He must first tie up the strong man

By John Pearring

Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 24:3-21
Mark 3:13-19

When Jesus’ relatives set out to rescue him from the stifling crowds, they voiced concern that Jesus was “out of his mind.” Their worry grew from what folks had been saying about him. Their diagnosis, in truth, wasn’t without merit. It was illogical but a conclusion that seemed to fit Jesus’ behavior.

The issue wasn’t Jesus’ sanity. It was Jesus’ capabilities. Crowds gathered around him even as he sat to eat a meal. He looked like a rabble-rousing extremist, distracted and losing control over his audience. 

Among the crowd, though, were scribes who came from Jerusalem. They grumbled about the crowd’s impact and Jesus’ lack of taking charge of the situation.

Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Outside the house, an assembly of disbelievers stood among the fawning followers of Jesus. The disbelievers were folks who couldn’t accept a Messianic explanation for the poorly clothed, financially bereft rabbi with only a ragtag inner circle of friends. That made no sense to them. They saw Jesus’ healing powers coming from an otherworldly place. He couldn’t be doing this on his own. Since God’s blessing on him seemed out of the question, the devil was the only other power they knew. How else could they explain his remarkable abilities, biting boldness, and fearless, almost reckless behavior?

Jesus was charged with being a demon, a partner of Beelzebul, because believing such a low-born man could be the Messiah, a product of Nazareth and questionable parentage, was a bridge too far. He couldn’t be the Messiah. He must be the devil’s accomplice. 

We think they might be lying, making up a terrible tale to “cancel” Jesus. Still, the notion had legs among others in the crowd, including Jesus’ relatives.

For the scribes to suggest Satan sent Jesus as a henchman to destroy the very demons in Satan’s charge represents an odd form of devil assassination. Jesus uses exorcism to please Satan? For what purpose would Satan destroy his devils? We can’t put such behavior beyond Satan’s wrath, of course. He’d think little of his minions if their annihilation could serve his purpose. It’s absurd, though, for the scribes to associate Jesus’ healings and miracles with demonic intention. The devil wants misery and death. 

Mark shows us further in Chapter 3 that Jesus will answer the charge of being a demon. Jesus addresses the contrived conundrum. Satan isn’t a solitary fallen angel. He needs his kingdom of demons.

“How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.”

Jesus brilliantly frames “kingdom” as the residence of power. Jesus then describes who are the ones actually bound up by Satan. The corollary to the house of Satan divided would be the divided house of a righteous man. 

But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.

The one who cannot believe Jesus is who he reveals himself to be is primed for being bound by Satan. Divided, a righteous man’s kingdom will be lost under the power of Satan’s lies.

We get the sense that the scribes are more than just unbelievers in this parody of kingdoms. They engage Jesus already persuaded by the lie of Beelzebub when they say, “[Jesus] has an unclean spirit.” They have firmly chosen Satan over the Holy Spirit’s witness of Jesus as the Messiah.

“Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

If they turn back to God, they will see who Jesus is, and by their repentance, he will receive them. If they remain blind to the Spirit, they cannot be forgiven.

Regarding his relatives, Jesus takes a teaching track that needs no analogy or chastisement like with the Scribes. He urges his family to see that as the Son of Man, the Son of God, his followers belong to an undivided Kingdom. 

“Who are my mother and [my] brothers?” And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. [For] whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus spends all of Chapter 4 in Mark explaining in parables how the Kingdom operates — through parables of the sower and the seed, the lamp under a bushel, the fruit of harvests, and the mustard seed. He concludes the chapter by rebuking a storm on the sea. “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm.

In the end, Jesus, the strong man of the Kingdom, allows himself to be bound up by Satan’s lies, tortured, hung on a cross, and killed. As Satan wins over even the righteous with death, Jesus allows the devil to take him into Hell itself. There, however, Jesus breaks free and rescues the righteous from Satan. 

[But] later, as the eleven were at table, he appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised, Mark reports in the last chapter of his gospel. Jesus, upon forgiving them, gave them the power to bind and release. And his Spirit, by those who agreed to accept, was with them.

So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.