Mark 3:20-35

 TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 

Mark 3:20-35

“He Jesus came home. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’” 
A good Sunday to everyone. 

Today we resume with the Sundays of Ordinary Time. And the text of today's Gospel shows Jesus at the beginning of his public life. We found him in a house, surrounded by many people, a crowd, who were listening to his word and message. And there was an optimal reception because the Gospel says people forgot to look for food. 

At this moment, the scene is interrupted. We are now not in Capernaum but in Nazareth, where his relatives begin to worry seriously instead of rejoicing at the great acceptance that Jesus had in Capernaum. Why? The concerns of family members are very valid. Today's Gospel is taken from the third chapter of Mark, therefore, at the beginning of his public life. But Mark in the second chapter, narrates five serious encounters, five very important disputes that Jesus had with the scribes and the Pharisees. They say: 'He hoarded the divine power to forgive sins, ignoring the rites prescribed by the rabbis of the Hebrew religion. Who does he think he is? He even forgives sins.’ Then 'he sits at the table with tax collectors and sinners ... no pious Israelite can behave in this way'... and as it seems that Jesus is a person who enjoys a lot of esteem and appreciation from people, it is expected that the scribes and Pharisees worry as Jesus begins to introduce into the people these behaviors that a pious Jew does not accept. 

He also despises the traditions of his ancestors, especially the sabbath rest. Then, the last straw that makes the glass spill: He violated the Saturday by healing a man with a paralyzed hand. He could have waited a few more hours and, after the Sabbath, he could have healed this man ... But no, not only does he heal him, but he tells him, ‘Come here in the middle so that everyone can see what I do.’ He violated the Sabbath whenever it was for the health of the people. He does it on purpose, provokes these defenders of the traditions, and changes the argument: it is no longer the tradition but the welfare of the people that counts. 

And a little later in his Gospel, Mark mentions another encounter that Jesus has with the Pharisees about what is 'pure' and 'impure.' He also scandalizes his disciples when it is seen that Jesus is outraged as he tells them, “Don’t you understand that it is not what enters the person that makes him impure, but what comes out of his heart? This is what makes him impure.” 

At the end of these discussions, Jesus—or, better, the evangelist—introduces a very important statement: "With these words, Jesus declared all foods pure." It is a statement never heard before. It was equivalent to canceling pages from the book of Leviticus that clearly distinguishes pure from impure foods. So, what is it that the rabbis have thought? 'If we do not silence this man ... everything will fall apart ... He's a blasphemer. He explicitly goes against pages of the Bible.' 

This news reached Nazareth: Jesus is making choices that can lead to dangerous and delicate situations. He is taking positions that lead him to face the power holders. So, what conclusion do his relatives from Nazareth reach? He's out of his mind and getting into big problems. And they decide to find him and take him home. 

The term the Gospel uses is equivalent to 'capture him'—to take him back and live with the Nazareth clan within the tradition. The family feels responsible, as happens in the East. The line moves guided by the father or the eldest son. In this case, Joseph is no longer there, and it is one of the relatives who heads the group of relatives, and among these relatives, the mother is also mentioned. She also cared about the options that his son was taking. 

What is the message for us of this beginning of today's Gospel text? Let's notice who are the ones who care about the choices Jesus is making. Who thinks that he is making wrong choices? They are the people who want him well. They are not his enemies. They are good people, not people who oppose him. They are people close to him, people who love him. They are those who say they know him, and still, they consider him crazy! 

What conclusion do we draw from here? Today we must be attentive because one can love Jesus a lot, be full of zeal for his Gospel, and simultaneously turn against him, convinced we are protecting and defending him. And the history of the Church is full of these committed people, in love with Christ, who then reached conclusions that were not evangelical. Think of those Christians who have rejected the Council's options because they consider them some deviations from the 'holy tradition.' They have fought against the Spirit who wanted to carry forward these ecclesial options.

 And it's about people who love Christ, but they're wrong. They are getting in his way, just like the relatives of Nazareth who, for the love of Christ, make choices against his actions. They want to block the path he has chosen. Or think of those who strive to perpetuate structures of power in the Church. They are anti-evangelical but convinced to defend the true Church of Christ. 

We must allow ourselves to be questioned by the Gospel because that is where we must confront ourselves. Think also of those who, even today, confuse 'faith' with practices that derive from very 'shallow belief.' If someone wants to make them reflect, they attack them and accuse them of heresy because it is not conceivable for them to abandon or to put into question what has always been done. And they are convinced that they are defending Christ. They are obscuring the Gospel. 

