June 10, 2018 – Mark 3:20-35
Mark 3:20-35
A Flock of Black Sheep
Lectionary 10 – June 10, 2018
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Really we could call this sermon “Jesus gets into trouble in a very short amount of time.”
In a little story early in his ministry we see how Jesus is in conflict with not only the
most powerful religious authorities of his time – but also his own beloved family!
What is going on?
Is Jesus just one of those people who is in conflict with everyone all the time?
Well, we can say at the very least that he is not shy of saying what he really thinks.
Okay: let’s set the scene.
Jesus is back at home in Nazareth.
Remember: he left to join John in the wilderness on the banks of the Jordan River.
There he was baptized by John and then fasted for forty days in the wilderness.
Then he began his ministry in the countryside, a ministry that has consisted of
calling disciples to help him, driving out unclean spirits, healing the sick,
and eating with sinners.
I know that this is maybe hard for us to comprehend: but . . .
all of this has been deeply shocking to Jesus’ family!
It is almost reprehensible behaviour.
He has abandoned his family.
He has not gone into the family trade.
He hasn’t gone to work to help support his family.
He has not been the good boy who has done everything his family has told him to.
Instead, he’s gone out to join his crazy cousin John in the desert, out there on the lunatic fringe,
where the two of them gather round themselves
a new and a very different kind of community.
Jesus has been traipsing around the countryside when he should have been at home,
talking to people those in polite society just didn’t talk to,
touching and embracing people you just didn’t embrace,
and – horror of horrors in that culture – eating with those considered
shameful and less honourable than yourself.
By his actions, and by associating with these people, Jesus has brought shame to his family.
And they do not understand it.
They do not understand his behaviour and they do not understand him.
And so he comes home, and his own family thinks he has lost his mind.
The translation you have is misleading –
it doesn’t say “the people” were saying he had lost him mind.
It says “they” were saying he has lost him mind, meaning his family.
And they are not there to “restrain” him: really the word here is better translated “seize” or
even “arrest,” which is how it’s translated elsewhere in the Gospel.
Hmmmmmm.
That just doesn’t sound good – which is likely why the translators have tried to tidy it up.
Apparently Jesus didn’t get the memo about family values.
Nevertheless, there is some very good news tucked inside all this messiness.
Still: let’s keep setting the scene: Jesus enters “a house.”
Yes: he is at home in Galilee, but it just says he enters “a house.”
Now: inside the house, he is surrounded by people who are completely intrigued by him.
I think they are likely people who have followed him here whom he has healed and accepted and
forgiven and included.
There are so many of them that
Jesus and his disciples can’t even lift their hands to their mouths to eat!
Outside the house are his family who thinks he has lost his mind and
religious authorities who think he is possessed by Satan.
The insiders are outside, see?
And the outsiders – the sick, the sinful, the black sheep – are on the inside with Jesus.
And there he is, at the centre, saying “This. This is my family.”
And we are meant to hear the shock of Jesus saying this about his family;
he essentially disowns his own biological family here.
This is tough in a day and age when so much is said about family.
On the one hand, there are incredible pressures to be the perfect family.
And if you don’t have it, you are made to feel ashamed, as if you have failed.
On the other hand, there are many who feel shame at having had their families fall apart,
Who have lost touch with or have been hurt by their children,
Or who have been disowned by their parents.
There are lots of black sheep out there of one kind or another.
But the good news is that Jesus gathers all of us together into one new kind of family,
around himself.
I don’t believe Jesus is completely rejecting the idea of biological or adoptive family.
It is a great gift from God, and of course we are called to care for those
within our biological families and serve one another and love one another.
But when family becomes the most important thing, when it becomes an idol,
it can become oppressive.
There are certain cultures, for instance, in which the youngest daughter is expected to be the one
to remain unwed and devote her life to her parents’ welfare.
And that may work out well – but it also may not.
If there is no choice involved, it can be incredibly oppressive,
and I have known women who went through this.
And family can become oppressive in many ways besides this one.
And really, for Jesus, the most important thing is not family.
And as we will see elsewhere in his ministry, the most important thing is not wealth,
or success, or the government, or even religion itself.
The most important thing is what God is doing, is God’s will for us and for creation.
The most important thing is God’s mission to love, bless, heal and set free
this whole world and every person in it.
The most important thing is God’s love for every single person regardless of biology,
regardless of what genes they’re carrying, regardless of who they’re related to,
regardless of their ethnic background.
This is what binds Jesus to his brothers and sisters:
the vision that God has an infinite love for each person,
and who can love in the same way.
I am sure that these crowds who keep following him are those he has set free:
Those he has set free from sickness through healing,
Those he has set free from hunger through food,
Those he has set free from exclusion through inclusion,
Those he has set free from guilt through forgiveness.
These things have bound them to him.
And these things have bound them to a desire to carry on his mission:
to set free from sickness, from hunger, from exclusion, and from guilt.
With Jesus, they will steal into the Satan’s house, tie him up, and set free all those he has bound
in sickness, and hunger, and exclusion, and guilt.
See? That is who is with Jesus in the house.
Those he has set free.
And those are his true brothers and sisters: those who are committed to the same task.
We gather in God’s house here every Sunday.
And we gather round the same person those people gathered round that day long ago.
The one who has fed us and will feed us again.
The one who has fed us with meaning and love when we were hungry for them.
The one who delights in forgiving us and freeing us from guilt.
The one joys to include us.
Because really, the truth is, we are all black sheep in one way or another.
Maybe we are on the outs with our biological families.
Maybe we are on the outs with our marital families.
Maybe we are on the outs with friends or co-workers.
Maybe we are on the outs with ourselves and cannot accept ourselves the way God accepts us.
The great good new this morning is that Jesus gathers all us black sheep to himself and says,
“You are mine. I am your brother. And nothing can change that. And I have job for you.
And it’s good work: join with me in doing God’s will, to gather up all the
the other black sheep outside the house. And bring them in.
So they too can have their hunger fed and their guilt forgiven.
Maybe it’s the members of your own family you are on the outs with.
They’re just outside the door: invite them in.
Maybe it’s those you are at odds with: they too are just outside the door: invite them in.
Maybe it’s those you do not understand,
and maybe it’s those you don’t think God could be working in or among.
Invite them in. There’s room at the table.
And together let’s share the family meal of the people of God,
dedicated to love, dedicated to healing, dedicated to feeding, dedicated to forgiving.”
Yes: maybe Jesus is in fact out of his mind.
And maybe that is not a bad thing.
He has gone out of his mind – out of his culture, out of familial expectations,
out of religious and cultural propriety – to let us all in,
and gather us all round himself in his house.
So together, with all those gathered round him on that day long ago,
with all those who have finally found a place at Jesus’s table,
a place where they finally belong, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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