Unlimited: His Family Thinks Jesus Has Gone Mad

Mar 4, 2024 1758

Unlimited: His Family Thinks Jesus Has Gone Mad

Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind” (Mark 3:10–21, NIV).

In Galilee, Jesus was challenging what was expected of a Jewish man in the first century.

He even touched people with horrific, contagious diseases! And the things he said went beyond what any man should claim. He even claimed to forgive sin.

His family in Nazareth have been hearing the reports of what Jesus was up to, and they were getting more and more concerned. So, now, they come to get him and take him home.

Jesus’ family must have been horrified. And they were probably also listening to what the religious leaders were saying about Jesus: about how the things he was saying were crazy, and about his behaviour was so scandalous and shocking.

So, Jesus’ family came to take him back to his town in Nazareth, just as you would do to a lost child or a relative suffering from a mental illness.

I’m sure you’ll agree: it’s an amazing scene! Imaging how Jesus must have felt!

– Eliezer Gonzalez

Eli’s Reflection: Why does it so often feel like those who are closest to us are the ones who know us the least? We’ve all had family troubles at some stage or another. Who do you rely on when no one understands you; not even your family? Have you learnt to rely on your Father in heaven for your identity and strength?

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Ketchakah

Mar 4, 2024

Thank you brother for your very fine devotions. Your perspective is refreshing to my spirit. This verse has always been one i have found interesting. On the surface it seems that Jesus' family would think Him to be crazy and that is in fact how many people interpret this scripture. However, I am feeling this interpretation is in error. I have always found it difficult to understand how Jesus' family could have lived and grown with Him for 30 years and then suddenly think He was ill, especially His mother who knew He was the Son of God before He was even born. It is a foregone conclusion that Jesus' other family members would have known of His lineage all His life as well. But, the scripture does not really give us enough indication of this to make a definitive argument. There are several sections that seem to support that His family was not aware of His divinity. One such is the episode when He, as a child was lost in the city and found to have been in the Synagogue. An ongoing theme of The Bible also seems to be that the people even though they had a direct experience with God, consistently forgot about it and once again slipped into their old ways and disbelief. This is another very odd concept, but viable i suppose, as Americans seem to do this same thing frequently. So perhaps, the people of The Bible followed the same trend. Jesus' mother, i would not think would be one of these, however, it is hard to say. It is MY understanding of this particular scripture is that Jesus' family simply became afraid by what Jesus was doing, knowing the vindictiveness of the Jewish religious leaders and the Roman government. So in this case, they did not actually question His sanity, but His safety. They used the argument that He was not well as an excuse to attempt to bring Him out of a situation that they thought hazardous. Who would not do the same for a loved one ? However, again, there really is not enough information to know. The Bible is full of these types of seemingly incongruous situations and many skeptics will use these as a way to undermine the validity of scripture. Such tactics only work on those who have not spent time listening to the voice of The Spirit and that of men instead. It is again MY understanding that these sort of questions are specifically put into the Bible as a catalyst for the reader to do more scriptural research and to spend more time in fellowship with God to gain perspective and clarity. Ahoh


Roy David Sanderson

Nov 2, 2020

Thank you for your inspiring daily messages which we always look forward to receiving.....we read our Bibles the last thing at night before we go to sleep


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