The Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
Jesus came home with his disciples.
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."
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said,
"He is possessed by Beelzebul,"
and "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."
—Mark 3:20-22
Because of the distance of time and space, we are able to read the gospels from a sort of ivory-tower perspective. Not only do we know many of the stories presented in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John by heart, we also have the benefit of nearly 2,000 years of theological and philosophical reflection on the truths they present. This long view is a luxury that our spiritual ancestors simply didn’t have. As they handed down the stories of the wonders and signs performed by Jesus, they were confronted with the very real question of who Jesus was and the source of his power.
Each of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) includes some variation on the story that we hear in this Sunday’s Gospel (cf. Matthew 12:24-32 and Luke 11:15-22). This hints at the fact that, even decades after the Ascension, when those Gospels were composed, believers and non-believers alike were still trying to answer those fundamental questions about Jesus. One of the challenges presented to us by this passage proclaimed this Sunday is to see that the doubts of the scribes and even Jesus’ own family was not an unwillingness or failure to believe. It was, rather, an expression of their struggles to try to make Jesus fit into their faith system and way of understanding the world.
Anyone who was paying attention to what Jesus was saying and doing would have recognized that he wasn’t just wisdom teacher or a magician performing tricks for amusement or distraction. Instead, they would have seen how Jesus was changing lives, raising up those who were weighed down by illness, fear, and isolation, by offering them gifts of healing and wholeness.
We also have to remember that in the mindset of that time and place, there was also a belief in sorcery and the sense that even good actions could be the work of malevolent spirits who sought to draw innocent people into the realms of darkness. The critical mistake of the scribes was their confusion of God’s liberating power at work in Jesus and demonic forces that sought to separate people from God and the community.
A fresco depicting Jesus healing a possessed person from the Benedictine Abbey of Stift Lambach, Austria (11th century)
As we reflect on this Gospel passage, particularly in light of the First Reading (Genesis 3:9-15), we recognize the fear that is at work in this story. After all, it was fear of God’s reaction in the moments after “the Fall” that prompted Adam and Eve to hide themselves from God. It was also fear flowing their questions about Jesus—remember, Jesus didn’t fit into their categories and ways of understanding God—that prompted the scribes to condemn Jesus as being part of Beelzebul’s cohort and Jesus’ relatives to say he was insane!
As we think about the role fear plays in both of these passages, we can recognize how this Sunday’s Gospel is calling us to reflect on the virtue of discernment, as we consider how the Spirit of Jesus was and continues to be at work in the world. More than once in his pontificate, Pope Francis has pointed out that our God is a God of surprises and that God’s grace is at work even in the places and people we might not expect. Rather than dismissing the people, experiences, or ideas that might not fit comfortably into our carefully constructed systems, we might consider how God may be acting in unexpected ways, even in the ordinary moments and encounters of our daily lives. Pope Francis has reflected,
“The Spirit is a gift of God, of this God, our Father, who always surprises us: the God of surprises… because he is a living God, a God who abides in us, a God who moves our heart, a God who is in the Church and walks with us; and he always surprises us on the path.”
As we continue to journey through Mark’s Gospel in the coming weeks of Ordinary Time, the questions of who Jesus was and who he is for us will remain important themes. Mark presents Jesus as God’s great messenger who gathers together those who are to be saved. Part of this dynamic, especially for us today, is an invitation for us to discern how God is speaking to us, reaching out to us, and inviting us to join ourselves to Jesus, recalling Saint Paul’s words to the church in Corinth:
“We too believe and therefore we speak, / knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus / will raise us also with Jesus / and place us with you in his presence” (2 Corinthians 13b-14).
O God, from whom all good things come,
grant that we, who call on you in our need,
may at your prompting discern what is right,
and by your guidance do it.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
