St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

St. Andrew's exists to proclaim the Gospel and to share the love of God in our church and in our community

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June 6, 2021

June 6, 2021 “Jesus is Stronger” – Matthew Neufeld Psalm 138, 2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:1, Mark 3: 20-35, These days we live in a world overflowing with information. It is very difficult for most of us to take it all in, let alone sort out the facts from the fictions. What is the real origin of the SARS-Cov-2 virus? A year ago, if you had suggested as one plausible explanation an accidental leak from Wuhan’s virology lab, you might have been labelled a kook or conspiracy theorist by some news outlets. Today many of those same outlets are having to issue corrections or admit that the “lab leak hypothesis” is just that, a hypothesis, not a crazy theory concocted in someone’s basement (or by the bad Orange Man). What counts as fake news can change, sometimes rather quickly. It is very difficult to make accurate judgements about what really going on in the world. Our news sources can only convey so much detail, and try as they might, the news is broadcast with a particular “spin” or “framing.” It’s hard to know what’s true. It is very difficult for us as individuals to know what is going on. We only see in part, and our perception is flawed and biased. We find it hard to know what people are up to, even people we think we know well. In our gospel reading from Mark, two groups have false notions about what Jesus is up to. Over the course of the story, Jesus corrects both false notions and shows what’s really going on. Jesus is fighting evil, and he is winning, because Jesus is stronger than evil. That’s good news for us today amid all the bad news and the fake news, and the battles over what news is truly fake or really bad. Jesus is stronger than evil, and Jesus is winning the battle against evil. Jesus is up to a lot over the first part of Mark’s gospel. Jesus calls disciples: fishermen like Peter and tax collectors like Levi (1: 14; 2:13). Jesus appoints apostles (3:13). Jesus drives out demons (1:21, 1:29; 3:7). Jesus heals people (1:29, 1:40; 2:1, 3:1). Unsurprisingly, given these spectacular deeds, Jesus draws crowds of people around him (1: 32; 2:2; 3:7; 3:20). Jesus challenges the legal system, for example, by not fasting or healing on the Sabbath (2:18; 2:23). Jesus even forgives a man’s sins (2:10). So, it is no wonder that Jesus also provokes opposition from elements of the Establishment. Not long after Jesus’ ministry in Galilee gained momentum, two major parties who normally hated each other, the Pharisees and the Herodians, agreed that they wanted Jesus dead (3:6). There was a lot happening around Jesus, because of Jesus, but what was really going on? Jesus’ family, based in Nazareth, heard about Jesus and the crowds and they decided: “He’s insane.” He’s crazy. They resolved to go to the centre of Jesus’ ministry, Capernaum, to collect him and bring him home. His family wanted to restrain Jesus, to take him out of the public eye and make him their problem. The more Jesus did in public, the more he challenged the Establishment in word and deed, the more chance he had to bring dishonour and shame to his family. No good Mediterranean family wanted to be associated with a troublemaker and a crazy person. Jesus’ family wanted to keep Jesus for themselves for their sake. The teachers of the law from Jerusalem came up to Capernaum to accuse Jesus of wickedness. The legal-constitutional experts from the capital city—representatives of the academic expert class—the intellectual elite, thought they had Jesus figured out. Why was this hick from the sticks performing such incredible works of power? Why, he was in fact an ally of the Evil One. “He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons” (3.23). Jesus’ family thought he was insane. The intellectuals accused him of acting in league with the powers of evil. Jesus didn’t respond to the accusation directly. He neither agreed nor denied. He replied in parables. Jesus, in a typical rabbinical move, responded to the experts’ accusation with a question: How can Satan drive out Satan? Can evil drive out evil? Can wickedness overpower good? Doesn’t that bring down the whole thing? Isn’t that a self-defeating contradiction? Jesus gave three examples of the absurdity of this line of thinking: a kingdom divided cannot stand; a household divided cannot stand; Satan divided cannot stand. “If Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand. His end has come.” (3:26). Jesus then extends the parable: a strong man can’t be robbed unless a stronger man ties him up. Demons cannot drive out demons. Demons could not be driven out unless Satan were defeated and tied up. Who is the robber in Jesus’ parable? Jesus! Jesus is binding the Strongman. Jesus is binding Satan and robbing him of those afflicted souls who were in bondage to evil. That’s what is really going on in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus can exorcize demons because Jesus is stronger than the Evil One. To describe Jesus’ ministry otherwise, to describe it as some kind of alliance with evil, is really to blaspheme against God’s sprit. “But whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.” (3:29). The unforgiveable sin. The concept, the passage, has caused some people devoted to the truth of Scriptures and the gospel immeasurable anguish. But it should not. Jesus is telling the constitutional experts that calling good actions of God “evil,” that is unforgiveable. It is the ultimate category mistake: to call what is good from God as originating with evil is truly the “beyond the beyond” of sins. It is blasphemy because it fails to acknowledge God as the ultimate source of good. Jesus has flipped the situation completely. Jesus accused his accusers: not only have they got him wrong (he is not possessed by evil) they’ve sinned against God’s spirit! The intellectuals have got Jesus wrong and God wrong. Then, after accusing his accusers, Jesus learned that his family were waiting outside for him. Jesus’ family didn’t want to go into the house where he was. They wanted Jesus to come out to them, to submit to their authority over him. After all, they were “his people” and they knew what was best for him. But Jesus did not submit to his clan’s authority. Jesus looked at the people sitting around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (3:34b-35) The