Jesus’ family now think his actions are crazy? Could it be that his own family is not ready for the radical nature of what he is doing and saying?
Why does Mary not stand up for her boy? Why does she not say, “He seems crazy because the ways of God are crazy. I ought to know”?
There is the temptation to mix the Gospels and try to explain one of them by using another. We simply cannot do it. Mark is using his own sources. We have to let the Gospel of Mark stand on its own whether we like the picture or not. Mark is telling about a man who is not even understood by his own family. A picture of growing isolation is being painted.
The religious leaders chime in and accuse Jesus of being possessed by the devil. Jesus counters with a kind of parable in which he says something along the lines of, “Why would the devil commit suicide by shooting himself?”
Oftentimes Mark does not give the reaction to what Jesus does. I for one would like to know what his family says about all this. Are they reassured by Jesus words? Do they share in the fear that he is possessed by some spirit?
Mark is saying clearly that being a follower of Jesus is not going to be easy. Being called crazy is going to be part of the package. Remember that the folks hearing Mark’s Gospel for the first time are probably being called crazy for lining up to follow a crucified Messiah.
I often think that we domesticate and tame our modern version of Christianity, so perhaps we need to reintroduce the craziness of faith. There should be an element of faith that leaves one feeling a bit crazy. It is the part that makes us wonder if we are really going to follow a man who talks about “losing to find, dying to live, and forsaking all in order to have.” Have we turned the sayings into poetry? Some of them are crazy. He intended them to be that way. This foolish craziness is the new way of life for a world whose “wisdom” has a bankrupt element within it.
The “over-againstness” of Jesus’ words is met by the accusation of insanity by even his own family. Let us not lose this early reality that Mark preserves for us. Jesus is pushing against what people expect to be normative. The real spirituality of Jesus has a fire about it. Some religious practice attempts to contain the fire into a small flame to be placed in a lamp, a lamp for individual devotional reading.
Jesus comes to set the woods on fire. He once said that he came to bring fire to the earth. He is crazy. Within him burns the flame of God. His frame contains what has never been pulled off before or since. He is the “God-Man.” He is a delicate balance of the divine and the human.
I wonder sometimes if such a high octane blend would not have felt crazy. Maybe what Jesus is really saying is, “Yes, I am crazy but it is not the devil that makes me so. The source is none other than my Father in heaven. Want to be crazy with me?”
Close examination often shows that family units have within them an internal kind of craziness that only the family can really comprehend. Jesus offers those who will follow him an opportunity to be part of his family. His biological family has to realize that Jesus’ understanding of family is much bigger than the family tree. Under the shade of Jesus’ father’s family tree there will stand all types of people. When the religious types of the day realize just how inclusive the shade of the tree will be, they know Jesus has to be crazy. Their solution is to either cut down the family tree or hang Jesus from one of its branches.
Mark 3:28–35 The Unpardonable Sin/Jesus’ Real Family
Guilt is feeling bad about what you have done. Shame is feeling bad about who you are. Jesus expects that his followers will sometimes experience guilt because the expectations of being a disciple are challenging enough that guilt is sometimes the consequence, but Jesus has no room for shame. He has the divine quality of seeing each person as a child of God with infinite worth simply because they are. All the titles and good deeds are not important. Grace is the new norm by which people are measured. We all start the same, and we all mess up eventually. The law cannot save us. The many religious laws in Jesus’ day that were intended to be life-giving so often led beyond guilt to shame.
Jesus offers forgiveness for sins, but in this passage we read Jesus’ statement about an “eternal sin,” sometimes translated as the “unpardonable sin,” which is committed by “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit.” People who think that maybe they have committed the unpardonable sin experience all kind of shame. They may have a mental picture of a God who suddenly says at the Heavenly Gate, “Whoops, you can’t get in. You committed the unpardonable sin and did not know it. Surprise!” This may be some kind of scary story that has haunted them from childhood.
In fact, if one listens closely to Jesus and watches closely how he lives and teaches forgiveness, one will wonder what this “unpardonable” sin might be. We hear the word “blaspheme” and we think of some kind of curse. A curse is usually thrown out to demean or disregard someone. It expresses a contempt or lack of reverence for God or something that is considered sacred.
In the context of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is referring to those who have just accused him of working for the powers of evil. These accusers feel threatened by Jesus and the way he is healing and freeing people. They do not want to accept that God may be working through someone outside of their system.
The accusers are also so much caught up in a sense of their own righteousness and superiority that they have lost the ability to distinguish good from evil. They have become incapable of recognizing the work of God when it is right before them, and do not appreciate that Jesus views each person as a sacred child of God, worthy of his attention. They are more concerned about judging, shunning, excluding and oppressing others.
Jesus’ “Abba” has no room for such a way of treating people. Jesus comes to open the doors to people not to shut them, to free them, not to bind them. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day who accuse him of conspiring with the dark side are getting real close to the unpardonable sin stuff because they are shutting down God’s expansive grace and blocking off the family connection that is essential for the right understanding of life.
Jesus offers those who will listen to him a chance to re-establish this right relationship to God, but if a person has lost sight of moral vision, of right and wrong, of the dignity and respect that is due to every person, they may be unable to see a need to ask for forgiveness. They may say, “I do not need the Spirit of God. I am the captain of my own fate. What I have gained in life, I have made myself. It is all about me.” This person may put himself or herself outside the family. God does not do this.
Family connection is important to Jesus. For him, “family” goes way beyond the concept of biological family. He says, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” The real family of Jesus are those who express their reverence for God by their regard for others, and their actions towards them.
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