Good News!

Based on Mark 3:20-35

What a wild scene. Jesus has returned to his hometown of Capernaum again after journeying around the Sea of Galilee. He was as popular as ever because of his teachings and especially his healings and exorcisms. Wherever he went there was a crowd. They have come back to his house but the crowd did not respect Jesus’ privacy. They all crowded in. The crowd kept pressing on Jesus and Jesus kept on teaching and healing. They couldn’t even sit down and get a bite to eat. No time for that. The need was too great, the house so full of people. This has become a trend by the way. The last time Jesus was at his house there was a crowd packed in and the same things were happening. It was so crowded that a group of friends couldn’t get their friend who was paralyzed to Jesus so that he could hopefully heal him so they got up on the roof of Jesus’ house and tore a huge hole in it so they could lower their friend in front of Jesus. The audacity! The people had to have been so desperate that they had no qualms entering into Jesus’ home to get the healing they needed, even if that meant preventing him from sitting down in his kitchen to eat, or even if it meant ripping the roof off the house. All kinds of boundaries were being crossed to get to the healing man. It was an intense scene. That Jesus kept on ministering to these desperate people is a testament to his patience and deep love.

And with all that incredible popularity came the inevitable backlash. Jesus’ family didn’t know what to make of this, as Mark tells the story. It was too much. And not everyone in town were thrilled with what Jesus was doing, the disturbance he was causing with all this throng making a ruckus. Some were saying that Jesus was losing his mind. It was making Jesus’ family really uncomfortable, to see their son and brother causing such a spectacle. So, Jesus’ mother and brothers start walking over to Jesus’ house to see if they can restrain him, to dial it down a bit.

But it wasn’t just Jesus’ family who were moving in to shush Jesus. Some scribes had traveled all the way from Jerusalem to let these people know that Jesus wasn’t who they thought he was. These scribes were really having a hard time with Jesus. Who is this guy? Where does he get off? He hasn’t been trained. He hasn’t been authorized. He’s a nobody. And he’s going around teaching the people and casting out all these demons without being given any authorization to do so. There is no way God could be blessing this. Jesus is out of order. The only explanation must be that he is demon possessed himself, that Beelzebul, the prince of demons, is making these exorcisms happen just to delude everyone into thinking that Jesus is some kind of messiah. It’s just a big con, so the scribes think. So, they came over there right where Jesus was to let that crowd know in his hometown that Jesus is a fraud.

Well, confronted with this criticism, Jesus doesn’t back down. He doesn’t go to his mother and say, “It’s ok mom, don’t worry about me.” And he certainly wasn’t going to waste his energy trying to reason with those scribes who were clearly being irrational. Instead, Jesus faces his critics head on and in the process makes some incredible statements. We are going to focus on three of them.

The first one I want us to focus on is where Jesus speaks of tying up the strong man to plunder the house. Jesus describes his ministry like a thief who is capable of tying up a strong man, meaning Jesus is even stronger, and then ransacking the man’s house while the bound man watches on unable to stop it. Wow! I wonder how many thieves and others of a sketchy persuasion who were drawn to Jesus resonated with what Jesus said right there. It is an edgy image that Jesus is describing. Of course, Jesus doesn’t identify the strong man or the house that Jesus is robbing. We assume that the strong man is Satan whom Jesus is binding. What Jesus is stealing from Satan’s house is all those souls who were demon possessed. But it also makes me think of that early teaching of the church. When Jesus died but before he rose from the dead he went down to Sheol, that underworld place where souls went when people died, so that he could bind up Death and liberate all those souls trapped in Sheol, starting with Adam and Eve. It really is a provocative image: Jesus, the stronger man, coming into Satan’s house to bind him and then while looking on going through Satan’s house to take back all those souls that Satan had imprisoned. Jesus’ saving work is like a heist.

The second statement we need to look at is when Jesus speaks of what will be forgiven and what won’t be forgiven, the so-called unforgivable sin. This statement has generated a lot of comment over the centuries as well as a good bit of anxiety. So many people have wondered to themselves, “Have I committed the unforgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit?” It’s a sin that is kind of ambiguous. When we think of sin we think of concrete actions, lying, adultery, theft, although it’s ironic that Jesus identifies his own ministry as a kind of theft. But what exactly is blaspheming against the Holy Spirit? Thankfully, Mark gives us an example of what blaspheming against the Holy Spirit looks like. When the scribes accused Jesus of being possessed by an unclean spirit, that is an example of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit within Jesus that is empowering him to cast out all these demons. Yet, the scribes say it is an unclean spirit, even Beelzebul the prince of demons. That is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and it’s unforgiveable. Jesus is letting those scribes know that the sin they are committing by accusing him of being possessed by a demon is a sin that will never be forgiven. Harsh.

So, what about that anxiety that some feel, worried about committing this unforgiveable sin? I have heard it explained to me that if someone is worried about committing this unforgiveable sin, they can be assured they haven’t. This points back to what Jesus says just before, an amazing statement that we need to hear again: “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.” Not some sins, not most sins, all sins. And it doesn’t matter what blasphemies you may have uttered in a weak moment. We all say things we later regret. It’s ok. That will be forgiven as well. Jesus is making it clear that our sins, all of them, will be forgiven. What won’t be forgiven will be rejection of that forgiveness, rejection of the forgiveness that Jesus offers on God’s behalf. It is to treat the gift of forgiveness as a demonic curse that must be rejected, just like what those scribes were doing. Again, if you are ever worried about whether or not you will be forgiven for your sins, be assured that in the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven.

Here’s the last statement for us to focus on. After Jesus has told off the scribes, he is told that his family is outside and that they want to talk to him. That gives an opportunity for Jesus to redefine family. He looks around at all those people crowded into his house, looking to him for a teaching, a word of wisdom, a healing, and says that these strangers are his mother, brothers and sisters. He isn’t rejecting his biological family. Instead, he is expanding the definition of what counts as family. Jesus doesn’t care where you come from, who is your daddy, what tribe or ethnicity you were born in to, if you are doing God’s will, you are his mother, brother or sister. All borders are removed as far as Jesus is concerned. That means that if you do God’s will, which is to love God and love your neighbor as yourself, then Jesus is your brother, and you are my brother or sister. We are one global family in all of our marvelous diversity.

There is so much good news in this passage. Jesus is like a hero who breaks into Satan’s house, binds him up and then robs his house of all the souls he stole. Jesus offers forgiveness for all we have said and done, no exceptions, unless we choose to reject that offer. And we are all Jesus’ brothers and sisters, kin of a global family. Good news! That’s something worth keeping in mind as we make our way through life. Jesus is stronger than Satan. We are forgiven. We are family.