Mark 3:20-35

Genesis 3:9-15

Psalm 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Mark 3:20-35

Jesus came home with his disciples.

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.”

The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said,

“He is possessed by Beelzebul,”

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 up 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 the house.

Amen, I say to you,

all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be

forgiven them.

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.”

His mother and his brothers arrived.

Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.

A crowd seated around him told him,

“Your mother and your brothers and your 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.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, all good things come from you. You invite me to share in your goodness and the blessedness of your divine life. Help me to resist the temptations of the devil and attain eternal happiness with you.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Accusation of the Jerusalem Scribes: The Gospel of Mark, in chapters 2 and 3, narrates the growing conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities. The Galilean scribes accused Jesus of committing blasphemy when he claimed to forgive sins (Mark 2:7). The Galilean Pharisees questioned Jesus’ disciples about him eating with tax collectors and public sinners (Mark 2:16). The people were concerned that Jesus’ disciples did not fast like the disciples of John the Baptist and those of the Pharisees (Mark 2:18). The Galilean Pharisees also accused Jesus’ disciples and Jesus himself of breaking the Sabbath rest (Mark 2:24; 3:2). This culminated in the Pharisees and Herodians plotting Jesus’ death (Mark 3:6). In response, Jesus withdrew to the sea and countryside (Mark 3:7) and appointed the twelve as the apostles and leaders of the New Israel. Our Gospel passage begins with Jesus returning home after his withdrawal, to the house of Simon Peter and Andrew in Capernaum. Instead of Jesus’ relatives from Nazareth going to Capernaum to welcome him and celebrate all that he had done, they set out for Capernaum and tried to seize him since they thought he was “out of his mind.” Similarly, instead of the scribes from Jerusalem praising God for the miracles and mighty works Jesus has done, they criticized Jesus and accused him of working with the devil. Now, the scribes from Jerusalem had more authority than the Galilean Pharisees. It seems that the Galilean Pharisees had not only plotted Jesus’ death with the Herodians but also sent word to Jerusalem about the actions and teachings of Jesus. The solution to the problem of Jesus, according to the scribes from Jerusalem, was to explain the miracles and great works of Jesus as being diabolical in nature. They started to say to the people that Jesus was possessed by an unclean spirit and that he was only able to cast out demons by the power of the prince of demons.

2. Jesus’ Response: Jesus summons the Jerusalem scribes, confronts them, and responds to their accusations. He starts by pointing out the flaw in their logic and does so using some parables or comparisons. He asks them to think about a kingdom. Would a king, who rules over his kingdom, start a revolt against his own rule and destroy his own kingdom? Would the head of a house start a revolt against himself and destroy his own house? If not, then why would Satan, the prince of demons, wage war against the other subordinate demons and destroy his own kingdom of darkness? Why would Satan empower Jesus to destroy Satan’s dominion? The scribes, it seems, were reduced to silence. Jesus then uses a second comparison to teach the Jerusalem scribes how he is casting out demons. He compares Satan to a strong man who is selfishly guarding the people he possesses. Jesus points out that to free the people in bondage, you first need to tie up the strong man, Satan. This is exactly what Jesus is doing through his exorcisms and healings. He is destroying the domain of evil and the devil. He is binding the strong man, plundering his house, and releasing those who were held in bondage. After revealing to the Jerusalem scribes the flaw in their argument and outlining what he is doing through his exorcisms, Jesus then warns the scribes that they are hardening their hearts (Mark 3:5). They are so blind that they are calling evil what is good and calling diabolical what is divine. They are knocking at the door of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. They are in danger of refusing to repent from their sins and are closing themselves to the forgiveness God is offering through his Son, Jesus Christ. “Mark explicitly connects this blasphemy against the Holy Spirit with the scribes’ accusation. Jesus is not declaring that the scribes have committed the everlasting sin, but is warning them of the grave peril they are in, unless they open their hearts to the Spirit and repent” (Healy, The Gospel of Mark, 78). The silent response of the scribes is telling. Mark then turns his attention to the family of Jesus who arrived from Nazareth to Capernaum to seize him. Instead of going to the door to greet his mother and his cousins, Jesus uses the opportunity to teach those who are seated around him about the new family he is forming: Whoever does the will of God is the brother and sister and mother of Jesus. Being a member of the new family of God is not based on descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is based on faith in Jesus, heeding the will of God, and unity through the bond of Christian love.

3. The Devil and the First Family: The First Reading, from Genesis 3, was chosen in connection with the Gospel for two reasons. First, it mentions the ancient serpent, the devil, and how the devil tempted Adam and Eve to sin and rebel against God. The same serpent is tempting the Jerusalem scribes in the Gospel to rebel against God’s Son. The temptation presented to Adam and Eve was not about knowing or recognizing good and evil. It was about desiring to be the one who decides what is good and evil. It is the temptation to be like God but without God (Cavins, Morrow, Rocha, Swafford, A Catholic Guide to the Old Testament, 118). The scribes from Jerusalem are falling into the same sin. Instead of recognizing the good Jesus is doing, they are determining for themselves what is good and evil. They think Jesus is breaking their traditions and interpretations of the Law of Moses, and, therefore, Jesus must be in league with the devil and must be put to death. Second, the First Reading mentions the first family, our first parents, Adam and Eve. Due to the sin of Adam and Eve, the human family has been marked and wounded by original sin. When God curses the serpent, he foretells how the serpent’s offspring will continue to strike at the heel of humanity, while the offspring of Eve will crush the head of the serpent. Jesus is the offspring, the seed, of the woman who heals the wound of original sin, defeats the devil, and reverses the curse brought about by sin. “This ‘New Adam” and long-awaited savior will enter a garden and sweat blood, taking on himself the curse and sin of the first Adam, and his suffering and death on the wood of a tree will transform that wood into the new Tree of Life. Jesus’ faithfulness to God his Father and his rejection of Satan’s lies, even to death, show the way that the first Adam, and all the sons of Adam, were and are to walk” (Gray and Cavins, Walking with God, 22). 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have crushed the head of the ancient serpent through your life, passion, death, and resurrection. Teach me to avoid the deadly bite of the serpent and overcome sin in my life.

Living the Word of God: Am I open to Christ’s teaching? Am I ever like Jesus’ relatives and think he is “out of his mind”? Are there any of the Church’s teachings that I resist or disagree with? How can I better conform my thinking to the mind of Christ and his Church?