Just who does he think he is?

I wonder if they thought about this as an intervention.

Now for folks unfamiliar with the term an intervention is where people, people close to someone, who love that someone and have been harmed by that someone, usually through actions caused by addiction to certain substances, come together to intervene.

To say: stop.

Your behavior is hurting us.

You have been stealing from us.

You have been lying to us.

We can no longer trust you.

We remember happier days and now we are asking you to stop.

So, I wonder when Jesus’ people came together before going off to meet him, if they talked to each other about how Jesus’ behavior was upsetting them.

Now, there is no mention of Jesus’ childhood mentioned in Mark’s gospel.

He just sort of shows up, gets baptized, faces temptation for forty days or so, and then begins his ministry.

So, I’m sort of going beyond the proper bounds of talking about such things.

And my sermon school teacher made it very clear that we were to preach the gospel before us and not jump from book to book.

That being said, I am going to jump from book to book.

Because by doing so, we get to hear of further details of Jesus’ life.

We know that in Matthew’s gospel Jesus was born in a manger, a manger some speculate would have been in the lower chambers or his family’s house.

He would have been oohed and ahhed and cooed upon by not just his mother Mary and his earthly father, Joseph, but by any number of Joseph’s family as he was in the city of David, the city of his ancestors.

Joseph was in his hometown and his son was born amongst family.

We also know Jesus was brought gifts by the Magi as a child.

And through Luke we know that Jesus was a precocious little boy who visited the Temple in Jerusalem with his parents when they visited during Passover.

The boy was left in the Temple by mistake and when his family returned to bring him home, they found him with the teachers asking them questions.

The teachers were astounded by his understanding of scripture.

So we have some background on Jesus and we know also from Mark that Jesus was upsetting some folks, religious leaders and other authorities and I imagine that caused some concern for his family.

Finally, we read in Mark, the reasoning for why his family came to fetch him: “When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.””

Yet even the translation we read sort of softens the blow of what was written in the original Greek, because the literal translation from that language reads: “And having heard-of it, the ones from Him went-forth to take-hold-of Him. For they were saying that “He lost-His-senses”.

So, the literal translation states the “ones from Him,” meaning: his family and friends.

And it continues, “For they were saying…”

Note the use of the word “they” and not “the people were saying.”

So the correct translation reads they were saying he lost his mind; to be clear, his family were saying Jesus lost his mind.

And that is where my wondering comes from.

Did Jesus’ family come together before they met to fetch him and decide to intervene?

Because interventions, and there is some debate to the efficacy of such things, are performed because loved ones are trying to communicate to the ones they love that they care, and they are sad, and that they desperately miss that person they were once so close to.

And their statement that they thought Jesus lost his mind reflects a great deal of that concern.

No sane person would criticize the authorities as Jesus did.

No sane person would argue with the scribes as Jesus did.

No sane person would claim to perform the acts he claimed to perform in his very hometown when they all knew him.

They knew he was Jesus the carpenter.

They grew up with him, they raised him.

And Capernaum was not a big town.

Small town folks don’t put on airs, he was not some prophet like the prophets of old or the so-called prophets rambling around Jerusalem, no.

He was Jesus.

Just Jesus.

And he was in danger.

He was breaking the sabbath and doing so many things that brought the wrong attention.

This frightened his family.

They loved him, so, so much and just wanted him home, safe, doing the work of his father Joseph and perhaps Joseph’s father, not the work of his heavenly father, not the work of God.

So, I ask you to try to understand why his family would say Jesus was out of his mind and why they came to fetch him.

And I also ask you to understand Jesus’ reaction.

Because it seems as if he turned them away, as if he raised his palm and said, “talk to the hand.”

Jesus was told his mother and brothers were outside and he replied, ““Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

We was denying his blood family for his new family, specifically, those who would do the will of God.

So, hear we have this conflict now between those who loved Jesus but thought he was out of his mind and those who Jesus loved but could not be with if they thought he was insane.

Trying to be understanding here, I do think Jesus’ family did want what was best for Jesus.

They wanted him to be safe.

And yet, they wanted him to be safe from their perspective, from their experiences.

They wanted him to be safe in a world they thought they understood, in a world as it was.

And Jesus?

Jesus could see a world as it could be, a world where all peoples are loved for who they are and as they are created by God.

The best intentions of Jesus’ family would have stifled his ministry, they would have placed a basket over the lampstand; the light of Christ would have been dimmed if Jesus left that room to rejoin his family.

While I can understand their best intentions, I can see that so many paths are wrongly paved by such things too.

We are born to be ourselves and we are born to live as we are commanded to live.

And we are commanded to love.

Because when we intend to do what is best without love, our intentions are false.

When we act out of fear and not love, our actions are wrong.

To deny Jesus’ ministry is to deny God and Jesus was not willing to do that.

Instead, his mother, his brothers, his family, his friends wanted Jesus safe but not free and freedom through God is gifted to us by faith.

Now, I can imagine so many scenarios where a parent might want to protect their child, in fact, I imagine in every scenario, we want our children safe.

And we hear so many times, love couched in logic and reason.

Go to college but major in something that will guarantee you financial stability if not happiness.

Because life is easier when you are better off and if you love art you can pursue that as a hobby.

Yet there are differences between a hobby and being.

And the same is true for Christ.

His family raised him religious.

He was at the Temple as a boy because his parents were observing Passover.

He was so good at reciting scripture because he was raised studying scripture.

He was able to debate the Pharisees and Scribes because was educated and well-informed.

His mother and brothers were not anti-religion, but he was taking this thing too far.

He was endangering himself.

He took things too far

He was out of his mind.

And after all, couldn’t he just settle down and be a carpenter, find a wife, et cetera?

He could always be a prophet in his spare time, a savior with other commitments.

Yet that is not how things work.

Instead, Jesus chose to surround himself with folks who would not limit his light, he surrounded himself with people who worked God’s will and loved all peoples.

Now this story is not ultimately about family strife but is about a family coming to understand as evidenced by Jesus’ mother taken care of by her son at the foot of the cross.

Yet we must understand too that if in our desire to protect those closest to us from strife by denying them the ability to be who they are and who God created them to be, then we are perhaps causing more harm than good, more pain than healing, more human judgement than love.

God created us all; and Jesus chose to follow the path God gave him to follow.

So too must we.

Amen.