Trouble-maker, healer, demon, crazy man. Who is Jesus?
Tonight we see different groups responding to Jesus. Chapter 3 is all about response: the Pharisees reject Jesus and plot to destroy him; the crowd reject Jesus’ role as teacher and want him as miracle-worker; the scribes from Jerusalem (the top religious leaders) reject Jesus’ deity (his God-ness) and say his power comes from Satan; and Jesus’ own family think he’s out of his mind.
But right in the middle, Jesus goes up onto a mountain and calls forth 12 men, just as he called out 12 tribes in the wilderness on Mt. Sinai 1500 years before. It is the birth of a new nation, one that truly would fulfil the promise made to Abraham 2000 years before: “every nation will be blessed through you”. The nation that spans all nations on earth: the Church. V13-18 is the birth of the Church, the New Israel, the True Israel, both Jews and Gentiles brought together in Christ Jesus.
This is Mark’s “sandwich” method, where he puts two similar stories around the “meat” which explains what’s really going on. The calling of the 12 seems badly placed – it doesn’t fit with the flow of the narrative. Which means it’s deliberately placed, there, so pay attention! (If anything seems a little out of place when you’re reading a Bible story – pay attention! It’s probably the key to the whole thing. As Sherlock Holmes would say “Singularity (the unusual) is almost invariably a clue”. When these manuscripts were written they had no bold or italics or underline – if they wished to emphasise something they did it through the structure of their story.)
So, there is a new people of God being called out. The critical thing is who is part of it, and who are not.
Let’s take a look at the different response to Jesus in this chapter.
1. The Pharisees want to destroy Jesus
3:6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. 7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea
The Pharisees were so angry at Jesus’ provocative healing on the Sabbath. How dare he do good on God’s day! He’s not playing by their rules, threatening to upset the balance of power – and so off they go to meet with their political enemies, the Herodians to kill Jesus, ironically plotting murder on the Sabbath…
The Pharisees reject Jesus. Their thinking is like old wineskins – the new wine has come, but they are so caught up in the old religious order they can’t adapt to the truth. Stuck in their ways, they refuse Jesus.
And, horribly, Jesus withdraws.
Your choices matter – you have real choice. And you will be eternally responsible for that choice. Don’t be a Pharisee.
2. Old Israel wants a healer, a magician
7 [A] great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, 10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.
The crowd is from the four corners of Israel – the geographical areas mentioned are the boundaries of old Israel. All Israel gathered! That seems good doesn’t it – Israel responding to their Messiah? But why are they gathered? They pressed around him to touch him.
They are only interested in what they can get from Jesus.
Israel is rejecting Jesus. They are not listening to him - remember his stated purpose in 1:38 “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
The evil spirits are also mischievously proclaiming the truth about him “11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” Knowing the crowd would see him as a political rescuer – the king of the Jews who would overthrow the Roman rule. The crowd did not know that their Scriptures, that God had something much bigger in mind: to overthrow the rule of sin, and to not only redeem a nation, but the whole world. So Jesus strictly ordered them not to make him known.
The other day I was reading about the “subway hero”, Wesly Autrey, who risked his life to save a stranger who fell on the tracks. He became an overnight celebrity, with interviews, sponsorships, and gifts (including cars) thrown at him. But there was a downside. As he says in his own words: People stopped him for pictures, hugs, and solicitations for donations—“I need, give me, I want,” Wesley says. His estranged Dad, who he hadn’t heard from in 30 years, suddenly made contact. What did his father say? “That he was happy for me doing what I’d done, you know?” Wesley pauses. “Then him, like everybody else, ‘I need, I want, give me.'" “Never once did he say, ‘Are you all right? Are the little girls okay?’ He just said, ‘There’s a family reunion coming, and if you’re coming, bring me some of that money you got.’ That’s how that went.”
Old Israel loved God like we love a cow: for what we can get from it.
It’s a challenge for our own hearts isn’t it? Why do I love God?
Do I love Jesus for Himself, for His glory? OR for what he gives me – even eternal life, forgiveness of sins, future glory? Good things, yes, but not the best thing. My heart betrays me when I get angry or disappointed with God, imagining that he somehow “owes” me. What am I but dust!
He is the glorious ascendant powerful awesome God most High, ruler of heaven and earth, Creator of all things, and he deserves all praise and honour. Amen.
3. The scribes claim he is Satanic
So here come the big shots from the capital to see what all the fuss was about. Unable to deny his obvious power, they decide to smear his name: And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. 28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
By the way, this puts a hole in the theories of those claiming Jesus was misleading simple people by magic tricks and sleight-of-hand. If it had been trickery, these guys would have found it and exposed it! Always in the front row, always poking around – and not simpletons. These were the intellectual elite. But His miraculous power was undeniable. What to do? by the prince of demons he casts out the demons. It’s a political smear campaign, designed to draw the crowd away from him.
