3rd Sunday after Pentecost “Who is Jesus?”
June 9, 2024 Mark 3:20-35
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Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
So, just who was this Jesus of Nazareth? I mean, for us here at church, Sunday after Sunday, we know the answer: He is the Son of God, made human flesh & blood for our salvation. Sometimes in the Men’s Bible Study on Thursday mornings, we discuss what it must’ve been like in Jesus day – for the people around Him. They did not yet have His cross & empty tomb to consider; they had his miracles & teachings, but still only the often mysterious OT promises, and not yet the NT explanations we have. There was a learning curve for them.
We should remember that this is still the case for people around us, in our day, who didn’t grow up in a Christian church, hearing about Jesus. Be patient with them; they have some catching up to do for faith-things that we take for granted.
So, back to Jesus’ day: who did they think Jesus was? There were those who loved His miracles; His kindness to all who were seeking Him. They were impressed by His teaching = it was different; with authority. Some just loved it that something new & different was happening besides the same-‘ol same-‘ol. They loved the show & wanted to see more & more of it. But did they really want to get to know who Jesus really was? Not always.
How important it would be to listen to Jesus to understand the reason for His miracles, because He wanted them to know that He was not a magician, & not merely a prophet. He was truly the Son of God who had come to save them from their sins. For now, in Mark chpt.3, Jesus’ fame grew because of His great miracles; and so the people kept flocking to see him!
But the effect on the religious teachers of the day, called scribes, was different. They didn’t like this popularity. They were not honestly skeptical; we’re told that they were hypocrites. They feared that Jesus might take away from their influence & powers, and may even cause an uprising against their Roman rulers; the Romans could make life miserable for everyone.
So they tried many different ways to discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people. Here, they declared Him to be teamed up with Beelzebul, the name of the prince of demons in the Philistine cult worship. This Beelzebul was the strongest entity in the house of evil spirits; so -they said- that that’s how Jesus did His miracles.
They were trying to get the crowds to stay away from Him == kind-of like political parties do -in our day- when they say their opponent is a ‘nazi’, or says things just like Hitler. We even call it ‘demonizing’. Don’t foolishly fall for it.
Essentially, the scribes were saying that Jesus was working with Satan. Now, we know that’s ridiculous, but how would the regular people know? These were their religious leaders.
Those leaders were probably pretty effective, in their own ignorant, satanic way. Satan is the enemy of mankind. His sole mission is to lie, tempt, & to destroy = even those folks knew from Genesis 3 that Satan’s mission is traced back to the very beginning of life in the Garden of Eden. Thru Satan’s challenge of God’s Word, sin entered the world, and with sin came the reign of death over us, & all mankind.
By lies & temptation, Satan is a soul-murderer, & might even use what looks ‘good’ to accomplish it. So, was Jesus ever in league with Satan? No. He brought light & life. Jesus healed people. He gave people back their lives from being crushed under temptation and the weight of sin & its guilt. He came to set the demon-possessed free; to heal the sick & cure the diseased. He did those things to show that the kingdom of God had come = just as promised. God promised to bind up the evil strong man, and to speak the word of forgiveness for the world’s sin. Forgiveness & mercy; that was always the salvation plan of mankind’s Creator.
Ironically, it’s the scribes that are in league with Satan’s purpose against the heaven-sent Messiah. And so, the Messiah quickly & strongly rebukes those scribes: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” Even we know that principle is true: there is no honor among thieves, and sooner or later, evil people turn on each other & destroy each other for their own selfish reasons.
Jesus says: “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, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man’s house, and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.”
Jesus is stating a natural principle of this fallen world; He is not giving advise & permission for people to plunder each other’s houses. This natural principle is part of ‘logic’, or natural reason, which can apply to God’s things. Not always, but often can apply.
Jesus tells the scribes that they’re being illogical. A kingdom that is not united cannot win a war against an enemy that comes against them; not if that kingdom is already fighting an internal war with themselves. Satan is not a stupid enemy; he is crafty & has known man’s mindset from the beginning. He knows how to deceive, how to tempt; how to ‘push our buttons.’ If Satan could fool our perfect first parents, how much trouble will he have with a humanity that is already bent in his direction?
One of the strongest weapons Satan has are the lies that dangle ‘death’ in front of us. One right part of human nature is that we value ‘life’; it’s a human instinct to ‘live & let live’, so we fear death. When someone wants to extinguish life, something is very wrong & unnatural. A person who wants to kill another is not thinking straight; a person who wants to kill themselves is not thinking rationally or clearly. There has to be a life-protecting reason for someone to threaten another’s life or else something is very wrong. Even when there seems to be no choice except self-defense, capital punishment, or protecting a nation’s citizens in war, to take another’s life from them is regrettable, & not done lightly.
Turning away from death and toward life is why people change what they eat or drink; why they exercise, & go thru surgeries, endure ‘chemo’ & all kinds of things. Satan will use that fear of death against us. And if Satan, the prince of demons who has 6,000 yrs experience against man, goes up against us =just us= we know we’re in trouble; we will lose. However, Satan is not God; but Jesus is! Jesus was not in league with this prince of lies, deceit, and death. Jesus came to bring life & light to the sin-dark world. He was sent because we needed a ‘stronger man’ to bind up the ‘strong man’ in his own house so that our enemy would be defeated.
