In the chapters leading up to this week’s Gospel reading in Mark, Jesus has been breaking the rules and defying expectations. He has been teaching and healing people in the region around his hometown. Crowds are gathering around Jesus, eager for him to end their illness, deformity, or possession by evil spirits. The possibility of wholeness, healing, and new life is a tremendous draw. Jesus is reaching beyond the bounds of what was acceptable – healing women, touching people with leprosy, pronouncing forgiveness, healing on the sabbath. Jesus is spending time and even eating with tax collectors (despised because they worked with the Roman authorities and typically lined their own pockets by cheating the people). His family is concerned that he has “gone out of his mind.” Jesus certainly is not following the rules or acting in expected ways.
Some very important scribes arrive from Jerusalem and declare that Jesus is casting out demons by using demonic power. Jesus, who never hesitates in a confrontation with the religious elites, points out the absurdity of this assessment. By healing and putting an end to peoples’ suffering, Jesus is acting against evil. Battling suffering and evil cannot be from an evil source. A different power overcomes and defeats evil. Jesus has harsh words for the cynical scribes who seem unable to see how Jesus’ unorthodox approach brings hope and new life to the people.
When Jesus, surrounded by a crowd hears “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you,” he again defies expectations by replying, “Who are my mother and brothers? Looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Rather than retreat within the limits of his family unit, Jesus expands the boundaries to include the crowd and all those who are following.
As Jesus pushes against all sorts of cultural, religious, and family boundaries, we are reminded that there are no limits on where God will extend grace. No restrictions on how God will provide hope and healing. No boundaries God will not cross to bring wholeness. Even when Jesus is mischaracterized as evil, he is bringing new life.
Where do you notice hope and healing, even where it isn’t usually expected? How have you seen wholeness in unusual places? What boundaries has God crossed in your life?
Peace,