This year my spiritual project is to memorize all of the 16 chapters of the gospel of Mark. I was surprised to find out how Jesus’ family thought of him: “He is out of his mind.” How blaspheming for me even to think of him as a psychopath! His actions were clearly too offensive for the early church members. Why was Jesus alienated from his family? What made his family think he was out of his mind? Maybe his family had the same opinion as the Pharisees. He was a law breaker when he healed the sick on the Sabbath day. Maybe Jesus avoided his family responsibilities as the firstborn: “Who are my mother and my brothers? Whoever does God’s will be my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:33)
What did he do? Up until chapter three, what he did was to cast out demons, heal Peter’s mother in law, clean a leper, and make a paralytic walk. That’s why the crowd gathered around Jesus, but it became the reason why the religious authorities opposed him. That’s why his family tried to restrain him. Religious leaders thought that he was possessed by the prince of demons because he said: “The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
Jesus always stood before them as the image of unity, wholeness, integration. Jesus reflected their brokenness like a clear mirror whenever they confronted Jesus. Jesus did so by revealing their anger and resentment, greed, insecurity, perfectionism, sorrow and loss, fear, envy, loneliness, so to speak their own brokenness. People only see with their eyes. When they remarked, “He has gone out of his mind,”
the people projected onto Jesus their own conflict and division
. Christ binds the forces that divide, heals the wounds that separate, and refashions pieces into a new whole. “Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God.” (Roman 8:39)
Today’s Reflection:
Do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable with what Jesus says or does? What makes you comfortable and encouraging? What passages or sayings make you uncomfortable, irritable and troubled?
Pastor Seok-Hwan
