Bible Study on Mark - Part 7, Mark 3:7-35

As Mark 3:7-12 begins, Jesus had left the synagogue where He had healed a man with a withered hand and again angered the Pharisees, who now began to make plans to destroy Him.

Jesus went to the shore of the Sea of Galilee with his disciples, but they were not alone. Interest in Jesus was increasing, and a great crowd followed Him, from inside and even outside the land of Israel. People had “heard all that He was doing” - His preaching and teaching and especially His miracles of healing. Jesus had to ask his disciples to have a boat always ready to take Him off the shore, so that He would not be crushed by people pressing in all around Him, just to touch Him, in hope that they would be healed by Him. (We still hear today of people being trampled by excited crowds, out of control.) Jesus sometimes taught the crowds from the boat, too.

People possessed by unclean spirits were being healed also, and the unclean spirits would cry out to Jesus, “You are the Son of God.” As we have heard before, they were correct, but Jesus ordered them not to say who He was. It was not yet time for all the opposition that would bring His suffering and death; and He did not wanted to be connected with evil spirits. (We will soon see the wrong connections being made by some religious leaders.)

In Mark 3:13-19, Jesus went away by Himself to a mountain. Another Gospel tells us that He spent the night in prayer and then “called to Himself those whom He desired” from among those following Him. They came, and from that group Jesus “appointed the twelve” who would work most closely with Him and be His “apostles” (men sent out on a mission of His choosing). Note, as we have heard before, Jesus does the calling and choosing and appointing of the men He desires for this work. Verses 14-15 tell us that they needed to “be with Him” - to learn directly from Him and have personal contact with Him  and be taught by Him and have practical training and then be sent out on short-term mission trips in local areas, and “to preach” and even to “cast out demons” by the power He gave them.

These are the twelve who stayed closest to Jesus during His public ministry and later on would be the “apostles” (minus Judas Iscariot) sent out to tell the good new of Jesus to the whole world. A few others, like Paul, were added later on, by a personal call and contact with the risen Lord Jesus. (A key element in accepting the Scriptures of the New Testament later on was that they had to have been written by one on these apostles or someone who had direct contact with these apostles. These twelve often did not understand what Jesus was teaching them at first, and it was a process of growing in the faith for them - as for us, still today.)

Notice in verses 16-19 that the twelve sometimes had more than one name, and that Jesus sometimes gave some of them a nickname, too. Here are the twelve, with other names and identifiers:

• Simon (Peter, the “rock” man)
• James and John (brothers, and sons of Zebedee. Jesus called them “sons of  Thunder” - maybe because of their strong personalities)
• Andrew (Simon Peter’s brother)
• Philip
• Bartholomew (Nathaniel)
• Levi (Matthew)
• Thomas
• James (son of Alphaeus, sometimes called James the younger)
• Thaddeus (Judas, son of James)
• Simon (the Cananaean, a word which means “the Zealot”. This Simon may have earlier been with a group of “Zealots” - revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the Roman government. He obviously had to learn a whole different way with Jesus.)
• Judas Iscariot (who betrayed Jesus. Iscariot mean that this Judas was from Kerioth in Judea. This Judas was the only one from Judea. The others all seemed to be from Galilee.)

(As in our own day, lots of people has the same names and did not have middle and last names to help with identification. Hopefully, this helps us a little in sorting them all out.)

In Mark 3:20, Jesus went back to a home. This may have been the home of Peter and Andrew, as before. Crowds quickly gathered again. Jesus and His disciples were likely tired and hungry, but they were so busy dealing with people “that they could not even eat.” Note in 3:21 who hears about all this - Jesus’ family. They were concerned about Him - that He was not taking care of Himself. They in fact wanted to come and seize Him and take Him home and settle Him down, because they thought He was “outside of Himself” - out of His mind - had lost His mind. Likely, the family was still living in Nazareth and had about 30 miles to travel to get to where Jesus was, in Capernaum.

Before they arrived, though, another event had also taken place. Scribes, experts in the Law of the Old Testament, had come down from Jerusalem, in 3:22. (Jerusalem was one of the highest points in Israel; so leaving Jerusalem always meant that one went “down," though these scribes were headed North to Galilee, as one looked on a map.)

Already, we know, the Jewish authorities were talking and plotting against Jesus. Now, they had come up with another way to attack Him. They claimed that Jesus could cast out evil spirits, because He Himself was possessed by evil and could use evil power to cast out other evil spirits. “He is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons, he casts out the demons.” “Beelzebul” is an Old Testament name for “Exalted Baal” or “Prince Baal.” “Baal” was the name of one of the popular false gods worshipped by many people outside of Israel. Too often, even Jews went astray and worshipped “Baal,” too. Baal did not really exist, but people were worshipping evil when they followed Baal. (Sometimes, to make fun of Baal, Jews were said to have changed the name to “Beelzebub”, which meant “Lord of the Flies”. (If you ever had to read a novel by William Golding, by that same name, you saw his description of how evil and sinful human nature can taken over in a group of English boys, stranded on a deserted island.)

