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Mark 3:7-35
!
Introduction
This week the Northwest part of Winnipeg began using the new garbage collection system.
On the first day that they were used, CTV reported on this change and interviewed a number of people who were not happy and also reported that they could not find one person who liked the new system.
The next day the results of a survey revealed that about 2~/3 of respondents from all their viewers did not like the new system and 1~/3 thought it was a good idea.
I wonder if people will like it after awhile?
Sometime ago Facebook presented a new look.
Many people didn’t like it at all and in fact there was even a Facebook group started which invited people to join in protest of the new look.
I don’t know how many people objected to the change, but it happened anyway.
I wonder if those who objected will eventually accept the new Facebook?
Change is hard for most people.
I heard about a music director in a church who wanted to move the piano from one side to the other side of the front.
The whole church objected, so every Sunday he moved the piano one inch until it was on the other side and people accepted it.
It often takes people time to adjust to change and some are never able to adjust.
When Jesus began his ministry, people saw by what He taught and by the way he healed that He was a unique individual, but they struggled to understand exactly who He was.
By what He did and what He taught, they seemed to understand that some kind of a response was required, but they struggled to know what that response should be.
In Mark 3:7-35 we have four stories of how people responded to Jesus.
As we look at these stories, we not only discover who He was but we also begin to understand what kind of a response Jesus was looking for.
It is important for us to think about these things because as followers of Jesus, we also need to be very clear about who He is and what it means to follow Him.
!
I. Who Is He?
I came early to a seminar once and there was a very ordinary looking man setting up chairs and giving instructions about different things.
At first I thought he was the janitor, but later I found out he was the main presenter.
His actions confused me about who he was.
In the early chapters of Mark, we have read about Jesus’ ministry.
From our perspective of much Bible reading in which we now have the whole story, we understand who Jesus was, but as people in that day observed Him for the first time, they didn’t yet have much information.
The things he did and said did not fit into any category they had ever encountered before, so there was a lot of confusion about His identity.
The stories in today’s text reveal this confusion, but also indicate who He was.
At the end of the last message, in Mark 3:6 we encountered the plot of the Jewish leaders to kill Jesus.
Mark 3:7 seems to respond to this rejection when we read that “Jesus withdrew to the lake.”
If we study the locations of Jesus’ ministry, we notice that before this Jesus was in the synagogue several times, but after this he appears in a synagogue only once more.
Instead, we find that his ministry takes place around the lake.
Because of the rejection of the religious leaders, he changed the location of his ministry.
But that rejection did not mean a rejection by all.
In fact, in Mark 3:7-10 we find that his popularity increased even more.
In Mark 1:28 we read that news about him spread all over Galilee.
Now we see that “a large crowd from Galilee followed” but there were also people coming from all over Israel.
They came from as far east as the other side of the Jordan, from as far south as Idumea and Jerusalem, as far west as Tyre and Sidon and as far north as Galilee.
There were many people who were curious about Jesus and sought him for healing.
His popularity spread all over and people came to see what He was all about.
But did they really understand who he was or were they just interested in him because of what he could do for them?
Among them were those who were possessed by evil spirits.
These evil spirits certainly recognized who Jesus was.
They cried out that He was the “Son of God,” but Jesus told them to be silent.
It may seem strange to us that Jesus refused their recognition and “gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.”
Why did Jesus refuse their testimony?
They knew who He was, but they did not follow Him.
Cole says, “The Lord wanted men to find out who He was by listening to His words and by watching His deeds.”
There were many who followed Jesus, who were beginning to understand who Jesus was and in Mark 3:13-19, Jesus chose twelve of them to be apostles so that they could grow in their understanding.
Geddert suggests that a change of leadership was taking place.
The scribes and Pharisees had been the leaders of God’s people, but they had rejected Jesus and now Jesus was choosing a new group of people who would lead God’s people and these 12 were the foundation of this group.
After he had chosen and commissioned the 12, he went into a house and the crowds gathered once again.
He was so busy teaching and healing people that he did not even have time to eat anything.
Some might suggest that Jesus was a workaholic.
Among those who came to see what was happening was his family.
We only realize that it was his family at the end of this section.
It is another case in which the story begins in verse 20, 21, but another story comes in between and the story about his family isn’t completed until verses 31-35.
When they saw what was happening his own family had a hard time understanding who he was.
For 30 years Jesus had been an ordinary man, a carpenter, a son, a neighbor.
All of a sudden he changed completely.
He never came home any more.
He never worked in the carpentry shop any more.
He worked so hard that he didn’t have time to eat.
He taught things that were radical and he healed all those who were coming to Him.
When His family saw this, they were not ready for the change and Mark 3:22 tells us that “they were saying” “He is out of his mind.”
Before Jesus had a chance to respond to them, however, we read that the “teachers of the law” who had come from Jerusalem, possibly as an official delegation, also had an opinion about who Jesus was.
Just as his family “were saying” he was crazy, the teachers of the law “were saying” He is demon possessed and by the prince of demons is driving out demons.
They had two accusations - one related to who he was the other to the source of His power.
They clearly did not accept Jesus.
This opinion of Jesus stuck and in later Jewish texts there is a quote about Jesus which says, “Yeshu of Nazareth was hanged on the day of preparation for the Passover because he practiced sorcery and led the people astray.”
But in defending Himself from this accusation, Jesus reveals a powerful truth about who He was.
First of all he told them that it made no sense that he was casting out demons by the power of Satan.
If that were true, that would mean that there was civil war in Satan’s camp and if that were the case his reign could not stand.
He further clarifies the true meaning of his identity and reveals what was really happening.
His power to cast out demons indicated that a change of times was happening.
His authority indicated a victory over Satan and the beginning of the eternal victory of God.
Geddert says that this means that “Satan’s kingdom is not breaking up on the inside; instead, it is being conquered from the outside.”
In these stories we see that there were many opinions about who Jesus was and these are interesting stories if we look at them from the perspective of a search to understand who He was.
In these stories there were some who rejected Him, some who came to Him for help, some wjp were ready to follow and some who thought He was either crazy or demon possessed.
As Jesus responded to these different people, we get hints of who He really was.
We discover that He has power to heal and that He is the Son of God.
We learn that He has authority to call out a new people of God.
And we rejoice to know that He has power to defeat Satan and establish the eternal reign of God.
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II.
What Does He Want?
If that is who Jesus is, then it is important to ask, “what does He want?”
For if Jesus is the Son of God then he deserves respect and honor.
If He is establishing a new eternal people of God then it is important to follow Him.
If He is defeating Satan then it is important to live on the winning side.
So what does Jesus, the Son of God who is establishing a new kingdom want of those who choose to follow Him?
!! A. To Be with Him
When Jesus chose the twelve to be apostles, he chose them out of the many who had begun to follow Him.
However, later we discover that we are all called to the same kind of following that these 12 were called to.
If we understand that we too are chosen by God to be disciples then this section helps us understand what following means.
We notice, first of all, that he chose them “that they might be with him.”
Of course, they had a privilege that no one else has ever had.
They were physically with Jesus 24~/7 and saw everything he did, how He responded, what His goals were, His power and all of His teaching.
The call to discipleship hasn’t changed and because of the Spirit of God it is still possible for us to be with Jesus 24~/7.
In fact that is a large part of what it means to be a disciple.
Following Jesus means spending time with Jesus, being in the presence of Jesus.
In Matthew 28:20 Jesus promised, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
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