Talk 11 Mark 3:20-35 Jesus’ True Family
Welcome to Talk 11 in our series on Mark’s gospel. Today we’ll be looking at Mark 3:20-35. In this passage we see three different groups of people, and their different attitudes towards Jesus. There were those who thought he was out of his mind. There were those who said he was demon possessed. And there were those who were seeking to learn from him. So let’s see what we can learn about these people. We’ll begin with those who thought he was out of his mind.
Those who thought he was out of his mind (vv20-21, 31)
20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
From this we learn that it was his family who thought he was out of his mind. And in verse 31 his family is identified as Jesus’ mother and brothers. But Mary, above all people knew who Jesus was. Remember the words of the angel Gabriel in Luke 1:30-35:
30…But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.“ 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Surely Mary could not have forgotten these words. There’s an important lesson to be learned here. However great a revelation we have received, when things seem to be going wrong it’s all too easy to doubt. John the Baptist too had received the revelation that Jesus was God’s son, but when he was in prison he began to doubt it (Matthew 11:3). And in Mary’s case, her natural maternal instincts took over when it seemed that her son was in trouble. She wanted to take care of him (21).
But why did she, and Jesus’ brothers, think this? The thought came from something they had heard (v21). How often do we allow the things we hear to shake our faith? What they had heard was that such a crowd had gathered that Jesus and his disciples did not have time to eat (v20). Was Jesus becoming a fanatic? Was he working too hard? These were the natural concerns that any family would have for a loved one. But they had not yet fully understood who he was and so did not understand the nature and purpose of his mission.
And why did they verbalise what they were thinking? Perhaps verse 31 can help us here. We’re told that Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived and that standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. Why did they send someone in? Why not go in themselves? Were they embarrassed? Were they ashamed of him because they thought he was losing his mind?
Of course, we cannot know the answer to these questions, but whatever their motive at the time, in Acts 1:14 we have the assurance that after his resurrection both Mary and Jesus’ brothers were present with those waiting for the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.
Those who thought he was demon possessed (vv22-30)
22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” 23 So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. 28 I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” 30 He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”
If Jesus’ family’s assessment of him was mixed with concern for him, the same cannot be said of the teachers of the law, who, incidentally, are identified in Matthew’s account as the Pharisees. Superficially their accusation that Jesus had an evil spirit may have come from misguided theological convictions – rather like the initial reaction of some of the traditional church leaders who claimed that the early Pentecostals were of the devil, on the mistaken basis that gifts like speaking in tongues are not for today. But Jesus’ response to their accusation makes it clear that their problem was not merely intellectual. Its root was spiritual – the hardness of their hearts.
In fact he deals with their accusation at both these levels. In verses 23-27 he points out that what they were saying was not logical. He bases his argument on the well-known fact that division leads to destruction. Where there is internal division in a household or a kingdom, if the problem is not rectified it will soon disintegrate, a fact for which history provides abundant evidence. A political party is unlikely to be elected to power if the electorate knows there are divisions within it. So, following this analogy, Jesus asks, How can Satan drive out Satan? The accusation that he is casting out demons by the power of Satan makes no sense.
Now, having shown that it cannot possibly be true that the source of his power is Satan, Jesus goes on to reveal the real reason why he has power to cast out demons. It’s because he has already overcome Satan. In verse 27 he says:
In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man.
Just a thief cannot steal the possessions of a strong man unless he has first overcome him and tied him up, so Jesus could not have cast out demons (carry off Satan’s possessions) if he had not already overcome him and gained the mastery over him. This he had already done during his temptation in the desert and would ultimately do when by his death on the cross he spoiled the principalities and powers triumphing over them in it (Colossians 2:15). His mastery over Satan was a direct result of his being submitted to God, and James 4:7 tells us that the same is true for us. If we submit ourselves to God we can resist the devil and he will flee from us.
So the reasoning of his accusers was faulty. But that was not the root cause of their problem which was the hardness of their hearts. In verses 28-29 he warns them about this.
