Jesus Comes Home

(Gospel of Mark 3:20 - 3:35)

Jesus came home, but so large a crowd gathered that he and his disciples were not even able to able to have a meal.  When his friends and family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, saying, “He’s out of his mind!”

Scribes who came from Jerusalem pronounced, “He is possessed by Beelzebub.  He exorcises demons with the prince of demons.”

And so Jesus called them over to him and spoke to him with analogies.  “How can Satan exorcise Satan?  If a nation is divided against itself, it is not able to endure.  And if a family is divided against itself, that family is unable to endure.  And if Satan rebels against himself and is divided, then he cannot endure, but will come to his end.  No one can go into a strong man’s house to steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man.  Only then can he ransack his house.”

“I tell you truly, all the sins that man commits and all the blasphemies they may utter will be forgiven.  But whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, for he is guilty of a sin that is eternal.’

He said this to them, because they were claiming, “He is possessed by an evil spirit.”

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived and standing outside, they sent some inside to call him.  A crowd was sitting around Jesus and they told him, “Your mother and brother are outside looking for you.”  He answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”  He looked at those seated around him and declared, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever it is that does God’s will, that is my brother and sister and mother.”

Notes
1. This is apparently not a great homecoming for Jesus.  Followers crowd into his house so that he and his apostles cannot even get themselves a meal.  Some of his friends and family think he’s lost his marbles and, in modern terms, want to have him committed.  Scribes (theologians and teachers of religious law) come from Jerusalem, a long way off, to declare that he is possessed by evil spirits, even Beelzebub, probably used here as synonomous with Satan, the devil.  (Later Beelzebub would be regarded as a separate, but major demon, the “Lord of the Flies”).  The scribes also assert that he is exorcising demons by using the authority of the demon leader, Satan.  This Jesus effectively and eloquently refutes by reasoning that Satan could not go against his own demonkind without destroying himself.  His analogy about the strong man and the robber suggests that Jesus can exorcise demons only because he has suppressed the power of Satan.  --- Next, interrupting his teaching, Jesus’s mother and brothers show up wanting to see him.  (Apparently he did not live with his family, for his mother and brothers seem to be visitors).  Jesus totally snubs his family, declaring that his family are his disciples, those who do the will of God.  It is implied that his family does not do the will of God, or if they do not, they are no longer his family.  It is not recorded whether his mother and brothers were ever accorded the courtesy of being received by Jesus.

2. Jesus is from Nazareth in Galilee, but no further information about his background is here vouchsafed.  What did he do before he was an evangelist?  His house was apparently large enough to accomodate a large number of people.  Had he been relatively wealthy?