A Family Intervention 

Our Crazy Brother

By Tim Trainor

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012222.cfm
2 Samuel 1:1-4, 11-12, 19, 23-27
Mark 3:20-21

Today’s Gospel is very short — only two verses. However, they are verses that immediately get our attention as the story-line Mark is relating to us now in our second reading shifts from the “Honeymoon” stage of  Jesus' mission to a steady stream of ongoing conflicts with the religious leaders of His day. For instance, earlier on in Chapter 2 they accuse Him of  blasphemy, Sabbath violations and working in league with the Prince of Demons! That's some pretty heavy stuff!

So, in these two (2) verses the intensity of the early on days of Jesus' ministry is brought out by the assertion that He and his disciples could not even get time to themselves even to eat a meal! The large crowds of people who were now claiming Jesus’ attention as though they owned him. They expected him to be there for them all of the time.

Jesus' family saw what was happening, we are told by Mark, and have concluded that things have gone way too far! He needed to be restrained, protected from himself as well as from the Religious Leaders plus the crowd of people now following Him around.

An intervention was called for by them they decided.

Or, as another source in my research suggested, some of His family decided that Jesus needed some a sort of a legal defense against the charges that the religious leaders were bringing against Him. That defense being: He is out of his mind. He has gone crazy!

While still other members of Jesus’ family truly did considered him unbalanced. He has left the security and safety of Nazareth and his carpenter’s business and embarked on a course that could only lead to a head-on collision with the orthodox leaders. Plus, he recently gathered a crew of mostly local fishermen (can you imagine the difference in smell and look between a carpenter and these fishermen?) as his disciples. With a Tax Collector to boot! All of whom would do nothing for his long term career prospects, they might have reasoned.

So we now have family members gathered and saying for various reasons, “He has gone out of his mind!”They cannot wrap their heads around what He is now doing.

Traditional societies have placed a high priority on family honor. Jesus is threatening to bring dishonor to his family if He continues to act in such a foolish way. He frequently gets embroiled with the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus’ family will be tainted by his arrogance. They dare not show their faces in the local Temple. Can you empathize with his family’s concerns? I sure can. The intensity and passion with which Jesus lived and served people shocked his family and therefore led them to attempt this intervention.

I think that the first take-away from our Reflection this morning should be time in prayer with Jesus, reflecting about just how passionate He is about each of our lives. We should appreciate who Jesus is to us, and how passionate He desires to realize His dreams for each of us.

He willingly risked this level of mis-understanding back then – and still does today, to reach each one of us. Talk to him about this and tell him how it both excites you but also how it alarms you, just like it did his own family members.

In the next verses, 31-35 (after our Gospel reading), Mark switches the focus to Jesus’ family to  highlight and complete his thoughts about the incomprehensible changes that have come to envelop all those around Jesus since after He undertook His God-given mission in life. Mark relates to us this one last, grand and inexplicable event.

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Jesus asked. Then He looked at those seated in a circle around Him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

The question Jesus asks in Verse 33:

Who are my mother and my brothers?

Jesus then answers /in Verses 34-35 (again, which is beyond our Gospel reading today):

(You all) here are my mother and my brothers!
Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.

To me, this is one of the most radical statements in the New Testament because it announces a transition to a whole new way of being family, and the abandonment of blood-relations as the primary bond to define and order one's life.

I believe Mark sensed its importance too, and that is why he included this redefinition of kinship that embraces the disciples in his description of Jesus' early mission events.   

Eventually this new 'Brotherhood' idea of like-willed people leads the early Christian Community to the concept of what later comes to be called the “Church” in the Book of Acts Plus, it is what ties our Old Testament Samuel reading into our New Testament Mark extended verses.

Remember, how David grieves and refers to Saul and Jonathan as his 'brothers' (being of like will). See the linkage?

David learned of the death of Saul (the first King of Israel) and Saul’s son Jonathan. Even though he was the dutifully appointed king, Saul had been trying to kill David because he found David to be a political threat to his sovereignty. David had been anointed while still a boy to be leader by Samuel as God’s chosen one. Saul was aware of this. Jonathan on the other hand was about David’s age and a good friend and fellow soldier.

Still, David grieved for both of them when they died in battle. They both died in defending their country and in all circumstances were martyrs for the country. He grieved for his friend and grieved for Saul who was trying to kill him.

In 2 Samuel 1:23 David states: “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and dear, separated neither in life nor death, swifter than eagles, stronger than lions!”

Why grieve for Saul? I would have said, “God’s justice!” Not David. He was looking at (Exodus 20) the Fourth Commandment to honor your father and mother, which also included people in authority. David respected Saul as king. David also knew he would be king someday. It was part of God’s plan to respect the king in authority and David respected the position. 

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:44) “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” David understood these words even before Christ said them. David had a mind for God and had these words in his heart - I believe.

David had a passion for God. Looking at today’s Gospel, God the Father had a passion for him.

Jesus’ words in Mark radically widen the concept of “family” for we Catholic Christian believers. The loyalty, love and service that is properly given to one another in family life is also due to one another in the wider “family” of believers. Just like David did, we have now come to believe.

In Christian community our relationships are reconfigured in and through Christ. In and through Him we are brothers to and for one another. To me, Jesus’ words evoke a vision of inter-generational life in which people of all ages and family backgrounds care for one another physically and spiritually. Spiritual parenting and child-rearing is broadly shared in the doing the will of God, which He mentions in verse 35.

This brings us to a second take-away, which has two parts:

First: Jesus is not out of his mind; Jesus is not filled with demonic spirits. Rather, Jesus has the mind of God; Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit - and invites all of us to be of the same mind and same Spirit in a new family as His brothers!

Second: Obedience is thicker than blood. The person who obeys God's will is Jesus' brother and sister and mother.

We watched or read about the first 'Family Intervention' in the Gospels. As we all know, some interventions work and some are much delayed in achieving any good results.

In today’s two-verse picture we see concerned relatives who did not realize that Jesus was  in His right mind, right heart and right spirit, because He was about His Father's business.

But Thank goodness that they tried, as it gave Mark an interesting and relatable story to pass along to us so we could learn the very valuable point that each of us can become Jesus' brother. By simply doing God's will. Know that your actions may cause some people to think that you have gone 'crazy.’