Certain practices derive from a very shallow faith that makes the ridicule in front of the nonbelievers and are defended by people convinced that they manifest their love for Christ in this way. If a pope calls for conversion, for the novelty of the Gospel, we also hear today: 'He's crazy,' ‘he is ruining the Church.’ When one makes good and well-discerned options, one cannot but be considered crazy because it goes against the logic of common sense. In the Gospel of Mark, we find these people who are close to Jesus or appreciate him very well, but they consider his proposals on man and his life options crazy. 

Think of Peter, who reproves Jesus for what he is saying. The verb used there means that he wants to exorcise Jesus and get rid of the demon inside him. And Jesus will reproach Peter. It is Peter who should be exorcised because it is difficult to accept the novelty of Christ. Or take James and John, who want to bring down fire from heaven and burn the Samaritans. They are convinced to defend the cause of Christ; they are putting themselves against Jesus. 

If the face of God that we preach, if the image of man that we propose in the name of Christ and the Gospel is not surprising ... if listeners do not perceive it as a crazy proposal ... then we have to worry. How is it that when Jesus began to make his proposal for a new world, he was harassed immediately and taken for crazy by what he proposed? If the proposal of a new man that we do today is not perceived as crazy, then we have to worry because it has adapted to the logic of this world. 

The relatives leave Nazareth to take Jesus, to make him come to his senses... From the time of these relatives' departure and arrival in Capernaum, a second group is introduced. This time they are not his friends but his enemies. The scribes have understood him very well. Jesus is not a madman. They understood well what he proposed and considered it dangerous for religion and society. And they leave Jerusalem to meet Jesus in a public place. Let's listen: 

“The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebub,’ and ‘By the prince of demons he drives out demons.’ Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, ‘How can Satan drive out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.  And if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven. But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.’  For they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’”

While the relatives of Jesus are on their way from Nazareth to Capernaum, a group of scribes from Jerusalem now enter the scene. They are the defenders of the religious tradition of Israel. These do not say that Jesus is crazy. They say he is a blasphemer who plots with the prince of demons. 

For a few centuries, it spread in Israel the belief that a well-organized legion of demonic powers carried out all the evil in the world. And, as head of this army of darkness, was Beelzebub. 'Beelzebub' is a deformation from the name of a Philistine deity: 'baal cebuve' - 'cebuve' are the flies ... This was the name of this god of the Philistines. 'The god of the flies.' The Hebrews deformed this name and called it 'Belcebul,' which means the god of taxes. 

He was the head of this army of darkness. Under him were six 'archdevils' ... not seven, because 7 is the number of perfection. There were six, symbols of imperfection, but they were skilled and robust in bringing evil into the world. And below these, other demons embodied all the forces that cause corruption in people. So, we have the demons that caused violence, those that caused arrogance, demons that caused greed, laziness, and lust. And under these were the evils that caused the diseases, the misfortunes, the calamities.

 
I think, then, that I have given an idea about the conception that existed in Israel at the time of Jesus about the causes of physical and moral evil in the world. And this way of speaking used by the people of Israel is also used by Jesus. Jesus adapts to the current mentality of his people. To convey his message, Jesus uses a typical image of his people: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Beelzebub. They are two realms that face their angelic legions in a battle of good against evil. It's about the endless struggle between the forces that come from God, which are part of life and part of the people, and the forces of evil that are within people and provokes inhuman behaviors. 

These diabolical and homicidal forces are also embodied in people. We have a typical case with Peter when Jesus tells him that he is the incarnation of the enemy, of the opponent, of the one who opposes God. Peter was convinced that he acted well, but he was opposing life. 
At the scribes' accusation, Jesus responds with a rabbinical style of argumentation. He is talking to the rabbis and using their way of reasoning. What does Jesus say? I will try paraphrasing his answer: 'I have been accused of colluding with Beelzebub. Suppose it is true—that I cast out demons by Satan's intervention. But if Satan expels himself, you realize that Satan is wrong because he is expelling himself. So, you have to accept what I say because I'm always preaching that the kingdom of Satan has ended. After all, the kingdom of God has come.’ 

Then Jesus develops the image of this conflict between the forces of good and evil that are in a duel between them, with the appearance of a strong man and an even stronger one who arrives and casts out the kingdom of Satan. Jesus says: ‘Satan has the days numbered; and although it appears as the dominator towards the end, it has been dethroned, no longer dominates from above.’ In the Gospel of Luke, we have the following words from Jesus: "I have seen Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (Lk 10:18). It is not in heaven anymore. It does not dominate anything. It has been dethroned.


The message is important to us. Satan is in retreat. Perhaps we do not think so because we think that Beelzebub, the kingdom of evil, is invincible ... that Satan cannot be dethroned and will always control the best of the world. This conviction is extremely dangerous because it leads to resignation ... ‘let's lower our arms’ ... ‘Nothing can be done anymore’ ... ‘the kingdom of God will never come’ ... ‘Jesus was a good dreamer ... but it is finished’. ‘Let's try to survive by managing our life according to the old rules.’ NO! Let's assimilate well what Jesus is saying when speaking with these scribes. Satan has come to an end. Place yourself on the side of the kingdom of God. 

