Day 17: JESUS BRINGS: CONFRONTATION—CONFUSION—COMMITMENT
Today’s Passage: Mark 3:20-35
QUIET!
Perhaps you’ve seen more than one movie where throngs of people are in chaos and, to gain attention, someone yells, “QUIET”!
Today in the text we read about:
1. Crowds of overwhelming proportions, verse 20.
2. Confrontation with the religious of the day, verses 22-30.
3. Confusion from his family, verses 21, 31-35
You might expect to read Jesus yelling, “Quiet!”. He doesn’t.
We also do not read any words where Jesus Healed, or Consoled or Comforted. I expect he did. This snippet of text however does not identify such actions. Their absence got me thinking, thinking about the point of this section of the Gospel
I believe the point is about Commitment. Let me explain.
Many people struggle with this text because, at first blush, it might appear as if Jesus is disowning his family.
Clearly, he loves his mother, and she him. Consider the scene at the foot of Cross.
Rather than eliminating people from his family circle, he is widening it. He is inviting more people in as brother and sister.
Jesus spells out what a member of his family looks like. It is someone who has made a commitment, a commitment to do the will of God, verse 35.
This text is about more than Jesus’ reaction to his family. It is in many ways a picture of how people in the world often react.
1. For those who want something FROM Jesus, they turn up in droves.
2. For those who feel THREATENED by his challenging words, they seek to discredit him or worse.
3. For those who THINK THEY KNOW HIM, but are confused by his total engagement in the world, they struggle to stay with him.
This is how much of the world reacts. Jesus, for his part, does not react, instead he invites. “Come, follow me”, he says. “Come sisters, come brothers, let’s do the Father’s will together”.
Today, as in Jesus’ day, the confrontation with Him and his followers continues. In 2019 one report issued stated that the persecution of Christians had reached genocide levels. Forbes magazine, a business periodical, even reported on it.
Today, as in Jesus’ day, there is much clamor regards Him and his followers. Google search Jesus’ name and the range and number of opinions is vast.
Today, and I am not sure about Jesus’ day, there is a degree of callousness. It comes from where we, as his followers, have failed to let people see Jesus.
Today however, the path with Jesus is the same, to follow him is to commit.
Have you silenced the clamor, pushed through the chaos, endured the confrontation, so that you are committed to Jesus? If not, can you identify what is holding you back?