Mark 3:20-21 “in a snailshell”
Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
©️2022 by Gloria M. Chang
Jesus came with his disciples into the house. 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.”
Mark 3:20-21 (Lectionary)
Charges of Insanity
The healing and compassionate Jesus deviated so much from the commonplace gray of death and destruction that he appeared insane even to his kinfolk—“those belonging to him.” In our broken world, “sanity” and “normalcy” mean disease, darkness, death, and decay—the consequences of the Fall. Light blinds the eyes of nocturnal creatures.
Outside of the intimate circle of the Holy Family, relatives and friends in Nazareth doubted him (Mark 6:1-6; Matthew 13:54-58; Luke 4:16-29). Religious authorities accused him of demon possession (Mark 3:22).
Fools For Christ
Since “no disciple is above his teacher” (Matthew 10:24), followers of Christ are also deemed “fools” in the eyes of the world:
For as I see it, God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike. We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless and we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment.
1 Corinthians 4:9-13
The Incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, suffered, died, and rose from the dead, inaugurating a “new normal” for humankind.
The ouster of demons seemed out of his mind:
To madness by relatives was Christ consigned.
Dear GMC, Thank you for a powerful reflection. I add 1 more: When we suffer, we awaken to the beauty and wonder of God’s creation and presence in our lives. With God’s care and grace, let us help each other live the “new normal” of the kingdom. For salvation’s sake!
Beautiful, fdan! In Christ, God’s children blossom like the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies, alleluia.
The ‘kin’ of Christ were those who “knew Him when…” They were NEVER going to accept Him as the Son of Man, as the Messiah. Therefore they had to put Him down, insult Him, slander His name. Essentially, they had to attack and bully Him for fear that others might believe in Him and the Truth He was speaking. It’s still going on today. When we speak our Truth to the world, we Christians are treated exactly like that. Attacked in all media, slandered as “crazies,” canceled and bullied on all levels. Yet we continue on to be, as you so aptly point out, “fools” in the eyes of the world. Praise to God, I will always be a fool for Him!
May the Holy Spirit speak his words, in his way, and in his time, through Christ’s disciples.
And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious how or what you are to answer or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Luke 12:11-12 (RSV)
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 5:18 (RSV)