Out of His Mind

Mark 3:20-35 New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Accused by His Family and by Teachers of the Law

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.”

22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

23 So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak 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 without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

30 He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”

31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 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.”

As I attempted to prepare for this morning while in the throngs of the World Pork Expo, my tired and weary mind struggled to figure something out when it came to this scripture.  Who was the “he” in the phrase “He is out of his mind”? I can blame it on being tired and unable to clearly focus but I believe part of my struggle was that I couldn’t fathom that the “he” was Jesus.  Surely, they weren’t talking about Jesus being out of his mind. Who were they talking about? In frustration, I moved on and thought I would go a different route with a different scripture from the lectionary.  However, I kept coming back to this one. I couldn’t shake it. Who was this mystery person? Who was “he”? I was certain it couldn’t be Jesus. Since I keep record of all my previous sermons, I searched the scripture and sure enough, I found something.  My first thought was, “Man, why did I struggle with this for a few days if I had preached on it before...” Not something a church leader should admit... I open the document that was returned in my search result and find out it was a scripture used by someone who was filling the pulpit for me 6 years ago today.  I didn’t preach on it but that individual did. I was sort of relieved at the thought that I hadn’t preached on it because of the struggle I had with it.

We see Jesus coming to the defense of the one who is “out of his mind” throughout this scripture, but my honest thought was that it was someone other than Jesus and Jesus was defending them.  The scripture says it was his very family who said this individual is out of their mind. Jesus’ own family wouldn’t make that claim about him. Would they? As the timeline goes, we are still in the beginnings of Mark, and Jesus just called the twelve.  Crowds were gathering around Jesus wherever he went because he was going from place to place healing people, casting out demons, and translating the message of God in a way that was unheard of before him. Even though Jesus was presenting an imagine unseen and unheard of before his time, I still couldn’t fathom that Jesus was the “he” in “He is out of his mind.”  Not the Jesus I know. He isn’t crazy. He isn’t radical. He is most definitely not out of his mind for my Jesus fits perfectly within my understanding of who he should be.

Perhaps that is exactly the issue... My understanding of Jesus is most likely tainted due to 2000 years of religion smoothing over the rough edges and Christianity becoming integrated into society.  If you’re like me, we often forget that what Jesus was preaching was radical. He was healing on the Sabbath. He was healing without authority from the Temple. He called 12 normal, everyday people to be in his inner circle.  He commingled with those the church left around the edges. He was very different. Therefore, he must have been out of his mind. He was not only going against the authority of the church, he was going against the authority of the state.  From his birth, he was a fugitive because Herod killed every newborn baby boy within the reach of his rule while Joseph packed up the family and headed to Egypt. Those closest to an individual are the last ones to realize just how crazy an individual is but early in the Gospel of Mark, those closest to Jesus were ready to make the public comment of “He is out of his mind.”  They may have been saying this due to the fact that these radical teachings were going to get him killed, which they did. They may have said this to try to help curb the pressures from the church and the state by passing him off as a crazy person.

Before I go any further, the message for today is not an expose´ on radical beliefs of the church.  It is not a justification for those pushing heretical claims of the end of the world or that they are the second coming of Christ or manufactured healings, etc.  Jesus was radical, yes, but not in the ways radicalism exists today. He never harmed anyone for his beliefs, and he didn’t use tactics of fear to get his message across.  While I am defending Jesus as radical, there are few today that I would say fit into a similar category. I say that with confidence because of Jesus’ very own justification also found in our scripture for this morning when Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sends and every slander they utter but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”  Show of hands, how many of you know what it means to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit? I didn’t raise my hand because I couldn’t recall what it said before preparing for today.

The Church has accepted what Thomas Aquinas outlined in the 13th century as blasphemes against the Holy Spirit and in short, this is what they are:

1. Despair - believing that one’s evil is beyond God’s forgiveness
2. Presumption - glory without merit, hope of salvation without repentance
3. Envying the goodness of another or sadness at another’s growth in virtue and perfection
4. Obstinacy in sin or the willful persisting in wickedness after sufficient instruction and admonition
5. Final impenitence or dying without confession or contrition for sins
6. Impugning the known truth or to argue against known points of faith which includes misrepresenting part or all of the Christian faith to make it seem undesirable  

Now, that list may make you nervous either for yourself or for a loved one but the Church maintains that there is no offense, even the ones listed, that cannot be forgiven.  I know I went a little deep on church history and theology there but it is important for this reason: Jesus and his teachings were radical but this does not give just anyone justification for a radical teaching.  Upon hearing that Jesus was “out of his mind”, the Church and its members may assume that the call is to be counter-cultural, to stand against anything mainstream. However, Karoline Lewis, professor at Luther Theological Seminary says, “...I don’t want the church or Christianity to be in the business of rejecting the dominant culture.  This path is one that quickly leads to superiority and supremacy....What makes the church stand out, perhaps truly out of its mind, is that we tell the truth of our own sinfulness.... That our story gives us the stories and words and theology to admit our failings and yet we still believe that forgiveness is possible.” Those closest to Jesus felt he was out of his mind because his teachings were interfering with his well-being and they couldn’t understand why he was so willing to go about his way knowing his life was in danger.  They failed to realize the scope of his message and even this early in the gospel of Mark, Jesus is trying to expand their understanding, “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and my sister and mother.” Jesus was radical. The grace and love that awaits us upon entering that relationship with God is even more radical. At times, we may forget just how radical Jesus’ message is but may we never forget why he did it. He did it to save us. That salvation is not only eternal it is in the here and now. Amen.