Mark continues our series. Find sermon notes and study questions below.

Study questions

Before you open your Bible, invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you through His word.  When you’re ready, open the book.

1. Read Mark Chapter 3.  Read it through 3 times. What words jump out at you?  What themes crop up again and again? What are your first thoughts?

2. Use your imagination.  Imagine you were walking alongside Jesus at this time, what is he feeling at different points in this dramatic chapter?  What would you like to say to Jesus? What do you think he would be saying to you?

3. In vv.1-6 Jesus heals a man with a shrivelled hand.  His actions frustrated the Pharisees and Herodians, and broke the religious rules of the day.  Jesus’ response was to remind them that God had created the Sabbath for the blessing of humankind – for good, and not for evil.  Sometimes our relationship with “the rules” can lead us into habits that can cause us more harm than good.  Take a moment to reflect on this thought. What is God saying to you about this? 

4. In vv.7-12 we see the crowds pushing towards Jesus, the image is of a group eager for what they can get from Jesus rather than having a relationship with him.  How does this image impact your view of the purpose and value of prayer?  How could you pursue a relationship with Jesus, rather than just a purely transactional one.

5. Time and time again, Jesus is misunderstood, misrepresented and accused in this chapter. How does this reality of Jesus’ life shape your expectation of what it looks like to be his disciple?  Do they reflect your own? If so, why? If not, why not?  In either case, pray to be anointed with authority to follow in Christ's footsteps as his representative on this earth. 

6. As a way of helping it to sink in, in your own words, summarise and retell the message of Mark 3.

Sermon notes

Welcome

This morning, we’re going to be exploring the gospel of Mark, chapter 3.

As ever, my hope for this morning is to give something of an overview of the chapter, a few key points to look out,  some questions for you to consider at home, and for us as church community to really key into the message of the chapter so that can spend time reflecting on God's word at home and in our quiet times!

In the story of the gospel so far, the evangelist Mark has presented Jesus as acting just as he wishes!

We witness his unique authority in healing the sick and driving away evil spirits, even in ways that disregard the religious rules and expectations of the day.

A lesson in itself.

Now, the WAY Jesus goes about his ministry, serves to demonstrate, not only his authority OVER sickness, and the forces of evil, but it also validates Jesus’ unique authority to establish the Kingdom of God on earth…

…not as a mere prophet, or teacher, bound to the religious rules of the day, as created by man, but as someone who is uniquely placed to set them!

You see, yet again, Mark is revealing something of Jesus’ divinity as someone who dictates what is good and pleasing according to God, precisely because it is him who is carrying those actions out!

I think of Psalm 145:17:  “everything God does is right”!

In chapter 2 we see 4 occasions of conflict between Jesus and the religious elite:

In chapter 2: 5-7, Jesus heals the paralytic saying: “son your sins are forgiven”, and the teachers of the law argue: “He’s blaspheming, who can forgive sins but God”

In 2:16 – “why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners”

In vs23-24, as his disciples pick grain on the sabbath the Pharisees grumble:– “why do they do what is unlawful on the sabbath?”   

We come to the healing of the man with the withered hand, which forms the last of this first series of five stories of conflict!  From verse 1-6 it says:

3 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”

4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.

5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

The high point of this incident lies less in the act of healing than in the conflict between Jesus and his adversaries!

The Pharisees are looking for a way to accuse Jesus, it’s feeling quickly like already, only 3 chapters into the story, that the tide is turning on Jesus’ popularity.

It’s possible even that the man with the shrivelled hand had been conveniently placed there, whilst the Pharisees watched to see Jesus’ reaction to his presence!

In Luke 13 verse 14 we see a mirror of this account, where…

14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

Like other aspects of Jewish life, the practice of medicine and healing on the sabbath was regulated by strict legal tradition that Jesus would have been all too familiar with!

It was an accepted principle that “any danger to life takes precedence over the Sabbath”…

…but this man's withered hand clearly didn’t apply!

The rules were clear, if Jesus wished to heal the man, he would have to wait for tomorrow.

Instead we see Jesus, aware of the presence of those who were scrutinizing him, looking for a reason to accuse him, and yet he calls the man forward, asking him to stand in front of them all as he brings healing!

We don’t see the amazement of the crowds anymore; we see only anger.

The Pharisees don’t see his ability to heal as extraordinary, they view it as a power shared with others who heal on the sabbath.  A point that rears its head again shortly.

What’s interesting is that in the closing of the occasion we see that a mutual hatred for Jesus brings together two groups, the Herodians and the Pharisees, two groups who didn’t see eye to eye at the best of times, aligning themselves with one-another in their plot to see Jesus killed!

With our foresight as readers, the inevitability of the cross begins to come into view!

Jesus withdraws with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd follows.

People flocked to him from all around the region – from Jerusalem, Idumea, Judea and the Jordan to name a few.  

But read the wording of this passage in verses 7-12.

This was not a crowd of disciples looking for the way the truth and the life.

This is a crowd out for what they can get!

