Lenten Daily Reflection 2020-03-10
Mark 3:19 - 35
Then he went home; 20and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ 22And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ 23And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27But 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.
28 ‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— 30for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’
31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters* are outside, asking for you.’ 33And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’34And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’
God is weird... like totally weird, right? The whole my ways are not your ways thing is not just for affect. And sometimes we’re sitting here going “wait what the heck was that?” And in our lack of understanding we could attribute the work of God to other stuff... in this passage it’s Satan, which Jesus says is a no-no, but we can by pass that for now. Cause that feels complicated and I feel like too many kids spent nights in their christian summer camp bunks worried how they’ve accidentally blasphemed the Holy Spirit. And I’m not into that so let’s just move last it.
We can all agree the world of God is weird and slow right? It’s weird and slow. And by weird... I mean... look at Jesus. Jesus does a lot of stuff that nobody understands. To be frank Jesus does stuff that I don’t understand. And more over like Jesus is always just landing the plane sideways. Like 2+2 doesn’t equal 4 with Jesus. 2+2 equals 2 million because Grace. And grace makes stuff weird. It makes it hard for us to understand because 2+2=4.
And so when I read this passage, I like to think of it as an invitation to me. It’s an invitation for me to consider the world and humans not how I consider them, but how God considers them. The economy of Jesus where 2+2 does not equal four. And you don’t have to worry about why Jesus is doing the work that way because that’s just how he’s doing the work. And human hearts a tricky... I know mine is and maybe God just knows a things or two more about how those work. And so he came down as a dude who does weird math and tells you not to worry about it. And that’s okay.