God’s grace, peace
and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled “The Marcan Sandwich” and my
focus is our Gospel (Mk 3:20-35). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist
wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”
Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we
listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply
as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.[*]
One of my favorite
foods is the sandwich. Ham, turkey, tuna, roast beef, grilled cheese, BLT or
PBJ between two slices of white, wheat, rye, pumpernickel, sour dough, French
or Italian bread with condiments, vegetables, even fried eggs in between. The
sandwich is a meal for anytime at the table, in front of the TV, at a family
picnic or while commuting to work.
Sandwiches predate the
4th Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu, by 18 centuries. One
hundred years before Christ, the famous Jewish leader, Hillel the Elder, ate
flat bread sandwiches filled with sliced lamb, a practice that spread to
Western Asia and North Africa. And I am guessing that no one else here besides
me has been to Sandwich, Illinois, one of the three towns named Sandwich in
America.
I speak of the
sandwich, because it is a literary technique characteristic of Mark in which
one story is inserted in the middle of another so that each illuminates the
other. Mark served sandwiches to Christians orally and in print. Today’s
passage is one of 12 found through Mark. In fact, the entire Gospel of Mark is
one massive sandwich with 8:29 as the real meat: And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”
In today’s gospel,
three scenes are arranged into one block of material. In the first and third
units, Jesus is misunderstood by his own family; the second (vv. 22-30)
involves a far more serious charge from the religious authorities. As we
unpack our sandwich, I would like to look at three ingredients: brother,
blasphemy and believer, before returning for another sandwich.
First, brother. Our
passage opens with Jesus returning home. From the words Jesus spoke throughout
his ministry, home should be the place where one is welcome. After Jesus healed
the Gerasene demoniac, he instructed him to go home to his people and tell them
how much the Lord did for him and what mercy He showed him. In Matthew,
after he healed the paralytic, Jesus told the man to pick up his bed and go
home. In Luke 15, the father welcomes home his lost son with a king’s
feast. Here, however, his family and friends, including his brothers, seek to
restrain him or control him.
To understand the
reaction of Jesus’ relatives, it is important to recognize what family bonds
meant in their social context. An individual existed only as part of an
extended family unit, whose authority structure, obligations and customs
governed every aspect of life. Any action by an individual was a reflection on
the whole family, and any breach of family honor would meet with severe
discipline. Since Joseph was no longer alive, Jesus would have to answer to his
uncles and senior cousins.
These “brothers” heard
that people were saying that Jesus was out of his mind, in other words,
mentally ill, often associated with demonic influence. Motivated to protect him
from hostile religious leaders, they set out from Nazareth on a 20-mile trip to
seize their ordinary young kinsman because they did not believe in him. In
v. 31, we learn that Jesus’ brothers arrived, but finding it impossible to get
near him they stood outside. Because our passage is a sandwich, we will return
to it later. For now, we move from the outside to the inside, from brothers to
blasphemy.
The inside passage of
Mark’s sandwich transitions from brothers from Nazareth to scribes from
Jerusalem. Sent by the authorities to check out rumors concerning this miracle
worker, these experts in the Mosaic law carried more weight than the Galilean
Pharisees, Jesus’ fiercest opponents. Their chilling verdict is
categorical: “‘He is possessed by Beelzebul,’ and ‘by the prince of
demons he casts out the demons.’”
Notice how Jesus
responded. He summoned them, suggesting that they were saying these things
behind his back, and confronted them face to face, answering their charges in
reverse order. To their claim that he was using demonic powers to cast out
demons is logically absurd. What king would instigate a revolt against his own
rule? If this were so, Satan’s dominion would have collapsed.
In his second
statement, Jesus used a burglary analogy. The strong man Satan guarding his
illicitly obtained belongings, that is, possessed human beings, must first be
subdued in order for his house to be plundered. Recall Isaiah’s prophecy where
we read: “Can they seize plunder from warriors, or can the
captives of tyrants be rescued? But this is what the Lord says: ‘He will
seize even the warriors’ plunder, and the captives of tyrants will be
rescued. I myself will quarrel with those who have a quarrel with you, and I
myself will save your children.’”
Finally, Jesus
addressed the scribes’ first charge that he is possessed by Beelzebul not with
a parable but with a somber warning. He prefaced his affirmation that all
sins, even blasphemy, are forgiven with an Amen, a completely new usage of a
word that concludes prayers as an expression of agreement. The closest
expression in the Old Testament to Jesus’ phrase, “Truly I say to
you,” is the phrase, “As surely as I live,” found
in Numbers, Isaiah and Ezekiel.
