Mark 3:20-35; 1 Samuel 8:4-20; 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Chapter 3 of the Gospel of Mark presents us a picture of Jesus healing people, casting out demons and facing the religious leaders in theological arguments that he always won. Mark -and also the other gospels- say that wherever Jesus went, crowds always followed because wherever Jesus went something good happened.
However, regardless of the good things that happened, there were people who saw everything Jesus did as a threat. Mark 3 mentions two groups. One of those groups was Jesus’ own family. When they knew what he was doing, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” They had no other way of explaining what he was saying and doing. Jesus for them was in plain English, crazy. What Jesus did was a threat for them. They were afraid the leaders of the synagogue were going to retaliate against them.
The other group was the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem and said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.”
I think is impossible to avoid the question, what has Jesus done to deserve this kind of comments? All he has done so far is good. He has announced the coming kingdom of God, He has called some disciples to follow and helping him with his mission, He has casted out demons and healed a lot of sick people. Everything He has done sounds great, however, when we see deeper, we will realize that Jesus did a couple things that made the religious leaders upset and uncomfortable. For instance, one of those disciples he called -and was present at that moment- was a tax collector. At the sight of Israel and especially religious people, tax collectors were traitors, they were employees of their oppressors who collected more money that they were supposed to.
Jesus had also casted out demons and healing, that was good. However, as you remember from last Sunday scripture, he did it on the Sabbath. Therefore, according to the interpretation of the teachers of the law, Jesus broke Moses law, He broke “the holiness of Sabbath” by not waiting to do it on other day. All these mean that for them, Jesus was a threat to their sound doctrine; Jesus’ interpretation was counter cultural. He was someone with a different point of view, and they did not like it.
Jesus’ vision of the coming kingdom of God, the Kingdom He was preaching was rooted in a profound inclusivity that would let neither religious law and rituals or social customs prevent him from reaching those in need and offer them the abundant life he came to offer. Jesus, therefore, was a threat to what was already established and that made him dangerous, crazy, or possessed before the religious leaders and his own family.
Is Jesus crazy as his family says? or possessed as the teachers of the law say? With the arguments Jesus presented, He proved He was neither crazy nor possessed. What he did was “crazy,” yes, was crazy compared with what others religious leaders would do. Let me explain, the “crazy things” he did, “Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” 33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” You see, any other teacher of the law would not dare to call brother to a tax collector as Jesus did with Matthew or call brother to a fisherman from Galilee like Peter or Andrew or the sons of Zebedee. Any teacher of the law would not call sister or accept into his group a strange woman, especially a woman with a bad reputation and Jesus did later in his ministry.
Jesus did something different, compared with other teachers, he presented the kingdom and embraced the rejected; Jesus accepted and welcomed marginalized, touched the untouchable and put human beings over the “sacred law” and he called them family. As a result, his message reached the masses and the message of God’s love transformed the lives of those living in the periphery of society, those forgotten by the religious leaders; God’s love reached those who were judged unworthy of God’s love and made them part of his family.
In Jesus’ time Jews believed that the only God’s people or family was Israel, the descendants of Abraham. However, here we have Jesus breaking all those barriers and calling whoever does God’s will -regardless of their background-, brothers, sisters, and mother. In Mark 3, Jesus is creating a new family model; this family model is not based on blood, but in obedience to God’s will. 35 Whoever does God’s will, is my brother and sister and mother.”
Jesus’ followers understood His message and after his death, the disciples shared the message of salvation with those called gentiles and some years later Paul shared the same message with the churches in Galatia. Take a listen to what he said in chapter 3:26-29 “So, in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Paul continued with the “crazy” message of Jesus. A message of unity and equality that nowadays still sounds crazy for some Christians and no Christians. However, if we want to stand as church, if we want to stand as community, if we want to stand as country, we must follow and continue with the “crazy” message of inclusive unity preached by Jesus, by Paul and many others committed to do God’s will.
A few years ago, in his message for the licensing, commission, and ordination our former Bishop, Bishop Carter shared part of Saint Francis of Assisi’ call. History says that while looking at a crucifix, Saint Francis heard Jesus’ voice saying, “go and rebuild my church.” In the twelfth century, the church of Jesus did look like the church of Jesus.
Today the gospel is inviting us to rebuild the concept of family. Who is our family? According to Jesus, those who do God’s will are our brothers, sisters, and mothers. According to Paul, those who believe in Jesus. John in his first letter chapter 3 verse 16 tells us something crazy, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” John is inviting us to do as Jesus did, the ultimate sacrifice for our family.
Church is family, church is made of those who do God’s will, those who believe in Jesus regardless of who we are, who we were, what we did, where we come from, color of skin, legal status, our place in society and even our gender.
The family, Jesus and Paul talk about is only possible with the help of the Holy Spirit. In John 16:13, Jesus said, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”
There is no better place to express and to experience what it means to be Christ’ family that here at church, and specially at the Lord’s Table, where our nationalities, our patriotism, our social condition, our background, our political affiliation are diminished by the mighty presence of our Lord, by our faith in Christ Jesus and our desire to do God’s will. In church and around the table, we are just a big family made of men and women saved by the power and love of God.
Sisters and brothers, what make us one is not who we are, or how we think. What makes us one is what God has done for us and in us; what make us one is not the names or title society gives us, but the name and titles God gives us, “yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” If you have received Jesus in your heart, you are my brother and my sister regardless of where you were or what you did. Let us live as family, let us respect and treat each other as who we are, brothers and sisters in Christ.