Mark 3:13-35 Mad, Bad
or God?
Twenty six years ago today a certain young
English rose said in a Sunday Times interview, "If a woman like Eva Peron with
no ideals can get that far, think how far I can go with all the ideals that
I have." Who said it? Margaret Thatcher on becoming leader of the conservative
party this day in 1975. A little arrogant perhaps? She certainly believed in
herself and took much of the country with her. "This lady is not for turning."
Indeed not, until that is the night of the long knives when she was betrayed
by those she had trusted. Perhaps that is why she has been rather dismissive
of each of her successors since. It tells us something about human nature, about
how we interpret history and believe what they want to believe about someone.
So what are we to make of Jesus Christ?
That is the question which Mark is raising in these
first eight chapters of his Gospel? Who is Jesus ? What does the evidence tell
us? When I was thinking about becoming a Christian, it was C.S.Lewis who clarified
the alternatives on this question. His trilemma is quite famous now.
Either Jesus was Lord, or a Liar, or a Lunatic. He
was either Mad, Bad or God. Which is it to be? There is no middle ground, no
half way house. The evidence does not allow us to believe that Jesus was somewhere
in between, a nice moral religious leader like Gandhi, or political leader like
Margaret Thatcher. It was only this week as I looked at Mark 3 in more detail,
that I realised where C.S. Lewis got his idea from.
Mark tells us that people in their own generation reached those three very same
conclusions about Jesus. Before we look at it, just a word about the structure
of the passage. You may find it helpful to think of verses 13-35 like a mirror
and its reflection somewhat distorted by peoples impressions. If 3:13-22 is
the reflection,
3:23-35 the reality.
3:13-22 contains people's images of Jesus
3:23-35 contains Jesus response.
3:13-19 Apostles who believed Him Divine Their Lord
3:20-21 Family who thought Him Deluded A Lunatic
3:22 Leaders who considered Him Demonic A Liar
3:23-30 Jesus Condemns the Leaders
3:31-34 Jesus Chastens His Family
3:35 Jesus Confirms His Disciples
Lets look at these three alternatives one at a time.
1. The Apostles for Whom Jesus was Lord 3:13-19
Read 13-15 It is very significant that Christianity began with a group.
In fact one that Jesus describes in verse 35 as a family. The Christian faith
was from the very beginning discovered and lived out in relationships not in
isolation. The Pharisees had a very different view of spirituality. One all
too popular today. Their very name means "the separate ones". They
liked to think they were special, separated from so called "sinful"
people.
All it did for the Pharisees was separated them from the one that really mattered.
Jesus. The Church was and is a family to which anyone can join through faith
in Jesus. Jesus did not have favourites, but He did have a strategy, and He
confided more closely in Peter, Andrew, James and John, as His key workers.
What brought them together, what wedded them together, was their common submission
to Jesus, to His Lordship. Jesus had two purposes for the Apostles.
1.1 First he called them
to be "with Him." 3:14
The crowds were fickle and might come or go depending
on the weather or his miracles, but the Apostles were invited to share His very
life. To be with Him, to stay and to follow Him. That was their education. What
an education.
I bet none of them ever asked Jesus when His sermon
was going to finish..... That's the heart of being a Christian, being with Jesus.
Listening to Him, talking with Him, learning from Him. Its a relationship, a
personal but shared relationship.
1.2 Second
"He sent them", as representatives. 3:14
He not only educated them, He equipped them too.
He sent them with a message to preach, and an authority
to demonstrate. That is always the order, first fellowship then service. The
two must always go together. For the quality of the latter is always in proportion
to the former. Just as the quality of a musicians performance will depend on
how much practice they have undertaken in private, so our time in fellowship
with Jesus will determine the quality of our service for him in public. His
Apostles for whom Jesus was Lord 3:13-19
2. His Family for Whom Jesus was
Mad 3:20-21
Read 3:21-22 These two short verses, burst the
bubble of an over romaticised, unbiblical view of Mary the mother of Jesus.
She was not perfect. She misunderstood her son just like everybody else. She
was just as much in need of forgiveness as everyone else. Why did his mother
and family think like this?
2.1 Because Jesus disregarded financial security
Jesus had left not only His home but the family's
carpentery business in Nazareth. As the eldest son it was his inheritance. He
had given it all up to become a homeless penniless vagrant.
2.2 Because Jesus infuriated the religious superiors
Jesus was already well on the way to a head on
collision with the religious leaders. Like Iran or Afghanistan today, the religious
leaders had great political power too. Only a fool or a mad man would consider
taking on the Pharisees, Saducees, Herodians and the Romans, and imagine he
could get away with it. No wonder his family felt uncomfortable. Not only did
Jesus ignore the need for financial security, and infuriate the religious superiors,
but he also
2.3 Because Jesus identified with the outcasts of society
In fact he'd started a society of his own. It was made up
of fishermen, reformed tax collectors, fanatical nationalists, former prostitutes
and the like. What would the neighbours say. No sensible person would pick a
crowd of friends like that.
Jesus lived an intense and sacrificial life. He was
always surrounded by the crowds of needy people, there was little time to eat
or sleep, and he was at the top of the Mafia's hit list. His
family just did not understand Him. Read 3:21. Its no different today.
