Pentecost Three (Revised Common Lectionary) | 06.09.24 | Mark 3.20-35 | Carl A. Voges |

The Passage

Then he (Jesus) went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” And he called them to him 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 will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder the house.

“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemes they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” – for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

[English Standard Version]

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” [2 Corinthians 4.16]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord

Making one’s way through the life of this world can be exhilarating and debilitating. There can be good and smooth days; there can be others which are bad and rough. Many of those days will depend on the ways in which the world’s gods are shaping our lives along with the lives of others.

Making our way through the six months of the Pentecost season as the Lord’s baptized people gives us a much different and healthier perspective. The months reveal the trouble and misery running loose in the world while showing how the Lord’s Life slices into such realities, freeing the people trapped by them.

This Sunday we are brought into a lengthy passage from Mark’s third chapter, a reading that refreshes and steadies us for the coming week. The passage is difficult, but the Father, Son and Spirit will steer us through it. Jesus begins his ministry in Mark’s Gospel with the following words – “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” In the next couple of chapters Jesus’ actions show him healing numerous people and beginning to select his disciples. At the same time, though, the Jewish authorities are reacting with bewilderment and criticism. The healings are stirring those with diseases to press in and connect with Jesus. The unclean spirits are also seeing Jesus, recognizing he is the Son of God, but he orders them to not make him known.

There are three sections to this passage – the first one details the accusations against Jesus; the second one addresses the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit; the third one reveals the people who constitute Jesus’ mother and brothers. Assisted by the writings of three early African church fathers – Augustine, Ireneaus and Novation (see volume II of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, pages 43-49), we take a closer look at these sections.

As the first section opens up, the crowds are pressing in on Jesus so much it is difficult to eat. When his family hears of this, they attempt to seize him, thinking he is out of his mind. What is really occurring, however, is that, with his healings, Jesus is wading into the reality dominated by demonic spirits. His family, apparently, is concluding those spirits are having an effect on him.

The Jewish authorities have come to that conclusion as well. They are saying that Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul and that he is casting out demons through the prince of demons. This mention of Beelzebul is intriguing; it comes from the references in 2 Kings 1 and 1 Kings 18 (a faithless king of Israel is sick from a bad injury and wants to hear if he will recover).

In those references the word is spelled Baal-zebub, meaning “lord of the flies”; it is a mocking distortion of Baal-zebul, which means either “lord of the divine abode,” or “Baal the Prince.” The names point to the great Baal, the rival to Israel’s God. Later, the name of this pagan deity became a synonym for Satan in Jewish thinking. This explains why the Jewish authorities think Jesus has the power to do what he is doing. In response, Jesus asks them to explain how Satan can cast out Satan!

He then relates a brief parable to show their thinking does not make sense. The early African church fathers commented that, while Satan has a grip on the people of this world, Jesus, being the stronger one, tightened his grip on Satan and freed the world’s people from him (the conflict occurring on Good Friday and Holy Saturday).

Then we enter the second section where Jesus notes that, while all the sins committed by us are forgiven, the one blaspheming the Holy Spirit does not have forgiveness, that individual is guilty of eternal sin. When an individual gets thoroughly wrapped up in one’s self, he or she is turning away from the Spirit, the Son and the Father. Recall that the Jewish authorities are saying Jesus has an unclean spirit, but it is they who are blaspheming the Holy Spirit, they have chosen to live with the gods of their making and maintaining.

The early African church fathers remind us that it is the gift of the Holy Spirit which enables us to believe in Jesus and his Father. They point out that the possibility of sinning against the Holy Spirit has been used often by a twisted thinking in the Church. It has been an attempt to scare people into intensifying their commitment to the LORD God. The fathers, however, note that if a person has been made fearful by this kind of thinking, you can step back and trust that such distresses demonstrate you are not committing that sin!

We then come into the third section of today’s Gospel. Announcing their arrival, Jesus’ mother and brothers finally come to pull him from the crowds. When Jesus is told that his mother and brothers are there seeking him, he responds with a question, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Looking around the crowd, he says, “Here are my mother and my brothers,” noting further that whoever does the will of God is his brother and sister and mother. The early African church fathers commented that Mary was more blessed in receiving the faith of her Son than in giving birth to him. Put another way, she was spoken well of because she was dominated by the Word of God, not merely because she gave birth to the Son.

Through the Life that Jesus is bringing to the world, he is creating and sustaining a new and authentic family, one imbedded in the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Thus, through the Lord’s gracious activity, our own families become pointers to THE family being established by the Holy Trinity! The Lord’s activity first flares in our lives at Baptism. It continues to flare when we are exposed to the Lord’s Holy Writings and when our lives are deepened in the Sacraments of Forgiveness and the Lord’s Supper. These holy places mark the rescue of people from the world’s trouble and misery, creating and sustaining them as the latest members of the Holy Trinity family!

Ever since 09 May when the Church celebrated the Son’s Ascension, this new family has been surging. The Ascension signaled the Son’s return to the Father, completing the work of redemption that began with his Incarnation about a generation earlier. Since the Ascension the Lord’s people have observed two festivals – Pentecost and Holy Trinity. Both festivals have equipped the baptized and ordained people to be carriers and reflectors of the Lord’s redeeming Life to the choking, absorbed and trapped people in the world.

The Son’s rescue of us was not easily accomplished; nor will the carrying and reflecting of his Life be easily done. But the LORD God has surrounded us with the holy places of the Scriptures and Sacraments! In our exposure to them he shapes and guides us. Between now and the end of November we are having opportunities to mingle with the people around us, giving them glimpses of the Lord’s Life. Such individuals may not see or understand what the LORD God is offering in those glimpses; they may think we are out of our minds, the glimpses may offend those who are experts at self-centering. But they may also jar (in a good way) the persons whose lives are being throttled by the destructive workings of the world’s gods.

May the world’s workings be steadily countered by the activity of the Spirit, the Son and the Father, revealing how the Lord’s Life slices into the world’s trouble and misery while freeing the people who are trapped by such realities!

Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord

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Pr. Carl A. Voges, STS, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com