And Jesus concludes his defense with a very solemn affirmation: “Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be
forgiven them.” What does Jesus mean? First of all, about God's forgiveness. What is meant by 'God's forgiveness'? It is not the renunciation to give us a punishment we deserve ... God does not punish anyone. He cannot do it. God loves us, and that is all. This kind of forgiveness from God that deserves punishment derives from an image of God that presents Him as getting angry and offended, making us pay, and punishing us. This image of God is blasphemy! 

What does God do when he forgives? He manages to forgive when eliminates from people what dehumanizes them. God forgives the person who is aggressive when He succeeds to purify him of this compulsion that leads this person even to commit crimes. Then, the person who is forgiven, is humanized. How does God perform this forgiveness? He does it through his Word; He does it through the Word and the life of his angels, who are mediators of his light. For us believers, He does it through the sacraments God uses to humanize us. 
What is the blasphemy against the Spirit that cannot be forgiven? Blasphemy is thinking, as these scribes are doing, saying that Jesus’ Gospel and Jesus’ words are devilish and act against man's good. It is blasphemy against the Spirit because it opposes the Gospel and opposes Jesus by taking his Gospel as a cause of dehumanization, death, and non-life. It is the refusal to allow oneself to be forgiven and to be liberated from the inhuman present in us. Naturally, this sin cannot be forgiven because it is the rejection of the humanization that Jesus wants to introduce to us. 

Let us be careful not to distort the meaning of this phrase because perhaps someone thinks that Jesus, with his Word, does not forgive him and it means that this person is thrown into hell. NO. It is not saying that these people will not be saved. It draws attention to the danger of placing oneself in a condition from which one cannot go out afterward because the work of God, who wants to free us from being inhuman, is rejected. 

Mark introduced this controversy with the scribes to prepare for the arrival to Capernaum of the relatives of Jesus who left Nazareth to take Jesus back home. And it is now when they arrive: 

“His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent word to him and called him. A crowd around him told him,
’ Your mother, brothers, and sisters
are outside asking for you.’ But he said to them in reply,
’ Who are my mother and my brothers?’
And looking around at those seated in the circle, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.’" 

Now the relatives of Jesus arrive in Capernaum to take him home. They find Jesus surrounded by people when they arrive and do not enter. They want Jesus to come out. The spatial image is very important here and has a theological meaning. There is a clear distinction between those who are inside and those who are outside. Inside are the new brothers and sisters, the new family. Outside are those who belong to the old family. 

What is the characteristic of those inside? They are the ones who listen to Jesus' life proposal; those outside are those who follow the tradition of the ancients. The relatives who remain outside represent, in Mark's intention, ancient Israel and the tradition that is surprised by the novelty of God. 

Interestingly, the evangelist does not cite Mary by name. He simply calls her 'mother.’ It refers to the 'mother Israel'—the one who gave Christ, the people of Israel who must be attentive. A newness is waiting for us because it is the novelty of God, and we have to accept it. The danger lies in remaining tied to ancient traditions and old religious convictions. 

It is not Jesus who must leave. It is this ancient family; it is Israel that must welcome the novelty of God. And, given that the three Synoptics cite this incomprehension of the family of Nazareth, we see that there is also a controversial background related to the relatives of Jesus. Why? Because in the Church of Jerusalem, the first Church, these relatives of the Lord enjoyed a prestigious position, and this was normal to happen. The problem is that this family imposed its traditionalist concepts. As we will see in the Gospel of next week, there were the traditionalists in Nazareth. And these relatives of Jesus, in the early Church, imposed their convictions. 

We know, for example, that James, called the Lord's brother, who presided over the city of Jerusalem, remained faithful to the traditions of Israel. Also, in chapter 7, John says that the Lord's brothers did not believe in him. They have caused many problems, and it was difficult for the relatives of Jesus to accept this novelty. 

The conclusion of this encounter of the two families, when Jesus shows his old family, that is, to the tradition of Israel, the new family, characterized by listening and adherence to his Word, concludes by saying: 'Those who carry out God's plan, these are my brothers, sisters, and mother.’ We understand it very well when Jesus says, ‘Be brothers and sisters’; it means that the one who listens to his Word and accepts it belongs to this new family. But it surprises that one also become a 'mother.' It is very significant because this Christian community generates Christ in the world and, therefore, becomes the mother of Christ because they create in the world those who reproduce his face and presence among us. 

I wish everyone a good Sunday and a good week.