Pentecost 3B/Proper 5 (Mark 3:20-35)

In today’s gospel lesson, the scribes are puzzled about Jesus and his behaviors. He heals the sick and casts out demons, as we see throughout the gospel accounts. The scribes try to make sense of Jesus and discern the ultimate purpose of his supernatural activities. They then believe that there must be an intentional agent secretly hidden behind these actions to sabotage their work and authority. So, they invoke Beelzebub.

The scribes’ attempt to read Jesus’ mind and true motivation is not something new to us. We do this all the time. We often seek reasons when something doesn’t make sense to us or doesn’t meet our expectations. This tendency can be explained by “teleo-functional reasoning,” where we interpret everything around us in terms of their purpose or function. For instance, imagine I’m singing the Lord’s Prayer out of tune with a flushed face. Your mind might start wondering why this is happening, perhaps speculating that I secretly drank communion wine beforehand, thinking, “I thought he’s more of a beer person. I guess not!” This example illustrates how our minds look for reasons and purposes behind actions or events. The point here is not about whether I was drunk, but rather how our minds tend to seek out the 'why' behind behaviors. The truth is, we have no way of knowing what’s going on until we directly ask or obtain more information.

The scribes accuse Jesus of being possessed and controlled by Beelzebub (or the Lord of flies or dung), which traditionally represents one of the seven deadly sins, gluttony. The association with Beelzebub, whether it is meant to be the Lord of flies or dung or Satan or Lucifer or the incarnate gluttony, ironically tells more about the scribes themselves than Jesus. What’s in their minds is expressed and projected onto the person they consider a threat to their authority and status. Instead, his actions seem to be far from gluttony, dung, or flies, but represent temperance, the fertilizer of grace, and the dove.

There’s no secret agent behind his actions for the sick, hungry, and hurt. No Beelzebub is behind him, but rather the presence of God within that is gracefully radiating without. People say, “Jesus has gone out of his mind.” They’re right. He really is out of his mind, not in the sense that he has lost touch with reality, but in the sense that he is no longer driven by his own mind but by the presence of God within. He steps out of his mind. He’s able to clearly see what’s going on in his mind without any impulse to identify with one particular feeling or thought. Just like Moses before the burning bush that is not being consumed by the fire, who takes off his sandals, standing on holy ground (Exodus 3:5), Jesus is freely unmasked before God’s presence and carries out that holy ground in his interaction with people. 

His way to the inner presence of God is through the Breath of God, just as we confess “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God” in the Nicene Creed. Our attention to our breath leads us to the very source of our breath, the Holy Spirit. This breathing access to the Spirit is available to all, and there’s no greater error than preventing someone from getting in touch with the very source of their breath.

Having the Breath of God as his origin of life, Jesus is reborn. He transcends biological boundaries among people, so he proclaims, “Who are my mother and my brothers? Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” The will of God is breathed through the Holy Spirit only. Are we breathing the same Breath as Jesus? If so, we are certainly his mothers, sisters, and brothers.