Inside out- Saturday, 2nd week in ordinary time – Mark 3:20-21

“Then He went home and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. And when His family heard it, they went out to restrain Him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”

That’s it! That’s the Gospel for today and it’s both stark and shocking. Jesus has come home and the expression does not indicate that this is His adopted home in Capernaum but rather “oikon” which translates as He came “to a house,” namely, His family house in Nazareth.

He has gone to His relatives’ who for some reason are thoroughly embarrassed by His actions. The words and deeds of Jesus have made Him a name to be sought after, making it difficult for Him to sit down to meal in His own house. But the relatives of Jesus are embarrassed, for His detractors had already begun maligning His name and their fear was that they would be party to this shame.

We know from the verses that follow, that the scribes who had come from Jerusalem had already begun a hate campaign claiming that He was possessed by Beelzebul, a name derived from a Philistine god. The ‘son of this little village’ had not only thrust this village and His family into the spotlight of the spiritual world, but had also overshadowed them with a cloud of controversy. All this was too much for His relatives who decided to “restrain him.”

Never has a text sounded more shocking, for while one gets immunised to reading the hate of the Jewish leaders towards Jesus, the fact that His own refused to believe in Him, makes this passage hard to read. But standing up to your beliefs does not grant you immunity from criticism! Stones are never thrown at a tree that bears no fruit. So if you find yourself in a righteous controversy over your beliefs, then hold your ground.

Remember it was the ‘outsiders’ who accepted Jesus and sought to come into His home while His own wanted out. Ironically it was the case of inside out.

Fr Warner D’Souza
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