Who is this Jesus? The God-man. This is what the people back then needed to learn. Born of Mary, Jesus appeared rather nondescript in his humanity; Isaiah said He had ‘no form or majesty that we should look at him,…nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.’ It was in His Word and deed that He showed himself to be more than anyone else = ever.
His Word identified Him as the great ‘I Am’. He forgave people of their sins, and His miracles pointed out His authority to do that. And those things were but the prelude to the larger work. What set Him apart from all others is that the OT son of man, who was the Son of God, would crush Satan’s head & power, once & for all, with the cross.
That’s where He would end Satan’s rule & authority over us. Satan knew that the Triune God could not ignore or just dismiss sin. But Satan could not understand the Scriptures, which are spiritually discerned. To Satan, it was illogical that the Son of God would substitute himself for us, and pay our debt of sin. But that’s what Jesus did.
His life would be pure enough, His blood would be holy enough to pay the debt we owe, restore us to our Creator, and bring us eternal life. The wages of sin is death; but with sin paid for, death can no longer be held as a threat over us. Jesus faced our death, and then broke it when He raised himself from death on Easter morning. Rev.1 quotes Jesus as saying that HE holds the keys of death & hades now. And with that stronger man on our side, we’re in a kingdom that cannot lose, and our resurrection over death is a certainty.
Those scribes should have known who Jesus was because they had the OT promises.
To think that the Messiah was ‘in cahoots’ with Satan means that they were putting themselves in a very spiritually dangerous position == on the threshold of ‘blasphemy.’ They were refusing to hear the Holy Spirit using God’s Word to see the truth in faith. So, Jesus was using their own words to warn those scribes and to stop them in their unbelief.
Jesus had come from God to seek out all the lost; He came to bind up the brokenhearted, to heal the wounds of both body & soul by bringing the mercy of God for sinners so that we would live with Him forever. The NT shows us both reactions to Jesus’ teaching of word & deed: there are those that refused to hear that Good News, & followed Satan’s lies instead; and there are those that listened to those OT promises to see how they are, in fact, fulfilled in that one unique Man from Nazareth. In hearing the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit has convinced them that Jesus is God’s strongest Man and our Savior.
That’s who Jesus is. Knowing this is not a natural knowledge; and it’s not naturally ‘logical’ that a man would also be God. But it is revealed in the Bible, and this knowing Him is worked by God’s own Spirit = because He wants all to return to Him and live. Satan will continue to lie & deceive, but Jesus has tied him up so that that dark kingdom is soon coming to its ultimate end.
Whenever we gather for worship, we are plundering the house of the evil strong man. When we hear, mark, learn, & inwardly digest God’s Holy Word, we are strengthened in the faith that protects us from Satan’s lies. Whenever we hear the word of truth, obey it, and do the will of God in our lives, we are Jesus’ brother and sister and mother; His eternal family.
And when we ‘go therefore’ and make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit, and when we teach everything our Lord Jesus has commanded, then we are participating in the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of the stronger Man, and the Savior who holds the keys to death & hades.
This is who Jesus is; and this is the Jesus we get to share with those around us.
For His kingdom is for all; and His ‘is the kingdom & the power & the glory, forever & ever. Amen.
Prayers June 9, 2024
Merciful God, You have sent the promised Offspring to crush Satan’s head forever by the death of Christ, our Saviour. As You gave comfort to Adam and Eve, receiving their confessions for the sake of Your grace and promising deliverance from sin and its curse, so comfort us by the forgiveness of sins and give us hope in the promise of eternal life and Your new creation.
Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
Give courage to Your Church, O Lord, that as we believe, so we also would speak of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the confident hope we have in Him, that we, too, will be raised and brought into His presence. Embolden us by Your Spirit to confess this Christian trust in you from a living conscience, that, for Christ’s sake, this grace will be seen in our lives & shared with many people and your kingdom extended.
HF, Your Son was rejected on earth, even by His friends and relatives. Give consolation to all Christians who feel the sword of division brought by the faithful confession of His name, especially those who cannot find agreement within their own families on your own Word of truth & life. Assure them that their stand for Your truth is necessary, guard them from seeking a false harmony or easy peace, and turn us in every earthly disappointment toward the promise of Your eternal and undivided Church Triumphant.
Almighty God, no kingdom divided against itself can stand for long. Graciously preserve our nation with its government. Frustrate the work of Satan in our leaders, and crush the seeds of destruction he would sow in every place to bring chaos & hatred between people. Unite our leaders, and our people for the common good, while reminding us that our hope is not earthly, but is in your eternal kingdom which can never be found in this world.
HF, hear our prayers for Your servants who suffer in this earthly tent as Paul put it, including: _________. Do not let them lose heart in their trouble, but fix their eyes on what it means to share in Christ’s suffering now because the time is coming for all of us to return to dust and await that great gettin-up morning of resurrection and the gift of eternal life in your kingdom. In the meantime, grant the measure of health & healing that is fitting with your will for each of us.
Almighty God, what was lost in Paradise has been regained by the conquering wounds of Your Son, crucified and raised again. In Him, we are restored as Your children and are bold to ask for every need. Hear us for His sake and in His name, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.