Blasphemy is the act
of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, to religious
or holy persons or sacred things, or toward something considered sacred or
inviolable. The word "blasphemy" came from two Greek words meaning
injure and utterance, talk or speech. In the sense of speaking evil of God this
word is found in Psalm 74: Remember how the enemy has mocked you, Lord,
how foolish people have reviled your name. In Romans 2, Paul
borrowed a verse from Isaiah who proclaimed: What is this? asks the
Lord. Why are my people enslaved again? Those who rule them shout in
exultation. My name is blasphemed all day long.”
Although abusing or
insulting the name of God is a sin against God himself, this is forgivable.
What Jesus said here is that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit meant to harden
your heart so completely that one defiantly refused to recognize the action of God
and attributed to evil the good works Jesus did in the power of the
Spirit. For we see that when Jesus came up out of the water after he was
baptized, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit
descending on him like a dove. The scribes who persisted in such willful
blindness refused to repent and chose to close themselves to the forgiveness
that God offers through Jesus. Now, note that Jesus did not condemn the scribes
of committing this sin but warned them of the grave danger that awaited them if
they did not open their hearts to the Spirit and repent.
Finally, believers.
After the incident with the scribes, Mark resumes the account of Jesus’
brothers who set out to seize him but found it impossible to get near him. Mark
highlighted the contrast between Jesus’ family and the audience surrounding him
by twice mentioning that his family members stood outside.
This is the only time
in Mark that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, appears on the scene. Mark did not
indicate that she shared the opinion of those who thought Jesus was out of his
mind, but the episode suggests that she did not fully comprehend the scope and
significance of her son’s mission. Like others, she must grow in understanding
of the divine mystery that only faith can penetrate. Here, as in the finding of
the temple and at the foot of the cross, she must undergo a certain detachment
in her far greater role in the new family Jesus established. In Acts we read, “All
these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the
women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”
But when he received
word that his family was calling, Jesus immediately interrupted his teaching to
answer their summons. His reply must have sounded shocking in the cultural
context I described earlier. It is the first indication that all earthly ties take
second place to the kingdom of God. We hear Jesus speak this again in chapter
10, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or
brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and
for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time,
houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with
persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” In other
words, Christian discipleship trumps family ties.
Then, gazing with
affection and intimacy at those seated around him, Jesus elevated his new
family to an unexpected status. His new family, the family of believers, united
around him in a bond of love, familiarity and loyalty was stronger than any
blood relationship. For we read in John’s Gospel, “to all who did
receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of
God.” This is restated in Hebrews, Romans and Ephesians, “You
are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the
saints and members of the household of God.”
Establishing a new
community of believers was not a rejection of his earthly family. Eventually,
his brothers accepted the new basis of kinship evident from what I read in
Acts.
Jesus’ final
statement, “whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and
sister and mother,” explained the foundation for his new family.
Jesus’ most heartfelt desire was to please His Father. The only condition for
entering God’s family is to do God’s will, just as Jesus did. And to do God’s
will, one must first learn what it is by sitting and listening to Jesus as the
crowd is doing. By doing God’s will, they in a real sense bring Jesus into the
world.
As believers, we are
brothers and sisters who bring Jesus into the world. We do so by first sitting
and listening to Jesus and doing God’s will. That should be our heartfelt
desire. To bring Jesus into the world, to nourish others with the Gospel, we
must be nourished daily. And so, in closing I ask you, what is your favorite
spiritual sandwich?
Think of your
spiritual sandwich as your day. How do you start and end your day, and what
happens during the in-between moments? I start my day reading psalms, Scripture
passages, and early Christian writings from people like Athanasius, John
Chrysostom, Ambrose and Augustine. At the end of the day, I reflect, read a
shorter psalm and Scripture passage and pray that Almighty God bless us,
protect us and bring us to everlasting life. During the day, I sandwich in
other times to pray with my wife and whatever family members or friends are
gathered with us. I also tend to ponder throughout the day what I read early in
the morning. When I feel some sadness or bitterness because of some event that
occurs, I view it through the prism of the Cross. When I feel joy, I think how
God was responsible for this uplifting moment. Thus, my day is like a spiritual
sandwich.
None of our spiritual
sandwiches will be the same. We read different Scripture passages and
materials. For example, Julia chose as her confirmation verse, John 14:6, which
reads, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through me.” I asked her why she chose
that, and she told me that this is meaningful for her because Jesus is the only
way to the Father. I think Julia chewed on that verse for quite some time
because it took her some time to choose a verse. That’s a good sign.
We also listen to
different messages throughout the day. We pray for different people and needs.
We experience vastly different moments even if the event is the same. But each
day offers us the opportunity to bring Jesus into the world as brothers and
sisters seeking with heartfelt desire to please our Father. Brothers may not
always understand us. Blasphemers will curse us and our God. Still, we remain
steadfast believers listening to Jesus and seeking to do God’s will. Friends,
may your spiritual sandwich nourish you daily, and as it does, may the
peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
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