Mark 3:20-35
Jesus and Beelzebub
20Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
22And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub[c]! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
These were two charges that were often leveled at Jesus. Some said he was crazy. Some people are too quick to ascribe insanity to any behavior they don’t understand. And this was Jesus’ family! The rest of this chapter includes an interesting episode with Jesus’ mother and brothers, which I’ll get to in the next section. Lots of times when children have a seemingly secure future in a family business, but feel a calling to do something else that might not be so secure, their families think they’re crazy. But Mary knew who Jesus was, and surely that wasn’t kept secret from the rest of the family. Though Mary knew Jesus was the Messiah, she may not have known what he needed to do and to endure. It’s easy to see how when Mary heard about the crowd following her son getting so out of control, she would think things were getting crazy and she needed to go take care of him.
The other charge is more serious, though Jesus encountered it often. The Pharisees were building their argument to have him killed. They thought that if they could get enough people to believe Jesus was demon possessed, they could turn the crowds against him. And as we know, they eventually succeeded, because most of the crowds following Jesus were not interested in his message, they wanted him to do something for them. Crowds like that can be easily turned.
23So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27In 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. 28I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. 29But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”
30He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”
First Jesus refuted their claim by pointing out that Satan cannot cast himself out of someone, it makes no sense. In the metaphor he uses in verse 27, Satan is the strong man. Jesus is the one who comes into Satan’s house and binds him. By doing that, he proves he is stronger than Satan, so how could he be possessed by him?
Then he warned the Pharisees not to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, which is unpardonable. What is blaspheming the Holy Spirit? The Pharisees were ascribing Jesus’ work to Satan. That was blasphemy against Jesus. The fact that Jesus warned them not to blaspheme the Holy Spirit means they had not committed the unpardonable sin yet. What’s the point in warning someone not to do something if it’s already too late? Besides, the Holy Spirit had not yet come.
I don’t want to get into a long discourse about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and the unforgivable sin, because lots of people smarter than me have written volumes about it. Let me just say this. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit came, he would “convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8) so most Biblical scholars say that the unforgivable sin is to continually reject the overtures of the Holy Spirit when he tries to draw us to Jesus. Way too many people torment themselves by thinking they have somehow committed the unpardonable sin. Relax. It’s not something you can do one time and be condemned. All you have to do to make sure you don’t commit this sin is accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour, repent and be saved.
As a side note, let me say that I believe there is more than one unforgivable sin. The other one the Bible talks about is refusing to forgive others. I will talk more about this when I’m commenting on the Gospel of Matthew, but Jesus did say that if we don’t forgive others, he won’t forgive us. (Matthew 6:13-16) Any sin that Jesus himself says he won’t forgive has to be considered an unforgivable sin.
Jesus’ Mother and Brothers
31Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32A 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.
34Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Then Jesus’ family showed up. Most biblical scholars believe that Joseph died when Jesus was a teenager. As the eldest son, Jesus took charge of the family carpentry business until he turned 30, when he began his ministry. He had left a successful family business to become an itinerant preacher, and now the crowds were getting so big around him that he couldn’t even eat! Crazy! I’ve heard some say that his family wanted him to come back home and take charge of the family business again, but the Bible doesn’t actually say that. Verse 21 says they went to take charge of him. Maybe they just wanted to help. Mary, as a good Jewish mother, had to be concerned about him not eating! Maybe she just wanted to cook for him. But Jesus used the occasion to talk about the family of God. When I was a kid, people in our church referred to each other as “brother” and “sister”. We don’t do that anymore, but when we become Christians, we are adopted by God, and we have a new family, with Christ as the head of our new household. The bonds that bind us together are stronger than any biological bond. Sadly many biological families are divided over faith in Jesus Christ when some accept him and some do not. Your physical family may reject you because of your faith, but Jesus will never leave you or forsake you.