A House Divided
When God created us, He made us in His image and likeness and designed us for fellowship with Him. But when sin entered the human family there was a division, a separation. Satan didn’t attack the physical bodies of Adam and Eve, instead, he attacked them at the very foundation of life, in biblical language, the heart. We call it the volition or will, the place where we make choices.
By an act of their will, they decided they had the right to choose how they would live. They chose to surrender to the idolatry of self. Their choice separated them from God and introduced shame and guilt into their experience.
When God warned Adam against eating from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” He wasn’t giving advice, He was giving a command. That command was actually “good news,” because it was meant to protect them. It was designed to preserve the intimacy of their relationship with God.
Yet because they were made in God’s image, they were moral beings with the ability to choose. In that freedom, they chose to elevate their physical desires and their intellect above God’s command. As a result, death and division entered the human family. Their disobedience thwarted God’s perfect design. They became “A House Divided.” That’s the title of our study today.
As we continue our journey through Mark’s gospel, we see the evidence of this division in Jesus’ cultural and biological family, His religious family, and His spiritual family. Even though we live some 2,000 years since Mark recorded these scenes from Jesus’ life, and even though we live in a very different cultural setting, they still speak to us today. We discover that the choices of the characters in this text are very much like the choices you and I face today.
So, listen carefully as I read Mark 3:20 to 35. Try to pick out the statements that reflect the consequences of “A House Divided.”
This text records several STATEMENTS that clearly show to us the consequences of a divided house.
The First STATEMENT is,
He is Out of His Mind
The verses just prior to our text detail how Jesus chose the Twelve on a remote mountain in Galilee. Then, we read that Jesus came home, back to Capernaum. And, true to form, a large crowd immediately gathered. In fact, the crowd was so large and so tightly wedged into the house that Jesus and His disciples couldn’t rest, they couldn’t eat, and apparently Jesus couldn’t even teach. Try to imagine yourself in a setting like this.
If you had a family member in circumstances like this, you’d be concerned about them, wouldn’t you? When Jesus’ friends heard about His predicament, they set out to rescue Him. The KJV says it was His “friends.” Some other versions say, “His people,” and still others, “His family.” They are all correct. The literal translation is “those from the side of Him.” It is an idiom and most likely means His relatives and/or His family. Remember, we’re dealing with a culture where the consensus or decision of the group is more important than the rights of the individual.
So, they came to rescue Him, and they were willing to use force if it was needed. It reminds me of my mother-in-law forcibly removing her son from cancer treatment in the hospital because the doctors told her that further treatment would most likely be fatal to him. He was unaware of the seriousness of the situation, and she felt compelled to intervene. We would do the same.
Evidently, Jesus’ family saw His current situation as being out of control. What they were seeing, in their minds, wasn’t normal behavior. Their conclusion was, “He is out of His mind, He’s lost touch with reality.” Later on in this text we have the specific mention of Jesus’ biological family, His mother, and brothers, but this initial group was probably larger than that.
His mother, Mary, may have suspected that He was overcome by the strain and stress of ministry to the point where He couldn’t make wise decisions. She wanted to take Him home where He could rest and get proper food.
You may know people, personally, or at least know about them, who have had mental breakdowns caused by a lack of margin in their lives. They became overwhelmed with their responsibilities and the pressures of life. We also know from John 7:1 to 5 that Jesus’ biological brothers didn’t believe His claims of divinity. And people in His hometown of Nazareth also rejected His claims of deity.
Similarly, in Acts 26:24, the apostle Paul was also told by the Roman official, Festus, “you are out of your mind.” What was it that caused people to reach this conclusion in the case of Jesus and the case of Paul? I believe it was because both of them were totally committed to obeying the will of the Father. And people today who make it their goal to be completely “sold-out” to Jesus will most likely face that same charge.
It’s acceptable in a variety of social circles, even in the church, to be religious, but to be totally committed to Jesus is considered fanatical, even dangerous. You may be labeled as “out of your mind.”
The Next STATEMENT is,
He Has a Demon
Whoa! The men saying this were part of Jesus’ religious family, the Jews. The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said of Jesus, “He has Beelzebub.” Baal-Zebub was the chief god of the Philistine city of Ekron. His name meant “Master of the dwelling.” The Israelites had a derogatory name for Baal-Zebub; they called him “lord of the flies.” And here the religious leaders assign this name to Jesus. This is in contrast to the name Jesus assigned to Himself in Matthew 10:25 as “Master of the house.”
The scribes could have benefitted from this counsel, “When you find yourself in a hole, the best thing you can do is to stop digging.” But their hatred for Jesus bordered on irrationality. And so, they kept right on digging.
Not only did they malign His name, but they also accused Him of casting out demons by the prince of demons. The reason for this accusation was most likely because Jesus had cast the demon out of a man on the Sabbath day in the synagogue. That probably violated one of the 39 prohibitions for the Sabbath. You can read about that scene in chapter one.