By the power of Satan, the prince of demons, then, Jesus was able to cast out demons, the scribes said. In 3:23, Jesus called the scribes to Himself and “spoke to them in parables”, using simple examples they should hopefully understand. What sense does it make for Satan to cast out Satan? Why would he work against himself? “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Neither can a house divided against itself.“ (You may know that Abraham Lincoln quoted this passage with regard to the United States. A nation half slave and half free can’t survive. A terrible Civil War followed, with effects that still bother us today.) Jesus said, in 3:26, that Satan had not risen up against himself. That would only bring an end to his kingdom. (Some think that the words about a “house divided” may be a kind of warning from Jesus about His own family, which was divided about Him at this point, as we shall see.

In 3:27, then, Jesus described what was really going on. Satan was like a strong man, with all his evil forces. Jesus had come for the very purpose of battling against Satan, not in support of him. Jesus came to tie up Satan, to bind him, to defeat his power. Jesus did so by battling and casting out evil and evil spirits all through His ministry and finally by dying on the cross, when it looked like Satan had defeated Him. He would win the victory by His mighty resurrection and giving His believers strength to continue to resist Satan and finally overcome in eternal life in heaven.

Some think that Jesus was alluding to the prophecy of Isaiah 49:24-26, where God Himself said, “Can the prey be taken from the mighty; or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? For this says the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.... Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” Jesus is the very Son of God Who came to set us free from the greatest enemies, sin and death and Satan himself.

In 3:28-30, Jesus gave a very solemn warning to the Scribes. He started with a phrase used fairly often for emphasis. “Truly, I say to you.” Literally, it is “Amen, I say to you.” We think of “Amen” at the end of a prayer or to affirm that a statement is most certainly true. Jesus used “Amen” at the beginning of a sentence or statement, often. Pay attention. This is really true, He was saying.

Jesus had come to forgive sins, as we have already heard. “All sins will be forgiven the children of man, even blasphemy,” as the Holy Spirit brings people to repentance and faith through the Word of God and the gift of baptism. Jesus, too, worked by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. But if people reject and keep on rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit, calling the Holy Spirit evil, they are rejecting the only means by which they can be saved. They cannot save themselves; and there is no other way to salvation than through Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit. “For they were saying of Jesus, He has an unclean spirt” (3:30).

Jesus is not saying that these scribes have committed this eternal, unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit; but they were in danger of doing so. There can be a point  when people get so far away from God, in resisting the Holy Spirit’s work, that they will never come to faith. Jesus demonstrated, as we go on in Mark, that we should always assume that people can still be brought to faith and trust in the Good News of Jesus, though. Jesus kept on preaching and teaching and sharing the Word of God, through which the Holy Spirit works, wherever He went. We are called to do the same and never give up on people.

These words of Jesus may have come also because of what comes next in Mark 3:31-35. The mother of Jesus, Mary, and some of His brothers finally arrived where Jesus was. It was very crowded again, and they could not get to Jesus. They sent in a message, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” It seems again that they wanted to take Jesus home and settle Him down - in effect, to shut down His ministry. We are bluntly told in John 7:5 that at least at some point in His ministry, “Not even His brothers believed in Him.” We don’t know what Mary, Jesus’ mother, was thinking, but she came along; and there is no clear Scripture that says that she was without sin. She may have had weak, struggling faith at this time; and even she, earlier, had said, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46). She too needed a Savior - and Jesus came for that very purpose, for all, including her (and us).

In 3:33-35, Jesus does not respond to His family. Instead, He looked around at the people gathered around Him to hear the Word of God and said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?... Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus was teaching that there can be closer ties than simply family ties, especially when family is resisting God’s will and leading us away from that will. The family of faith might be closer and more helpful at times. And what is “the will of God” most of all? Jesus put it very simply in John 6:28-29. “They said to Jesus, ‘What must we do to be doing the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.’”

Believing in Jesus is the key. At this point, though, the family of Jesus is not so sure about that or that Jesus is doing what He should be doing. Jesus does not abandon His family, though. Family ties are very important, in both the Old and New Testaments. “Honor your father and mother,” the Commandment says (Exodus 20:12). We will see Jesus quoting that Commandment later in Mark 10:19, too. Jesus made sure His mother was taken care of (John 19:26-27). He surely kept reaching out to His own family with the Word; and they knew of His death and resurrection and ascension, too.

After the Ascension, we read that the 11 disciples and others gathered. We also read in Acts 1:14, “these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and His brothers” (Acts 1:14). Jesus’ family was a family of faith, also, at this time! Later on, a brother of Jesus, James, wrote the New Testament Scripture we know of as the Letter of James, also. May we never give up on our own family and friends, either. Everyone needs the faith and hope that come alone through Jesus, by the power and Word and Sacraments of the Holy Spirit.