely aware of the danger he placed himself in, every time he performed miracles or preached as he did.
Jesus's response to their action seems harsh but the message is clear. Even though they are motivated by love for him, the effect is to challenge his authority as God. Jesus knows God's will and he knows it completely and perfectly. Everything he did on earth was in response to God's will and anyone who interfered or challenged what he did ran the risk of opposing God’s will or at the least making it less effective. It is exactly the same each time the disciples trying to tell Jesus what he should or should not do. Just think about the time that Peter dared to rebuke Jesus when Jesus had told him that he must suffer and die on the cross (Mark 8:27).
It is a warning to us that we should be careful not to let the fact that something is hard or illogical or tiring or frightening prevent us from responding to what God wants us to do.
The second story in our reading is about the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem specifically to challenge Jesus's authority. There was no motivation of love or concern us in their action; unless it was the love of power or concern for their own position in society.
It is evident that they accept without question Jesus's ability to heal and to drive out Demons. They make no attempt to challenge his ability because they would be recognised as fools by the crowd if they did so. They are faced then with a dilemma because they must find a way to prevent the crowd from continuing to follow and be disciples of Jesus. They reasoned that, since Jesus cannot have these powers given to him by God, they must come from the only other source of power; Satan.
So they accuse him openly of being possessed by Beelzebub; the Prince of Demons, the Lord of the Flies. As is so often the case when Jesus is challenged by lawyers; those lawyers imagine that they have either trapped him or caught him out in a way that will discredit him when he replies.
As is so often the case, they are wrong! In a few words and a short parable Jesus let them know that any involvement he has with Satan, is in the war against him. The absurdity of their accusation is quickly identified. Why, Jesus wonders, do they imagine that a malignant power would cooperate in widespread deeds of mercy which aided people's faith in God by granting authority to someone who speaks against him to destroy his own agents?
The truth of his words in verses 24 to 26 is overwhelming. The kingdom divided against itself cannot stand; a house divided against itself cannot stand and Satan, if he opposes himself is doomed. These are simple truths that would have been obviously correct then, exactly as they would be throughout history. So many empires and organisations have fallen as a result of disunity rather than defeat by an external power.
But just in case the lawyers should imagine that Satan's defeat would only arise as a consequence of his own weakness, Jesus tells them the parable, “In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house”.
Satan's strength is undeniable, but if Jesus does not work by Satan's strength another explanation is at hand. It is that someone stronger than Satan has bound him and is pillaging his house. What is happening is not the result of a civil war in Satan's ranks; but a direct onslaught from outside led by Jesus. In addition to wrecking the plans of the lawyers Jesus gives us the extraordinarily great news that however much Satan may seek to tempt us into sin and defeat us we can live in the certain knowledge that he will be unsuccessful.
The authority of Jesus over everything that exists is absolute. Lord, help us to further his work, not frustrate it. Amen