people who do God’s will are Jesus’ family. Some people reading this account might suggest that with this statement, Jesus intends to re-define the family; to relativize the family. After all, the family, the clan, was THE most important social institution to which an ancient person belonged. You were, first and foremost, someone’s son or daughter. And whose parents you were, determined most of what your life looked like from cradle to grave. The people who do God’s will are Jesus’ family. The family is a much debated and fought-over institution in culture today. People divide, often starkly, over the extent to which the “traditional” family—mother/wife, husband/father, plus offspring—was normal and should be normative. Some people say that the traditional family is best because it normal, in the sense of being most common. Others think that the traditional family is exclusive and/or oppressive. Trad families do not make space for or stigmatize single parents, divorced people, single people, sexual minorities. Some people even argue that the traditional family never was normal. David Brooks, a NYT columnist, claimed last year that the nuclear family (mum, dad, kids) only became normal after the Second World War. David Brooks was wrong. In northwest Europe, two-generation households were the norm for at least six hundred years. In Europe before the Reformation, the Catholic church’s laws against consanguinity, marrying your close relatives, was the most potent legal weapon against patriarchy before the 19th century. Powerful male heads of households were forbidden by canon law from marrying their grandchildren to each other. Women and men were forbidden by church law from marrying against their will. Slowly, over the Middle Ages, the power of clans weakened as women and men married relative strangers to form independent households. Jesus’ words to those sitting around him in that house in Capernaum were not about idolizing or deconstructing the institution of the family. Jesus’ words reorient human families, whatever form they take, into a greater, broader, higher family: the people who do God’s will. Families are important and necessary; a review of sociological literature shows that intact, two-person families are the best motors for social advancement across generations. That is why residential schools were so terrible for Indigenous peoples. For too long, Canadian governments believed the lie that the state is the best educator of children. And so, children were removed from the circle of their families in the vain belief that schooling them for citizenship was more important than their staying connected to their kin. This is also why it somewhat paradoxical to hear people today say that “education is the key to reconciliation.” But families are not the ultimate institution, and they should not be the focus of our ultimate loyalty. Don Corleone, Tony Soprano, the Medici of Florence, all did terrible things because they were “looking out for their families.” Last Monday was Memorial Day in the USA. A day when Americans remember thousands of men who gave their lives to help people who were not their relatives. If people only cared about their families, the world would be a much worse place. As Christians, we are loyal not to our family, or to our country, but to people who do God’s will. People who do God’s will are Jesus’ mother and brother and sisters. Like when somebody who serves “the least of these” is in fact serving Christ; somebody who does God’s will is our sister and brother in Christ. Even if we don’t like them. We forget that the gathered community of people who aspire to do God’s will—including the Church—is not a natural community. It’s not kin, it’s not friends, it’s sisters and brothers in Christ. Outside the Church, dispersed out in the world, we might find ourselves opponents. Jets fans versus Habs fans. Liberals versus Conservatives. Covid cautious versus Covid skeptic. We don’t exist as the Church, we don’t gather together and worship together because we like each other, let alone agree with each other. And we certainly don’t exist because we have enemies in common. We come together because we are God’s people and committed to doing God’s will. We aspire to do God’s will in the confidence and the hope that Jesus is stronger than evil. Jesus defeats evil. Jesus’ healings, Jesus’ exorcism, these were evidence of Jesus’ power and strength. Satan and the forces of evil look strong. Satan looks like lord of the world, but in fact, truly, Jesus is stronger. Even when Satan looks to have won, on Calvary’s cross, Jesus still wins; Jesus wins against all appearances. You might think that I’ve been giving Jesus’ family, and the teachers of the law, a hard time. They got Jesus really wrong (not crazy, not evil). So to be fair, let’s recall that Jesus’ disciples also got him really wrong. Just before our text, Jesus chose the twelve who would be his apostles. They were the special followers that Jesus named “to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” Even these men got Jesus wrong. They all hoped to the very end of his ministry that somehow, Jesus would bring the Kingdom of God with power and glory—that Jesus would “whoop” the Romans’ butt and restore the Kingdom to Israel. The disciples, to a man, either betrayed Jesus, or ran away, or denied ever knowing him. The disciples didn’t get who Jesus really was until Easter. And even then, it was the coming of the Holy Spirit that propelled their proclamation: Jesus is Lord! Jesus is the Son of God! The one crucified, God raised from the dead and is now reigning with God. The disciples were with Jesus for three years, and still they didn’t see what was really going on until after Easter. Our sense of what is really going on in our world is understandably fragile. We can only know so much. Our judgements about people can also be very wrong. These days it is very easy to be presented with an image, a message, a story, showing something about someone that demands instant condemnation. The news demands that we make a judgement, that we declare who is right and who is wrong. We aren’t always called to declare who is right and who is wrong. We are called to trust Jesus, the Strong One of God. Christ Jesus knows what is going on. Christ Jesus is Lord of what is going on in our world and in our lives. Jesus is Lord of what is happening. He is the Stronger One whose way withstands all the might of evil. For that, we can say with relief: Thanks be to God.