Reflecting on Mark's Gospel - Mark 3:22-27

The conversation about who is right now starts to get somewhat complicated. The scribes are leading the opposition to Jesus. They are concerned about what he is saying and doing. Jesus’ actions are such that his reputation has spread quite a long way very quickly. These scribes have come from Jerusalem. We might expect that it would take something of considerable concern to bring a deputation from Jerusalem to Galilee to investigate the doings of a wayward preacher.

The accusation is that he is under the influence of Beelzebub. Beelzebub is the prince of the devils and is here identified as such. The scribes comment that Jesus can do what he is doing because of the power given to him by the ruler of the demons.

We are told that Jesus responds by speaking parables, though we have not yet had any such reported by Mark. That will begin in, as we have it, the next chapter, though presumably some parables had been included in what Jesus had already said to those who gathered to hear him preach. He certainly defends himself. He points out that simple logic does not support his accusers. He is working against evil things, and it makes no sense to suggest that Satan will assist him (i.e. Jesus) to harm himself (i.e. Satan.) He emphasises this by pointing out that either a kingdom or a house divided against itself will fall and fail. His message is one of healing and wholeness, and is supported by what he is doing. It makes no sense to suggest that Satan is behind his mission.

There is then this rather, initially, cryptic comment about the strong man. Ched Myers (Binding the Strong Man) helps makes sense of this – “Jesus (a.k.a. the “stronger one” heralded by John, 1:8) intends to overthrow the reign of the strong man (a.k.a. the scribal establishment represented by the demon of 1:24.) In this parable the oracle of Second Isaiah lives again: Yahweh is making good on the promise to liberate the “prey of the strong and rescue the captives of the tyrants” (Isa. 49:24f.)

In other words, Mark is hinting at the way in which Jesus will transform how things are to be seen. Strong things (and people) can be undermined and neutralised if the approach is right. The people need to learn that Jesus will teach a new view of strength. They need to see things differently. As Myers has it – “By the close of his defence, Jesus has turned the tables completely upon his opponents: it is they who are aligned against God’s purposes. To be captive to the way things are, to resist criticism and change, to brutally suppress efforts at humanization – is to be bypassed by the grace of God.”

The apostle Paul points out that God’s weakness is stronger than human strength (1 Cor. 1:25). I wonder if there are places where we look for the wrong kind of strength, and fail to see what God brings to the situation. I wonder if we manage to see the conventional view of strength for what it is.