A House Divided

 Mark 3:20-35 is the lectionary Gospel text for next Sunday, June 6

It was a house divided because the Sanhedrin, Temple Cult Leaders of that time and place were corrupt.  They had exploited the people through their power, position and status.  They had succumbed to empire values, and Jesus confronted them regularly for it.

Here, they went too far.

Jesus had been healing and casting out spirits in the passages previous, and the Scribes here accused Jesus of doing that under the power of the devil.  Anyone who refuted their false teachings, selfish practices and empire values must be of the devil.  They refuted the truth of who Jesus was and what Jesus was doing on behalf of God's people.  It did not benefit them directly or add to their power, wealth and prestige, so they had no value for it.  They had to claim it was of devil, because it flew in the face of what they claimed was truth.

Jesus called them out, pointing to the outcomes of His work and how it went counter to what the devil wanted.  He pointed out that if He were of the devil, he was working against the devil, which would mean division in the devil's house.  But Jesus in Mark also exposes the division in God's House.

Jesus was blunt here regarding their blasphemy.  They had called the Spirit within Jesus an unclean spirit.  They claimed that which was godly to be ungodly and contrary to God.  Jesus shut that down with a warning.  We should perhaps heed Jesus' warning today.  Making the faith of Jesus about personal salvation, gaining more blessings and favor, having our own purity and holiness and thus rendering Grace unnecessary, praising and tithing as the only necessary faithfulness, speaking in tongues without interpretation as a real litmus test of the faith are not faithfulness to Jesus.

The living of Agape Love and Grace in this part of God's Kingdom, here and now is faithfulness to God in Jesus.

Jesus re-defined His family as those who DO THE WILL OF GOD, in the living of Agape Love and Grace in the world.

Want to be faithful to Jesus and right with God?  Live what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us in the living of Agape Love and Grace.  Period.  

Nothing else matters.

To make this life with God about anything else, and to claim anything else as faithful while claiming Jesus' Way as not of God, is blasphemy, for it is not of the Spirit of God.

Pastor Jamie