How did Jesus respond? He called these scribes together and began to speak to them in parables. In several short, simple, common-sense answers He pointed out the obvious flaws in their logic. He asked them “How can Satan cast out Satan?” Satan’s focus is on himself; it’s what got him evicted from heaven in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. “I will do this; I will do that; I will be like God!” Satan isn’t going to do anything that jeopardizes his power or influence.
After this, Jesus points out the fallacies of their accusation in rapid succession. A kingdom or household divided against itself cannot stand. And if Satan rises against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but his kingdom is coming to an end. But notice, while Jesus refutes the logic of the scribes, he doesn’t dispute the reality that there is a prince of demons. He had already met him during His temptation in the wilderness.
Jesus went on to point out that the only way a thief can enter the house of a strong man is if he first ties up the strong man and renders him helpless. Then he can do whatever he wants and take whatever he wants. He can thoroughly ransack his house. That prince of demons, whom we call Satan, regards the souls of unredeemed mankind as “his goods.” He is the strong man. Jesus came to bind the strong man, Satan, to plunder his kingdom, and according to I John 3:8, to “…destroy the works of the devil.”
The scribes rejected this logic, so they accused Jesus of having a demon and casting out demons by the prince of demons. That’s not surprising; hatred and logic are usually incompatible.
This was the setting for Jesus’ teaching regarding “the unpardonable sin” of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But before He expounds on that possibility, He reminds the scribes that ALL sinful behavior and whatever blasphemies they speak can be forgiven by God. Blasphemy is defined as evil speaking, character assassination, slander, and reviling. The apostle Paul is proof of this reality according to his confession in First Timothy 1:13.
Going further, Jesus responds to this hideous accusation. He warns the scribes that they are nearing the edge of a dangerous precipice, which if crossed will have eternal consequences. Anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven because he “is guilty of eternal sin.” Since the sin is eternal, forgiveness is impossible. Hardened, permanent unbelief joined with malicious hatred of the only means of forgiveness, is the unforgivable sin. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is specifically, attributing the power and work of God to Satan!
I’ve had people tell me that they fear having committed the unpardonable sin. What should I tell them? First of all, Jesus didn’t say that sin against the Holy Spirit couldn’t be forgiven, only blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. That is, again, attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan or his demons.
When people are afraid that they have committed the unpardonable sin, it is proof to me that they haven’t. If they had committed that sin, there would be no remorse. They would have no wish for forgiveness and would persist in their hatred toward God.
As I understand this sin, it isn’t something one does in moment of anger or impulse. It can only be the culmination of a long course of self-hardening and depravity. Those who have a genuine desire to walk by the grace of God in obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit need have no fear of committing this sin.
Jesus pointed out the absurdity of the scribes’ argument. If He were casting out demons by the prince of demons, then Satan’s house would be divided and would quickly disappear. Instead, Jesus cast out demons by the power of God! That should have been clear evidence to them that the kingdom of God was present in Jesus.
The Final STATEMENT is,
This is My Family
Once again, Jesus’ mother and his brothers appear on the scene. They couldn’t get through the crowd, so they called out to Him. The crowd then relayed their message to Jesus that they wanted to talk with Him.
When Jesus got the message, He asked a question. “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” That’s not a hard question, is it? How would you answer it?
Then, He looked over the crowd that was gathered around Him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, this one is my brother and my sister and my mother.” Jesus was making a difference between His biological family and His spiritual family. And the spiritual family, according to Jesus’ actions, takes precedence.
These words of Jesus probably shocked the crowd. They were revolutionary words and ideas in His culture. Loyalty to one’s family and community were of utmost importance. Yet in Luke 14:26 Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Let’s not stumble over the word “hate” that Jesus used; but let’s not minimize it either. It is a strong word. Jesus isn’t commanding us to hate father or mother in the sense of bearing malice or ill-will toward them. That would be contrary to other commands of Scripture.
This same word appears in Romans 9:13 where we read “…Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” Did God bear malice toward Jacob? No, that would fly in the face of God’s love for all people. It is only in the realm of preference or choice that this distinction is made. In His sovereign will God chose Jacob and his descendants to be the people called by His name.
In Matthew 10:34 Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” He said the Gospel would separate family members from each other and anyone who would cling to those family relationships could not be one of His disciples. The Gospel would cause a house to be divided.
In our text, Jesus states that it’s those who do the will of God who are truly part of His family, not so much those who say they are part of His family. Remember, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.” That’s Matthew 7:21.
And I John 2:3 and 4 tell us, “Now by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
So, you see, a house can be divided in different ways. Some ways are destructive while others are life-giving. Some of you faced opposition and rejection when you made the decision to become a follower of Jesus. You. You were ridiculed and harassed. Maybe you were even told, “you’re out of your mind.” If so, you have a better sense of what Jesus is teaching here.
Is your house divided? If so, in what way? No one can pay you any greater compliment than to have Jesus say about you, “you are my family.” Will Jesus say that about you?