May 10: Who Is My Mother?

Sermon for Christian Family Sunday

Preached at Trinity-Grace United Church, Vancouver BC

by The Rev. Sandra Nixon

Today our society celebrates Mother’s Day. I’ve just come back from a lovely visit with my mother over on the sunshine coast, and if you asked me who my mother is, I would be able to give you a clear answer.

In the passage from the gospel of Mark today, Jesus ends up asking that very question, but in a very different context, and in a really edgy - some would say, shocking - way.

How did he get there? 

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Well - it’s a bizarre scene all around - Jesus at his home in Nazareth, with crowds inside and outside - religious authorities show up, and also members of Jesus’ family. 

It’s chaotic, Jesus is accused of being out of his mind, and then accused of being possessed by Satan. And all of that then ends with what we might describe as some challenging statements from Jesus.

So - let’s start at the beginning. Or maybe even back up a little. 

The passage we heard today starts with the sentence: “Then Jesus went home…” 

So where was he before that? Because, if we go back a bit further, earlier in this chapter of Mark, we find out the chaos has already been building. 

So a few verses earlier Mark tells us that after curing someone (gasp) - a man with a withered hand - on the sabbath (gasp), in the synagogue (gasp), the religious leaders begin conspiring with the authorities (Herodians) to get rid of Jesus - (“the text reads “destroy him”) - but at this point it likely doesn't mean they want to literally get rid of him, but rather want to destroy Jesus’ reputation.

Now, after this healing of the man on the sabbath, Mark tells us that Jesus decides to head with his followers to the Sea of Galilee. And apparently, a “great multitude” followed him there - people from all over, who had heard about his healings. Many, many people, Mark says, who had diseases, who were hoping to be cured. 

It was so chaotic that Jesus asks his disciples to get a boat ready so he can get out onto the water, away from the crowds because people were so desperate for healing, and thought maybe they could be healed just by touching him - so it was becoming kind of a mob-like situation with the high crowd of people all trying to push their way through to touch him and he was worried, sounds like legitimately, about getting crushed - or, I imagine, about others also getting hurt.

So, can you imagine? The closest image I can come up with is, you know, the footage you see of those Beatles concerts - or pick your favourite mega pop start (Taylor Swift?) with fans going crazy and trying to touch them on stage.

Then, abruptly, Mark takes us up “the mountain” with Jesus who then chooses the twelve disciples who will “be with him and be sent out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.” Why that, specifically? And why now? 

Well Jesus has just been curing people of their diseases and it's important to remember that in that day, many diseases were attributed to demon possession. So the curing and the casting out demons went hand-in-hand.

After this - the choosing of the disciples on the mountain… Jesus (accroding to Mark)  heads home. Which is where our reading today picks up the story.

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So Jesus is at home, and many, many people who have heard about his healings and found out where he is have come out to try to see him. Apparently, it’s so disruptive that Jesus and his followers can’t even find time and space to have a meal. 

Mark says, “When his family heard it (what?), they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”(v.21)

So I’m wondering: Is Jesus angry and frustrated at being continually hounded by the crowds and having his movements interfered with? 

This would be understandable - given that he just got home after being hounded by the sea of Galilee. 

Or, maybe, this process of calling /casting out demons was quite something to witness, and perhaps Jesus looked like he himself was possessed when he was doing this.

Apparently there were also some scribes in the crowd, who’d come down from Jerusalem to see what Jesus is up to and they do start accusing him of being possessed himself, and casting out demons by virtue of having an evil spirit - himself (if that makes sense, but does any of this really?).

It obviously doesn’t (make sense) to Jesus, as he then launches into a series of parables about a kingdom and a house divided against themselves falling, and how “if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand” but “no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.”

And then basically tells them the spirit possessing him is the Holy Spirit - and accuses them of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. And this, he says, is an eternal sin - to be clear, the worst kind of sin that will not be forgiven. Ever.

Then Jesus’ family - his mother and brothers - show up and have to send word via someone else to go inside and tell Jesus they’re there. And when Jesus is told his family is outside wanting to see him, he replies “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 

Then he looks around at the people who were sitting around him, and says, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (v.34/35)

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Okay. So… there’ a lot going on here in these verse, and in this chapter, of Mark.

1) We’ve got Jesus, whose fame has begun to spread throughout the region - even to Jerusalem (Mark 3:8). So much so, that the religious authorities have also started to show up to challenge Jesus, and have become sufficiently worried that they have begun to plot how to destroy him (Mark 3:6).

