Mark Chapter 3

Mark Chapter 3

Here we are back on our Middle Eastern voyage with JC. Today he decides to enter a synagogue on the sabbath day (of which we recall from the previous chapter he is lord). Everyone gets excited again (these folks are easily agitated)... is he going to heal folks? You know, because that's like working and it's unlawful to work on the sabbath. There's some nail biting in anticipation and JC once again puts the situation into some perspective for these guys. Jesus asks them if it is lawful to do good or evil on this day, to save a life of kill it? No one answered, most likely because no one wanted to be the one to say, "Uh, JC? It's not an either, or type thing. You can't do ANYTHING on the sabbath, and uh... shouldn't you like know that?" But Jesus gets angry with their silence and heals some guys hand.

OMG the Pharisees just about go crazy, healing on the Sabbath was the last straw. They get together with their friends the Herodians (you'll recall the deceased King Herod from Matthew Chapter 2) and together they start to make a plan to destroy him.

Jesus, seeing this whole development decides to "peace out" with a bunch of his followers from Galilee and Judaea and head for the sea. While he's trekking to the water a whole bunch of people who heard about his miracles came from places like Idumaea, Tyre and Sidon to join him. Jesus is a little overwhelmed by the number of folks tailing him so he get a boat "lest they should throng him". Man, I agree Jc, I would NOT want to be thronged. He continues healing those with plagues and those possessed by "unclean spirits" (I wonder if I would qualify, my spirit hasn't taken a shower in years!). And everytime he heals someone they throw themselves to the ground screaming "Thou art Son of God". Holy Moly!

JC presumably tires of the sea and heads up into the mountain telling his disciples to follow him. By now he's realized that he alone can't spread his message so he ordains twelve of his closest follows to preach for him. (Whoa! Did we just meet those famous twelve apostles I've heard so much about? Seems likely. My spine is tingling again.) Not only does he have these guys preach but he also gives them the power to heal sicknesses and cast out devils. So, if you weren't convinced that any old human could do it before maybe you will be now.

Jesus decides that he needs to change a couple of their names. James and John who are brothers got lucky, they get the last name of Boanerges, which doesn't sound too great, but it means "The Sons of Thunder". Awesome. Simon only gets a surname of Peter. Boo! How boring. The other disciples are named also, if you are curious, they are: Andrew, Phillip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, Thaddaeus, and Simon. Judas Iscariot gets special mention. The writers of the bible don't like to leave you in suspense so they tell you right away that he's betrays Jesus. Hello! Spoiler alert. Oh well!

The group has another meal and some more of those pesky scribes join them. They tell JC that he's friends with the Devil and that's how he's able to cast out demons. JC's like, guys, what sense does that make? How can Satan cast out Satan, a kingdom divided cannot stand... whoa wait! I've heard that line before, who knew that was in reference to the devil tearing himself asunder. Hilarious. Anyway, he goes on, a house divided can't stand and therefore (and this one actually does follow some logic) Satan cannot rise against himself and stand. Jesus isn't quite done beating the dead horse, so he ads one more that I think makes slightly less sense. His final words of wisdom on the topic are that a man cannot enter a strong man's house and ruin his things unless he ties up the strong guy, then he can ruin his house. Awesome. Wait. What?

Jesus then turns back to his main theme of forgiveness (good, this is the JC I prefer). He tells everyone that all man's sins will be forgiven, including blaspheming (phew!)... BUT, anyone who blaspheme's agains thte Holy Ghost with never be forgiven and is in danger of eternal damnation... uh oh, I feel like I may be in trouble here. Apparently it's because this means their spirit is unclean (yipes, better clean my spirit up or it's the old ring of fire for me)!

Meanwhile outside the house Jesus's mom and family came to find him. Some well meaning dude is like, hey JC your folks are outside looking for you. Well, I think at this point Jesus may be taking himself a bit seriously because instead of going out to meet his family he looks around and says "Who is my mother or my brethren?" I'm sure the audience was like, Fella, the folks waiting on you outside... is this some kind of a joke? But Jesus lets them know that whoever does God's will is the same as his sibling or mother. The chapter ends here so I'm for the moment left to presume that Mary and his brothers and sisters were left sitting in the crowd. Nice job JC. Nice job.