28 I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” 30 He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”
Jesus’ critics were saying that he had an evil spirit, that the source of his power to cast out demons was none other than Satan himself. But in fact we know that he did so by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is made clear in Matthew 12:28 where Jesus says:
But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Notice also what Matthew tells us in verses 22-24. In verse 22 Jesus has healed a demon-possessed man who was both blind and dumb. As a result of this miracle performed by the power of the Spirit the people are wondering if Jesus might be the Messiah (v23), but the Pharisees deny this and accuse Jesus of performing his miracles by the power of Satan (v24). In so doing they were hindering others from coming to faith in Christ. They were attributing to Satan miracles that had been performed by the Spirit’s power and it was in response to this that Jesus gave his serious warning about the danger of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.
But does this mean that the blasphemy against the Spirit, the unforgivable sin, is simply to attribute to Satan a miracle that has been performed by the power of the Spirit? Almost certainly not. None of the accounts tells us that the Pharisees actually committed the unforgivable sin. Jesus was probably warning them that they were in danger of moving towards it. This is backed up by the fact that elsewhere in the New Testament, particularly in John’s writings, it is clear that what is unforgivable is refusal to believe in Jesus as saviour (John 3:18, 36) and a major part of the Spirit’s work is to convict of sin and convert the sinner (John 16:8).
The best way to interpret the blasphemy against the Spirit, therefore, is to understand Jesus as warning the hard-hearted Pharisees (who refused to see his miracles as a sign of his Messianic role and preferred to believe that they originated in Satan rather than admit that Jesus was the Christ) that if they continued along that line of thought they would finally reject all the gracious promptings of the Holy Spirit in their lives and so commit the unforgivable sin of refusing the forgiveness which is freely available in Christ alone.
In the light of all this, how can we best advise those who feel that they have committed the unforgivable sin? We must assure them that the very fact they are at all concerned about it is a sure guarantee that they have not! We must point them to the merits of the blood of Jesus shed for sin at Calvary. There he paid the price and took the punishment for all the sins of all mankind. There is no sin so big that he will not forgive it if we come to him in repentance trusting in his atoning blood. The only unforgivable sin is to refuse the forgiveness he so freely offers.
Those who were seeking to learn from him – Jesus’ true family (vv31-35)
We have already discussed verse 31 when talking about Jesus’ human family. Whatever their shortcomings at this stage in their lives, there was always the opportunity for them to become part of his true family. They may have had their doubts, but they had not committed the unforgivable sin and, as we saw earlier, in Acts 1:14 they were among the disciples who, in obedience to Jesus, were waiting for the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. But we now turn our attention to verses 32-35:
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. 34 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.”
What are we to make of what Jesus says here? At first sight it would be easy to think that Jesus intends his words as a rebuke to his family. And this may have been partly his intention. We remember how he lovingly corrects Mary at the wedding in Cana (John 2:3-4) and how in Luke 2:49 he politely reminds his earthly parents who his true Father is. But even if that is part of his purpose, we need to remember that his words were not addressed directly to his family but to the crowd sitting around him. Jesus is not denying his earthly relationships. He is inviting others to join his family, his true family who are those who, like Jesus himself, do the will of God. Belonging to that family more than compensates for any criticism that may be levelled against us by our human family.
It’s interesting that those sitting around him (v34) are described as a crowd in verse 32. So it’s unlikely that he is referring only to the apostles he has chosen earlier in the chapter. And note the use of the word whoever. This in itself shows that he is addressing a group wider than the Twelve. In John 7:17 Jesus says:
If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
He says, If anyone chooses… The invitation to become part of his family is open to all – even to those who thought he had a demon, if only they would repent and believe the good news. The crowd sitting around him were there because they wanted to be with him and to learn from him. And to be like him, to bear a family resemblance to him, means choosing to do God’s will, because Jesus sought, not to do his own will, but the will of the Father who sent him (John 5:30). And the only way to become more like him is to spend time in his presence. Those who have been born again have been born into his family. Here on earth we are constantly being transformed into his image through the work of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18), but one day we will be completely like him because we will see him as he is (1 John 3:1-2).
Thank God, we know better than the Pharisees, and even than Jesus’ earthly family. By the grace of God, we are among those millions who know who he is, who want to learn from him, who want to be with him, and who want to be like him. May that be increasingly evident in our lives every day.