Mark 3:20-35

Psalm 130 by Sinead O’Connor

Out of the depths I cry to you, oh Lord
Don't let my cries for mercy be ignored
If you keep a count of sins oh who would stand?
But you have forgiveness in your hands

And I've heard religion say you're to be feared
But I don't buy into everything I hear
And it seems to me you're hostage to those rules
That were made by religion and not by you

And I'm wondering will you ever get yourself free
Is it bad to think you might need help from me?
Is there anything my little heart can do
To help religion share us with you?

For oh your like a ghost in your own home
Nobody hears you crying all alone
Oh you are the one truly voiceless one
They have their back turned toward you
For worship of gold and stone.

And to see you prisoner oh makes me weep
Nobody hears you screaming in the streets
And it's sad but true how the old saying goes
If God lived on earth people would
Break his windows.

I long for you as a watchman longs
For the end of night...

Reflections on Mark 3:20-35
Introduction

Two Welshman are stranded on an island. Left to fend for themselves they build homes for themselves, even churches and pubs. Years later they are rescued. Puzzled, the captain of the ship rescuing them asks: “I understand that you have two pubs, and two houses. But why do you have three churches?” The Welshman explained: that is the church that I go to. This is the church that he goes to. And that over there is the church that neither of us go to.

The joke was told to me by Welsh priest who chose to be self-deprecating about her own culture. Yet the story of who is in and who is out seems universal across the cultures. Moreover, it is often the case that what does in fact unite us is our joint animosity to a third party.  One published study found that people are more likely to bond over a shared dislike rather than a shared fondness of a third party (“that is the church that neither of us go to”).

I doubt very much that excluding others based on tribe, race or any other dimension of humanity is our natural state. For example, many observe that young children are content to play with any child regardless of the various aspects of their humanity. We are taught prejudice in discerning who is in and who is out through our culture. We are socialised with boundaries that can store up privilege of the strong against the weak.

Inside and outside

The theme of insiders and outsiders is a continual theme through the Gospel, but there is a difference. A central message of Mark is that those who are insiders are actually outsiders. And those who think they do not belong or are the outsiders are in fact the insiders. Throughout the Gospel of Mark, the disciples and members of his family rarely understand Jesus’ vision. Yet the anavim, the ha amaretz, those excluded by the rules of religion, have a clear grasp on the Good News Jesus offers. The anawim were the poor: the vulnerable, the marginalized, and socio-economically oppressed, those of low status without power.

Mark has a strategy to highlight division and inclusion, insiders and outsiders. A sandwich technique begins one story, interrupts with another and then returns to the first story. In Mark 3:20-35 the sandwich is clan – conflict – clan. The effect of the sandwich technique highlights the widening rift between Jesus and the traditional structures of belonging, both clan and state.

Why are the family upset with Jesus?

Jesus has engaged in a full-frontal attack on the Pharisees and the Scribes by healing a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day in a synagogue. Not very subtle – usually if people break the rules, they at least have the decency to try not to be caught. Instead of laying low it seems that Jesus is taunting the religious powers.

Jesus is the thief in the night, he compares himself to a criminal, who will come and bind the strongman. Who is the strongman? In this dialogue it appears to be the Pharisees who have power. Jesus as a stronger man, a surprise criminal, will bind the religious rulers. The reason Jesus is stronger is because he in fact is not the ha satan, the pharisees are. The divided house of Israel will fall. The stronger man, the criminal, Jesus, will be victorious and take the spoils of the divided house of Israel by rescuing the anavim.

Why is Jesus upset with his family?

Jesus challenged the narrow confines of family and clan loyalty, believing that God does have favourites, the trinity: the foreigner, the widow and the orphan.

The journey Jesus offers is simple to explain and hard to achieve. Here is how I understand the workings of the passage Mark 3. Think about a close family member or friend that you love dearly. Think about what you want for this person, your deepest hopes and dreams for your beloved. Concretise your loving hopes for your beloved with two or three phrases. Now consciously want what you want for your nearest and dearest for the strangest stranger, a socially oppressed person who stands outside your circle of privilege.

In sympathy with Mark’s theme, we are to see the outsiders as our insiders. This will not be easy, in caring for the outsider, your insiders may make you an outsider too. It can be done, and it can be done well. I think of Beyers Naude as an example. Beyers Naude was an Afrikaner who reached the highest echelons of white Afrikaans achievement. However, he wanted for black people what white people took for granted. In working towards freedom and flourishing for black people, Naude’s own white tribe disowned him. The apartheid struggle was very lonely for him, he was shunned by church and state.

Mark 3 and Reconciliation

According to Mark 3, if we are to follow Jesus, we are to outgrow our family loyalties and cultural boundaries. The same care and effort we want for our loved ones we consciously offer and work towards for the strangest stranger, the one who is most different from you.

To state the obvious, Reconciliation week invites this spiritual practice of forsaking clan and kin in favour of the outsider for our First Nations people who have been made outsiders in the land of their belonging. What we most desire for our loved ones we must want and work towards for First Nations people. In this task we have been given a wonderful gift, a Statement from the Heart.

On May 27, 1967, Australians voted to remove part of the Australian Constitution that treated Indigenous Australians as inferior to non-Indigenous Australians: “In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted.”

The Statement of the Heart asks each of us for deep listening: “In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard.”

Binding the strongman today

Who is the strongman today? White fellas. We white people continue to be the ones with power. The devil is not a creature with cartoon horns and a forked tail but a demonic force that stands against the compassion and reconciling love that works through Christ. It is my belief that that unless we willingly and lovingly surrender our power and privilege we too will be bound and plundered.

How do we lay down power? Through accepting the invitation to listen deeply to truth telling. The Statement of the Heart can be received as the powerful gift it is. It represents the heights of spiritual, emotional, communal and psychological maturity that other humans are yet to achieve.

Conclusion

Today is the first Sunday in ordinary time. Let us not forget the power of the Pentecost Spirit from the last two weeks: When the Spirit comes, it binds up those with power, giving them ears to hear. The Spirit unbinds the tongues of those with little power to give them speech for truth telling. May such a Spirit move in Australia so that we who speak in different tongues may nevertheless fully understand each other.

JENNIFER K. BOSSON, AMBER B. JOHNSON, KATE NIEDERHOFFER, WILLIAM B. SWANN Jr. First published: 09 May 2006. “Interpersonal chemistry through negativity: Bonding by sharing negative attitudes about others”. In Personal Relationships: Volume 13, Issue 2. p. 135-150.