SUZY PARISH
Hope blooms in unexpected places
Have You Lost Your Mind (Yet?)
This is a post from a devotion for a group in which I am a member.
To set the stage, In Mark 3 Jesus had just healed a man on the Sabbath, a man with a withered hand. Jesus was being watched closely, and after that fateful healing, “the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”(Mark 3:6) We are seeing the convergence of two events, like two mighty rivers flowing into one another. As people are being healed, the wrath of the Pharisees is increasing.Jesus’ time on this earth is growing short.
The crowds, having heard how people were being healed, came to Jesus from all over the region. He was forced to climb into a little boat and pull away from the shore so they would not crowd him.
Later he went up on a mountainside with his followers and appointed the twelve “that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.”(Mark 3:14-15)
It was just after this when he entered a home. Evidently word spread he was there. A crowd gathered, so large that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. Can you hear the crowd outside the house? Donkeys braying, feet crushing undergrowth, people jostling each other, trying to push in the front door? The harried home-owner, trying to give Jesus and the disciples a meal. Maybe yelling at his friends, “Keep the door shut, at least let them eat!”
In the middle of all this, the Son of God, healing, teaching, mentoring the twelve men who were to follow him, in the middle of this come Jesus’ family members. We are not told which ones, but here they are. Are they coming to join him? Are they coming to say, “Wow, we are hearing of all these healings, you must be who you say you are!”
No.
The NIV says “They went out to take charge of him.”(Mark 3:21)
The NASB says “they went out to take custody of Him.”
Someone appointed an intervention committee for our Lord.
“When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said,
“He is out of his mind.”
(Mark 3:21)NIV
I am flabbergasted.
Read this verse slowly.
Let the words sink in.
Someone called our Lord crazy. Not just someone, the people he had grown up with.
24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!
26 “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”Matthew 10:24-28NASB
Do not fear them. Go out there and live crazy for God!
“So go out and live real good and I promise you’ll get beat up real bad. But, in a little while after you’re dead, you’ll be rotted away anyway. It’s not gonna matter if you have a few scars. It will matter if you didn’t live.”
Mark 3: 20-21 NASB
“And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. 21 When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”
Mark 3:20-21 NIV
“20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered,so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
Great blog for me this morning, Suzy. Yesterday I took part in an online discussion which had that little bit of twisted truth. You know the kind, not seeking what God said but condemning if you didn’t agree with them. And I was reprimanded by originator for speaking the unvarnished truth of what God’s Word said about the matter. And I’ve wrestled with this issue all night. Did I speak out of turn? Did I speak without love? Should I have just kept my mouth shut?
Your list of God’s voice and Satan’s voice set things in perspective for me this morning. Thank you. Satan is always there, worming his way into conversations, to twist, confuse, and deceive. To change our focus from His truth to what we feel. Which is why we must be diligent to take in the whole counsel of God’s Word.
DiAne Gates
http://dianegates.wordpress.com/