St Margaret's Church Prestwich

Rev Steve preached this sermon on Sunday 9 June. The full service was captured here.

We never hear much about the family life of Jesus between his birth and his sudden arrival in the public arena at the age of about thirty.  And our images of his mother are always of the Virgin to whom Gabriel gives the promise – and who cradles baby Jesus in her arms after his birth.   There are no pictures of Mary as the young mother watching Jesus grow – the looks of anxiety on her face as he makes his first steps in the world – the tensions, joys and sorrows of family life as he grows – and as she herself also grows older. 

Yes, we know that members of Jesus’ family came to understand and support his public ministry when he began touring the towns and villages of Galilee – and when he encounters opposition, especially in Jerusalem.  Mary is there to the very end – standing at the foot of his Cross, with the beloved disciple at her side  [John 19.25].   And a man called James, referred to as the Lord’s brother, is a significant church leader in Acts of the Apostles. especially during the Council of Jerusalem in chapter 15 [For James, the brother of Jesus,  see Mark 6.3, Matthew 13.55.  For a direct reference to James, the Lord’s brother,, see Galatians 1.19 – identified with the man who spoke in Acts 15.13]. But their journey to these moments wasn’t a smooth one.

In the Gospel reading today, we hear that Jesus’ mother and brothers are beside themselves with fear and anxiety about his new life.  They think he’s out of his mind. They want to seize and arrest him.  The Greek word to describe this – kratein – is a very powerful and uncomfortable one.  They want to take him away.  [Imagine, on the day of my ordination,  my family wanting to leap out of a bush as I make my way to the Cathedral, saying, “You’re mad!”]

There’s a real element of surprise here.  And Mark brings this out more clearly than the other Gospels.  He does this by weaving the story in and out of another story concerning more traditional opposition to Jesus – the religious authorities – who also think he’s out of his mind, but in a different way.   They see people afflicted with evil spirits granted healing, wholeness and peace when Jesus speaks to them and prays for them.   They say that he can only do this by the same dark spiritual power that has held these people captive – “by the prince of demons is he casting out demons.”

Matthew and Luke report this controversy after a particular healing that Jesus does  [Matthew 13.22-32;  Luke 11.14-20].  Mark reports it differently – displaying the variety and range of opposition that Jesus faces as his ministry gathers momentum.

How does Jesus respond?

He responds to his own family by at first appearing to be rather rude.  When the crowd tell him that they are at the door of the house where he’s teaching, and that they want a word with him, he asks: ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’

He looks at those seated in a circle round him and says, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’ 

His focus is on keeping to the task that God the Father has set before him.

He responds to the religious authorities in two ways.  First, he appeals to their reason.  What sense is there in saying that Satan casts out Satan?  Look at the result of his prayer and the healing that has followed.  “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.   If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.   And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.”

Second, he appeals to the power of the Holy Spirit at work in him and in this situation.  And he says those most challenging of words that need careful thought:  ‘Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.’    

The context is clear.  He is challenging their accusation that he has an impure spirit.  To blaspheme, in this situation, is to call good evil and evil good – to say that the healing of the people he has ministered to is evil when clearly it has brought profound peace, joy and relief to those who’ve experienced it. 

What he means is that, by denying the source of this healing, they cut themselves off from the source of the forgiveness and mercy that lies at the heart of it.

A sensitive conscience will hear this turn of phrase and ask, “Have I unwittingly committed this sin?”  And the wise pastor will respond that, if you’re worried about it, then you certainly haven’t.  You’re alive to the issues.  Jesus was challenging those who couldn’t see what they were denying or misattributing.  Mercy and forgiveness remain at the heart of his life and ministry.

Elsewhere, Scripture says that there is no pit so deep than God is not deeper still.   Paul writes:  “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons….nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  [Acts 8.37-39]

So how are we to respond?

If it’s to opposition from within our own family, then firstly it is to love them – and to remain obedient to the will of our Father in heaven.  We’re reminded in our Collect that “all our doings without love are nothing worth”.   Paul reminds his readers in his letter to the Romans:  “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  [Romans 12.18]  A few sentences earlier, he says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”  [Romans 12.12].  Peter writes, in his first letter:  “Be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.  Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.  On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”  [1 Peter 3.8,9]

If it’s to opposition from people in positions of authority, then it may be to appeal to their own sense of right and wrong – the courteous way in which Jesus asks the authorities whether their accusation makes sense. 

But it’s also to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit working within you.  You do not face this alone.  Paul writes:  “The Spirit helps us in our weakness.  The Spirit himself intercedes for us through sighs too deep for words.”  [Romans 8.26].   If arrested by the authorities, Jesus advises, in Matthew’s Gospel, “When they arrest you, don’t worry about what to say and how to say it. 

At that time, you’ll be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”  [Matthew 10.19,20]

But this doesn’t give you the excuse to play the forces of the world at their own game.  Because someone says something obnoxious to you on social media, don’t say something obnoxious back.  I remember this line from Psalm 37, “Keep innocence and heed the thing that is right, for that will bring you peace at the last.”  [Psalm 37.38 in Common Worship].   Remember the fruits of the Holy Spirit to which Jesus appeals:  “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.”    [Galatians 5.22,23].  Beware of those spiritual qualities that belong to our own human frailty, such as jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy.    [Galatians 5.19-21]

We mistakenly believe that the battle between God and the evil one is a kind of dualism – a wrestling match in which the two are equally matched.  But the figure of the Evil One that appears in the Scriptures is always of a power that is less than God – the adversary, the fallen angel…  Yes, a personal reality capable of doing great damage, but never God’s equal.  There is a mystery about its origin which is more than we can explore today – but I take strength from this word of encouragement from1 Corinthians – “God is faithful;  he won’t let you be tested beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tested, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”  [1 Corinthians 10.13]  

This may come in a surprising way.  God may use surprising people. I remember early in my time in Manchester the story told of a particular big ordination service of Deacons in the Cathedral. The ordinands had just arrived in a coach from their retreat.  It was twenty minutes before the service.  And the boot of their coach was jammed.  It had all their cases inside, containing all their robes.  They couldn’t get to them.  Panic set in.  The word went round the Cathedral. A man emerged who was a penitent burglar.  Nothing had been wasted in his conversion.  He asked for a jemmy.  And he used his old skills to open the coach boot and redeem the situation.  God was there – and he sorted it.

Some of the situations in which we encounter opposition may seem stuck and beyond our control, like the coach-boot. 

In our Gospel reading, Jesus responds to his family’s opposition by loving them yet remaining on task.  He responds to the opposition of the religious authorities by an appeal to their reason, and by trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of whose work they are challenging, and Jesus is showing in the way he lives.  And the God of surprises navigates a way through.