From the outset of his ministry in Mark’s gospel, Jesus is proclaiming the good news of the nearness of the kingdom of God. He does so through preaching, as he invites the people to repent and believe in the good news. But, more often, he proclaims this message through his actions of healing - those possessed by demons or unclean spirits, and those with varying physical ailments and disabilities.
People are noticing Jesus; crowds follow him everywhere, to the point that he has to sneak out of the house before sunrise just to find a quiet place to pray. People are noticing him, and they’re surely noticing all the ways he’s undermining the authority of the religious leaders and disrupting the status quo.
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| Photo by Saad Chaudhry on Unsplash |
A particularly troubling piece for the religious leaders and the scribes is that, so far, almost all of these healings have taken place on the sabbath - the one day on which no work was to be done; the one day set aside by God for rest and worship and delight in creation. Furthermore, Jesus is offering forgiveness of sins, something only God can do.
How could this happen? He comes from such a good family, faithful and always observant of the traditions and laws. Surely the only explanation is that he’s not himself - gone out of his mind, or possessed by a demon, or something, right?
It may be that we quite relate to Jesus’s family in today’s gospel text, as they go out to find him after hearing rumors that he was acting erratically, had “gone out of his mind.” Perhaps we have shared the experience of trying to rein in someone acting in ways that are erratic, disruptive, or embarrassing. We may relate to his family’s feelings of embarrassment, shame, and frustration at the ways their family member’s words and actions would reflect on all of them. We may know their worry and concern for their loved one’s mental and physical health.
We may also understand the motivations of the scribes, attributing Jesus’s behavior, his off-the-books approach, to being possessed by a demon. How else to explain these words, this blatant disregard for the way God’s law is honored? This isn’t what their treasured religious tradition is supposed to look like!
I’m not sure the takeaway from this story is that Jesus’s family and the scribes are wrong about him. It’s hard to argue with them; I mean, his behavior is disruptive and concerning and seemingly divergent from how family and religious life were understood and generally practiced up to that point. But I think, in this case, that two things are true. What I mean is, Jesus’s behavior is disruptive, and also it is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is by nature a disruptive force.
Yes, Jesus is possessed, but it’s not possession by the ruler of demons, or an unclean Spirit. Jesus is possessed by the Holy Spirit - the same Spirit who descended like a dove on him in his baptism, the same Spirit who drove him out into the wilderness, the same Spirit that would descend in chaos and fire and wind at Pentecost.
For however much we value order, restraint, and comfort, those are not words I would use to describe the blustery, fiery, powerful movement of God’s Spirit. She is many things, but she’s not that.
More broadly, in order for God’s kin-dom* to be established, there are necessarily structures and systems that must be upended and ended to make space for this new thing God is doing. God is all about transformation, the kind of transformation that’s not possible without disruption and discomfort.
As we yearn for things to return to “normal”, and welcome the chance to put the overwhelming disruption and discomfort of the past year behind us, this is perhaps not what you want to hear this morning. If transformation is a way of life for God’s people, that means that loss, disruption, and discomfort are, too. For however much we value order, restraint, and comfort, we can see how attending to these values above all else might lead us to stifle or miss the movement of God’s Spirit doing a new thing among and through us.
The Spirit that was given to each of us in baptism, was poured out so that we might have new life. This Spirit strengthens and empowers us for the challenging and often uncomfortable work of living into God’s kin-dom. This work is sometimes lonely, and often disruptive and divisive. Whatever fallout there is that we rightly mourn, we also give thanks that God joins us to a new kind of family, one defined not by blood, but by commitment to the same mission, and focus on the God who calls us and strengthens us. It is God promises and God’s vision that steady us in the midst of disruption, discomfort, and division. It is God who transforms us for life together in the kin-dom of God.
*kin-dom is growing in usage as a replacement for "kingdom". It reflects that the in-breaking reign of God is centered on relationships, not hierarchy and power. I appreciated these deeper reflections from a UMC pastor about this usage.
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