And their first line of attack is to publicly discredit and shame Jesus, because, as we know, it’s your followers - and how many of them you have - that gives you power an influence. (Some things don't change!)

And so this passage begins by setting the scene in the presence of a crowd - the place where public reputations are made - or broken.

2) So secondly, we’ve got a crowd - relentlessly following Jesus.

3) Thirdly - we’ve got the religious authorities -the scribes - from Jerusalem - trying to publicly discredit Jesus. They’re attacking Jesus' honour, because they want to destroy his public reputation - this is because his popularity is becoming a threat to social order, and they are under huge pressure to maintain order. 

We cant forget that at this time, Israel is under occupation by the Romans. And if the authorities from Jerusalem do not maintain social order, THEY will be punished and possibly the whole city and country. This was not an exaggerated worry, because 30 years after Jesus there was an uprising and the Romans did kill many and did destroy the Temple.

So the scribes are attacking Jesus’ honour. 

4) And finally, we have Jesus’ family - his mother and brothers. They are out there trying to protect the family’s honour.

Jesus may have been at his wits’ end with the crowd, or maybe he was in a delirium of casting out demons - either way, people were saying “he’s gone out of his mind”. And if that was the case, his family would be honour bound to find a way to restrain him and make sure that Jesus' behaviour did not bring the family into disrepute.

And what happens? 

A) As we see in many of these stories, Jesus manages to skilfully fend off the attack by the scribes.

As I mentioned - they attack Jesus by saying that it is by the ruler of the demons that he casts out demons.

But Jesus easily ridicules this argument: How can Satan cast out Satan? How can a house divided stand?

Jesus then rightly defends the honour of the Spirit by which he has in fact been doing these things - saying it’s the Holy Spirit; God's Spirit.

Not only does he do that, he goes even further and accuses the scribes of an eternal (unforgiveable) sin - blaspheming the holy spirit.

Can. You. Imagine.

This peasant nobody, in front of a huge crowd - has just condemned the religious authorities from the Temple in Jerusalem - the one and only place in Israel where sins are determined - he has just publicly pronounced them guilty of an eternal sin!  It’s like he has become the authority rather than the temple itself!

I hope we aren’t still wondering why the authorities wanted to destroy Jesus…

B) And then there's Jesus' family. We never hear that Jesus goes and speaks with his mother and his brothers. Instead, to the crowd, he asks: “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

This, of course, cuts to the heart of Mediterranean society. Family is everything.

And then he answers his own question: 

(You all) here are my mother and my brothers!
Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.

This is really one of the most radical statements in Mark’s Gospel because it announces a whole new way of being family - which is, bonded together through being of the same mind and heart - following the will of God, which Jesus describes as love - love of neighbour as oneself.

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And perhaps that is where this challenging gospel passage meets us most directly today.

Because Jesus is imagining a community where belonging is not determined primarily by bloodline, status, ethnicity, gender, politics, or social acceptability — but by shared participation in the life and love of God.

“Whoever does the will of God,” he says, “is my brother, is my mother.” - is my family.

In other words: the family of God is formed wherever people commit themselves to God’s will as we see it embodied in Jesus - in compassion, justice, healing, welcome, and mutuality.

That vision was profoundly countercultural, profoundly radical in the first century where the primary community of belonging was blood kinship.

Of course, belonging is a basic human need and in our day, with the world as fractured  and digitized as it is, and with isolation and alienation being epidemic, people are hungry for communities of belonging. 

We know what happens when people and groups with specific agendas and few ethics prey on people’s sense of alienation and wanting to belong.

And it is so unbelievably important that there be  a choice for people - healthy communities of love and care and mutual support that we can turn to and be welcomed into, just as we are, with no agenda but loving and honouring one another and our neighbours.

A place where we can be known and accepted.

Where care and honouring flows across generations and differences.
Where vulnerability is met with compassion rather than judgment or exploitation.

That is what the church can be, and is called to be: not simply an institution or a gathering of like-minded people, but a spiritual family — a household of grace. A community where children are cherished, elders honoured, burdens shared, meals offered, tears witnessed, laughter enjoyed, and no one is expected to walk alone.

And every time we welcome one another, support one another, forgive one another, advocate for one another, and care for one another — we participate in that new household Jesus was trying to bring into being.

One bonded in the spirit of life and love.

May it be so. Amen.