Who Is My Family?

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC June 6, 2021, second Sunday after Pentecost. “The Call: Good Trouble” series.

Text: Mark 3:20-35

Jesus was a master at getting into “good trouble.” In Mark’s account the rumblings begin that time four people dug through the roof to lower their friend into Jesus’ healing presence. And Jesus simply does what Jesus does, he releases the friend from paralyzing guilt, with words of forgiveness and affirmation of the man’s agency to rise and be free. (Mk 2:1-12)  There were some scribes there that day who were concerned about all this, evidently because it challenged their understanding of God and of what kinds of healing activity humans can do. The case against Jesus continues to build when he is caught eating with sinners and tax collectors—those deemed hostile and unruly in matters of religion and national loyalty. (Mk 2:15-16) The questions and tests keep coming and Jesus is tracked and watched as if he’s a criminal—folks just wait to catch him in a scenario they could use to accuse him. (Mk 3:2)

But Jesus’ words and actions continue to draw crowds—as we hear at the beginning of our text today, so many people to engage there’s no time to eat! //

Jesus was just being himself. Jesus was just doing what he was created and called to do. His identity and his power stirred up controversy and trouble. 

And it wasn’t just the religious folk who had concerns. We hear at the beginning that Jesus’ “family” comes to “restrain” Jesus. And a brief textual note here: verse 21 is a very ambiguous phrase in the original Greek. Some translations refer not to “family” but to Jesus’ “friends,” or “kinsmen,” or “his own people”(tribe? region? nation?) At the end of our text (3:31-35), the language is very clear that Jesus’ mother and siblings arrive—his blood family. All this to say, it is not unreasonable to suggest that Jesus was stirring things up in his immediate family, in his broader community of friends and “tribe” AND in the religious community.

And what we see happening in our passage for today is a familiar tactic of response from the human playbook across time when someone is causing good trouble: slander the person and gaslight the people, appealing to their religious and moral scruples, using archetypes that trigger fear. And this is often to distance ourselves from or undermine the acceptance of people we don’t understand, who threaten our sense of what is right, of what’s familiar, or who we fear will take something away from us. 

The initial verses of our passage might reflect Jesus’ friends and hometown community being concerned about his well-being in the midst of crowds, taking on so much, thinking he can do something about all that suffering, and being identified as a threat to the powers that be in the process. Or they might have been embarrassed by the chatter about Jesus on whatever functioned as social media at the time. Regardless, the text is clear that whoever these people are, they come to “restrain” Jesus, believing he is “out of his mind.”

The scribes pile on with the claim that Jesus is possessed, that he “has” Beelzebul, is filled with evil, and his actions are driven by the evil one. Jesus is literally “demonized” by those speaking for religion.

Jesus’ response to this is to simply point out the absurdly illogical nature of the scribes’ assertion. Why would Satan destroy Satan? And then we get to three verses that have puzzled people for centuries. What is all this business about blaspheming against the Holy Spirit and eternal sin?

I found it helpful to look at the Greek word translated blasphemy—βλασφημία blasphémia—which means speaking ill of that which is good, failing to acknowledge what is truly good, defaming, reviling, slandering... Another way the word is described is as calling good evil and evil good.

Jesus is clear in verse 28 that people will be forgiven their sin and blasphemies. Then in verse 29 thi