Jesus out of His mind or just from the devil? His family seems to think the former. When word of Jesus' fame comes to his family they decide to "restrain" with Him like He is a lunatic. Mark then interrupts this story to tell a similar story about scribes who have come from Jerusalem and accuse Jesus of being from the devil. Jesus repeats that that if this were the case Satan's kingdom would not be able to stand. Jesus then shoots back to them a charge of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. That is the scribes have seen the works of God and attribute it to the devil. Ironically, the demons we've encountered in Mark's Gospel have seen and titled Jesus appropriately.
Then Mark goes back to the story of Jesus' family. Interesting they are standing outside while the crowd is sitting with Jesus. Mark is making sure we connect these two stories. Family bonds were extremely tight in Jesus day. Jesus is radical in claiming that what binds those in the Kingdom of God together (doing God's will) is a tighter bond than genetic family. Far from out of His mind or from the devil, in fact Jesus is doing the will of His heavenly Father and is inviting others to do the same.
Questions:
People often struggle with blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and fear they have committed this sin. Does this understanding bring you some comfort? Might this also give us pause before we declare something is of the devil?
What does Jesus' words to his family say about the bonds within the family of God? What allegiance do we hold dear today? How might they get in the way of our allegiance to Jesus?
Those who are with Jesus do so sitting with Him. How can you better take time to sit at the feet of Jesus?
What might this say about doing God's will?
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