They’ve heard of the one who heals, and in the desperation of their various afflictions, they clamour and they crowd and they push…

So much so that Jesus had his disciples prepare a boat for him so that they could escape the press of the crowd that was coming so thick that it was becoming a danger, as the people with diseases pushed forward to touch him!

The sick are still healed, the demon possessed were freed, but despite the miraculous signs of WHO Jesus is, it’s only the evil spirits we see acknowledging him as the son of God.

The crowds it would seem, play the part of being ordinary people valuing Jesus Christ as someone who can help them with their physical problems, instead of recognising the very Son of God in their midst!

How easily the distractions of our own suffering can cause us to miss Jesus, even when he’s standing in front of us!

……………….

Though the evil spirits recognised Jesus for who he truly was, Jesus forbid them from revealing his nature. His time hadn’t come, and his mission wasn’t yet accomplished.

Again, Jesus withdraws from the crowd, calling to him only a select few, appointing 12 as apostles on a mountainside – equipping them authority to do as he did, to preach and to drive out demons.

A pattern of raising disciples to leaders for the time he would no longer be with them.

Next Mark tells us that Jesus entered a house.  The picture to this point is of a turning tide against Jesus;  the Pharisees, Herodians and scribes becoming resolute in their plot to have him killed, and the people grabbing what they can from his supernatural powers…

…the “ante” is being “upped” for not only Jesus, but his disciples.  The cost of being Jesus, and of following him is beginning to mount up.

…again though, a crowd gathers so impatient, so vociferous in their desire to “take” something from Jesus’ divine power to heal that they won't even allow him time to eat!

They have little care for the Holy man, as long as they got what they wanted!

At last, his family hears this news, in verse 21, and we think – great, at least there’s someone on his side, but no.

They went to take charge of him, for, “they said, He is out of his mind”.

To make matters worse, in verse 22, a delegation of legal experts arrive from Jerusalem, suggesting that Jesus’ mission in the area had attracted the attention of the Sanhedrin.  The scribes know that Jesus has a considerable following and that he’s able to heal the sick and has the power to expel demons!

They watch on and conclude that the source of Jesus’ power to do so is from Beelzebub.  

Perhaps linking together Jesus’ actions in healing on the sabbath, and surmising that the prince of demons was likely to be the base of his rule over evil and sickness.

If I were Jesus, and had the hindsight of the epistles, the words of 2 Corinthians 4:8 would come to mind:

8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned

The walls certainly seem to be closing in, suspicion around his identity, the cynical reach of the crowd, and the doubt of his blood relatives are as challenging for Jesus as they are relatable for Mark’s original audience!

Think of the Martyrs of Rome and Italy, watched, suspected – having to meet and minister in the quiet under threat of arrest, or death!

 Early Christians were the subject of much rumour and scandal.  They were accused of cannibalism because of the belief that they literally ate the flesh and blood in their celebration of the Lord’s supper!

Shunned as being “haters of their fellow men” because they avoided celebrating the festivals of their pagan neighbours…

It’s no wonder then that Mark shares this account of the doubt and false accusation that surrounded the source of Jesus’ authority and power.

And false accusation it was, because Jesus calls to the teachers of the law, answering their charge in a parable:

“How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.”

The response is clear – Jesus is the ultimate enemy to darkness.  Satan may be strong, but here, despite the press from all sides, Jesus shows that he is stronger!

Strong enough to bind the forces of evil and plunder it’s house!

Jesus then issues a warning that is utterly serious.

That whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven!

Jesus tells us two important things here. Firstly, the sin Jesus warns of, is not about saying the name of the Holy Spirit as you would a curse word when you’ve stubbed your toe – but to view the work of the Holy Spirit at work in the life of the Son of God and to conclude that it is in fact the work of evil rather than the living God!   

The second thing that Jesus reveals to us, is that the source of the work he does, is none other than the Holy Spirit himself.

As a Christian in Rome, as a Christian in Redcar, we see again the good news of Christ.

As a true disciple, expect hard times. As Jesus did.  Living out your faith in the way of Christ is more an invitation for hardship than it is a pleasure cruise.

But the good news is knowing that Jesus too experienced this suffering, in his death yes, but also in his life.

Expect to be misunderstood.  By friends, by the crowds, by the scribes and pharisees of this world, and yes, at times, maybe even by your family…

But know that you’re in good company.  And know that you do not stand alone.

The chapter concludes with Jesus’ mother and brothers standing outside, as ones who moments before had called him mad!

On hearing the news Jesus asks:

“Who are my mother and my brothers?”

Then looking at those seated in a circle around him– reading in the slums of Rome, listening in their living rooms via facebook live – he said: “Here are my mother and brothers!  Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Church, Jesus welcomes you to the family!

The cost can be high – but Jesus’ unique authority, and the ongoing disclosure of his true and full identity demonstrates again that simply “getting something from him” is of infinitely less value than being in a bond of relationship with him.

In this way, to follow Jesus with all our might is to be like him, and in so doing, to join the family. 

Amen