It’s sometimes puzzling which Bible verses our liturgical scholars choose to appoint as the beginning and the end of a passage. As the Cheshire Cat said in Alice in Wonderland, “if you don’t know where you want to go, then it doesn’t matter which path you take.” But, we DO know where we want to go and it matters a great deal that today’s passage does not begin one verse sooner.
Verse 19 of the third chapter of Mark – which was left out of today’s Gospel – sets the stage and makes all the difference in understanding the point of the passage. Verse 19 is short, half a sentence, four words, but they are VERY IMPORTANT. Verse 19 reads “Then he went home.” Home, after preaching and healing in Capernaum and drawing the attention of crowds and crowds of needy people and the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem, Jesus goes home. Home is Nazareth. And we already know from Luke’s telling of the Jesus story that home is where no prophet receives honor.
This incident is found only in Mark. Luke and Matthew delete it. It’s very troubling.
The text reads “And when his family heard about all of this, that is, all about his exorcisms, his healing a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath, etc. etc. etc. –they went out to stop him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind,’”
Talk of Jesus’ claims and miraculous work reach his mother and brothers who now come to fetch him inside and restrain his wild talk. They may have expected him to be home giving leadership to his family. Instead he is creating dangerous controversy both by his radical teaching and his astonishing works. Jesus’ new way redefines family loyalty for him and for all of his followers. Whatever Mary and Jesus’ brothers heard they concluded that he had gone insane. So, like any responsible family, concerned for his well-being and wanting to prevent him from harming himself or others, or perhaps getting in serious trouble with the temple authorities who are already on his trail and wonder if he is a traitor, they want to protect him.
In one of his books Bill Dols, a wise teacher of mine writes “All of which is the threat and the promise of going home.”
This is the time of year when many of us will be going home, traveling to family reunions, visiting parents or children who live far away. The trouble Jesus gets into when he goes home “explains why so often family reunions are about savoring the old times and basking in the warm memories of how it used to be. The blessed shortness of most homecomings is that we never get around to talking about the wisdom we have found in other places, what we see through different lenses, about home looking [and feeling] different [than we remember]. Family [vacations] are usually mercifully brief enough to keep everyone in role, conforming to expectations of the past, faithful to the ritual dance.”
Remember for a moment how Jesus’ first visit home went. He arrived in the synagogue on the Sabbath and he got up to read. The scroll that is handed to him is from the prophet Isaiah. He reads:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Had Jesus’ mother and brothers perhaps paid closer attention to his words on that previous visit home, they might not have thought Jesus “out of his mind” on this occasion, but that he knew he was called to be a prophet, condemning injustice and cruelty. He has told them – and us – exactly what his life and ministry is going to be about. And, those of us who bear his name now, those of us who are Christians, are given the same tasks. In today’s world our task is to seek out and live our understanding of Jesus’ prophetic discipleship.
Living out the form of discipleship Christ bids us follow means forging a new solidarity with all of humanity. It requires that we learn with him to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Now perhaps more urgently than at any time in the past we are bid to leave home, to grow up, and to give up our self-absorption. Our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry gave us a valuable example of this Christ-like prophetic discipleship last Friday when he joined with a broad coalition of leaders from across all faith traditions in releasing a statement calling upon the United States government to end its policy of separating immigrant families. We, too, can and should make our voices known to our congregational representatives. We are called in Christ to a new solidarity with all those who understand as Alice said back to the Cheshire Cat, “You’re mad. Bonkers. Off your head … But I’ll tell you a secret … all of the best people are.” Amen.