Did you ever read the Eagle comic as a boy? Do you remember Dan Dare, chief
pilot of the space fleet, or PC49, private detective Harris Tweed, or Storm
Nelson, and Luck of the Legion? Maybe you read Girl, or Robin, or Swift. They
were all created by the same person - a vicar - the Revered Marcus Morris who
died recently aged 73. In 1949 the Bishop of Liverpool released Marcus from
Parish work because his readership had already reached a million children. He
was a boy that never grew up. Or what about the Reverend Awdry and his Thomas
the Tank engine story books? The world expects clergy to be slightly eccentric,
mad on children's comics, steam engines or cricket or all three.
And its no different for you. You're not considered mad if you travel the country
every Saturday following your favourite football team. You're not considered
mad if you run in the London Marathon with half a million other competitors,
or get soaked to the skin on an all night fishing expedition where the only
thing you catch is a cold, - but you get on a soap box and tell people that
Jesus died to save them from their sins, and they'll say your mad. When I was
at college, one of the first people I told I'd become a Christian was the porter
of our dormitory. You know what he said to me? I can still remember it, "Oh
Stephen" he said, looking very disappointed, "I didn't think you were
one of them too..." If a person dies attempting a new world record in flight,
or racing, they are honoured as noble sportsmen, if a scientist is killed in
one of his experiments he is a hero, but let a young person die from tropical
diseases soon after reaching the mission field and the world says, what a waste,
what foolishness...
Jesus family thought he was mad. That is why His words found later in verses
31-34 sound rather cold and hard. That is because he knew why they had come.
Read 31-35 Jesus did not come to destroy but to safeguard family relationships.
The way that he does it is to lead us into a spiritual
relationship with the Father which is sovereign over all others. One commentator
says, "Jesus despises not His mother, but places before her, His Father",
for she too needed a Saviour. The closer we walk with
Jesus the more likely we are to be misunderstood even by our families. It is
hard to be misunderstood by those we love, but loyalty
to Christ may make it inevitable. If it must be so remember this story. Summarise.
3. The Pharisees for whom Jesus was Possessed 3:22-30
Read 3:22 The religious leaders had to explain away the incredible
power Jesus demonstrated. The orthodox officials never questioned his power
to exorcize demons. They didn't need to, for exorcism was a common phenomenon.
What they did say however was that Jesus power over the demons was really because
he was in league with the devil and used black magic. They were saying, its
by the power of the great demon that he casts out little demons. In their indictment
they criticised both the source of His power and its scope. In this they were
particularly abnoxious and offensive. The term they used 'Beelzebub' means "Dung
god", a derogatory corruption of the name of the "Fly god" worshipped
by the Philistines. This is evidence of the extreme to which these scribes had
carried their contempt and hatred of Jesus when they chose the grossest nickname
of a false god to describe the unseen power by which Jesus performed miracles.
Jesus had no difficulty in exploding their argument.
3.1 The scope of His power 3:23-27
Read verses. Jesus points out their inconsistant logic 3:23.
Jesus then uses two illustrations to prove His point.
3:23-25.
A kingdom cannot survive civil war, a household cannot
cope with internal strife, both will be destroyed. How then can Satan survive
what you are claiming. You are illogical says Jesus. Then Jesus uses an illustration
to explain the reason for His power. Read 3:27. It was because he is stronger
than the strongest one that he could invade the domain of the evil one and rob
Satan of his slaves. The scope of His power.
3.2 The source of His power 3:28-29
Read verses. In our translation the full force
of this sentence is lost. When Jesus said "I tell you the truth" the
pronouns "I" and "you" leap out with great emphasis. One
translation put it this way "I, the Son of God, declare to you, my spiteful
enemies and false accusers...." Jesus leaves them in no doubt that it is
the Holy Spirit of God who empowers Him to perform these miracles. The scope
of His power, the source of His power and,
3.3 The seriousness of His
power 3:29
Repeat verse. Sooner or later in our Christian lives we fear
that we have committed this sin. The good news is that if we are ever concerned
that we might have done, its the clearest evidence that we haven't. As we read
verses 28-29 did you notice there the most wonderful truth in the whole Bible.
Reread 3:28. What then is the Blasphemy which is unforgivable? The
Religious leaders had called the work of God satanic.
That indicates a level of spiritual blindness that
would not be, that could not be removed by the love of Jesus. When Tokichi Ishii
first read the story of the Gospel, he said "I
stopped. I was stabbed to the heart as if pierced by a five inch nail. Shall
I call it the love of Christ? Shall I call it His compassion? I do not know
what to call it. I only know that I believed and my hardness of heart was changed"
Can you identify with him? There is only one condition of forgiveness, and that
is penitance. That is because forgiveness is a gift that must be received. But
if a person repeatedly refuses to heed the Holy Spirit's convicting work, and
loses the ability to recognize goodness when he sees it, his moral values will
become inverted and he will call good evil, and evil good. Then when he is confronted
by Jesus he will have no sense of sin. With no sense of sin he cannot feel sorry,
and without repentance he cannot be forgiven. The only unforgivable sin is the
one that refuses to believe there is any need of it. If a person turns their
back on Jesus how can they be forgiven, for there is no other way back to God.
That is why it is so important we are sure of our answer to this most basic
of questions which Jesus asked His Disciples. Who do you say that I am? Divine,
Deluded or Demonic? Let me leave you with C.S. Lewis' conclusion.
"You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God;
or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can
spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him
Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His
being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend
to." Let us pray.