Really? Says Jesus. Firstly, that means that Satan will soon fall! “Divide and conquer” is a war strategy, where you get the enemy to fight among themselves, weakening themselves until you can just drive in and take over. Why would Satan weaken himself? Your argument is illogical!
Secondly, Jesus says that only one stronger than Satan (the “strong man”) can bind him up. Jesus is “plundering”/stealing the goods of the devil by casting the demons out – therefore he must be stronger than Satan. And note that he does not do this in anyone’s name but his own. He is stronger than Satan.
Who is this man?
They run away from the obvious truth, unable to acknowledge the claim that Jesus, God the Son, has over their life, and so they call his spirit, the Holy Spirit, evil.
To deny the Spirit is to deny Jesus. The anointing of the Spirit in the Old Testament marked you out as the King. So, here in Mark where there is a strong theme of the kingship of Jesus, they are denying his kingship. It is a rebellion against the King of God’s Kingdom, and that rebellion has eternal consequences.
Blaspheming the Spirit does not mean that simply saying “the Holy Spirit is evil” means oops, you’re eternally condemned - but denying the kingship of Christ over your life. It is rejecting the gospel – and if you reject the gospel, you cannot be saved, you are forever condemned. The scribes cannot attain Heaven by following the law instead. Jesus is warning them. They are guilty of an eternal sin. Only through Christ can one be saved. There is no other way. Any other way is blaspheming the Spirit.
Be careful what you do with Jesus.
4. His family think he is mad, and refuse to listen to him
21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
This puts a MASSIVE hole in the Catholic idea of the sinless Mary. His mother and brothers are not doing God’s will. They think he’s out of his mind. They are not listening to him, but have come to give him a talking to! In contrast, though
5. The crowd is listening to Jesus
This second crowd is responding rightly to Jesus. They are gathered around Jesus LISTENING to him. That is the will of God. They are not pressing against him, trying to be healed, but seated (see verse 34) listening to him, learning from him – and he says they are his mother and brothers for they are doing the will of God. Not unsurprisingly the next 34 verses in chapter 4 are all Jesus teaching, teaching about the kingdom of God and about responding rightly to him.
But what brought about this change? How come the crowd are suddenly listening to him, doing God’s will? Because of the incongruous story in the middle. Because Jesus has called out the New 12 Tribes of Israel. He is founding a new nation. Unrepentant Israel, denying the Spirit, is rejected – those willing to listen, seeing the work of the Holy Spirit as God’s work, they are gathered around Jesus, the new people of God.
6. Those Jesus chooses, listen to him
13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
A little indication there in verse 19 of his true mission – not just to teach, but to supremely reveal the heart of God by taking on the sins of the world. But so many echoes of Exodus in this little passage! On Mt. Sinai God called to himself the 12 tribes of Israel, forming one nation, the people of God. He sovereignly chose them, not because they were anything special, but because of his grace and mercy – and Jesus here does the same thing, calling to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. Irresistible grace.
Pharisees want him to be a religious teacher, obedient to the law (as interpreted by them). Like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Jews, and many even in so-called “Evangelical” churches today – preaching moralism and “be good” - not the grace of Jesus.
The crowd wants him to be a popular healer, like the motivational speakers of the prosperity gospel. God has promised you health, wealth and happiness, and send your money in to us and you’ll get it.
That’s not the gospel. That is anti-gospel. That is treating Almighty God, the Lord of hosts, like a cow. And his judgement will be terrifying.
Satan wants to destroy Jesus or at least to shut him up or set him on he wrong path: the demons crying out who he is, knowing full well the crowd would not understand and want to make him king by force. And inspiring the scribes to call the Holy Spirit evil.
Even his own family want him to settle down and stop having delusions of grandeur. Be reasonable, Jesus!
If God’s people are rejecting him, is he really God? Or is he deluded or evil?
V13-18 give a resounding No!
Jesus is Yahweh God, the LORD, the Sovereign Almighty, choosing a new people of God. These were 12 who were to be with him and be sent out to gather in all nations and peoples, fulfilling the great promise to Abraham.
So, actually, the question isn’t what do I do with Jesus, but what will Jesus do with me? Cry out to him for mercy, plead that he will call you to be part of the new people of God, draw close to him to listen to his words in the Bible.
He is the King, and there is only one right response: Repent – turn away from everything except him. And believe in Him, living your whole life in service to the King. And as we start, so we continue. If you are a Christian, then you are part of the family of God, and are therefore called to do the will of God: to gather round Jesus and listen to him.
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