Open House

Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Fr Allan White considers how Christ’s preparation of a new temple challenges those who love him and those who despise him.

St Mark tells us in today’s Gospel that Jesus came home with his disciples. Which home is he coming to? What does St Mark mean by home? In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says that ‘foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ He does not belong to a particular place. He is not rooted in a precise spot. He belongs everywhere and he is rooted in the Father’s love. Mark tells us that when Jesus came home the crowd gathered together there ‘again’. Mark is very fond of the word again. This crowd is the same crowd that gathered by the sea earlier in the chapter. This crowd was not just composed of inquisitive neighbors or curious locals. It was drawn from Galilee and from Judaea, and as far away as Jerusalem. The bounds were even wider since some came from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from Tyre and Sidon. These people were not just pious, respectable Jews; they were not just eager suppliants hoping for something from Jesus, they were Gentiles as well as Jews. Some came from beyond the Jordan, and from Tyre and Sidon. They were a mixed bag. Jesus has already begun the construction of his new Israel. He is building his new house which will become the new temple, the temple of his body.

A scribe who had come down from Jerusalem accused Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebul the prince of demons. As Jesus says, this does not make sense since a house divided against itself cannot stand. Jesus is busy forging the new Israel, but the scribe, the representative of Israel chooses not to enter and says that the work of Jesus is demonic.

Jesus’s home in Capernaum is probably the home of Simon and Andrew. Jesus is building a new house, an alternative to the Temple of Jerusalem. There access was restricted, but this new house is open to the great crowds who have come in search of him, as well as the tax collectors, sinners, scribes and Pharisees. In the midst of all of this Jesus’s relatives come in to ‘seize’ him. The word is a very strong one. It is used again in the Gospel to describe the action of the guards when they come to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Mark suggests that Jesus’s family did not understand the nature of his mission, they come to him out of love. They want to prevent him from being hurt by failure. When they arrive, they find him teaching to a full house. It is full not only of interested and curious people, but also his disciples whom he has just called to be with him. These disciples have begun the journey away from their own homes and families. Later on, they will say ‘we have left everything to follow you.’ To leave family means to leave security, to leave those who care for you, who will tend you when you are sick and when you are old. Jesus means that when you leave your family you are casting yourself on God’s providence. You are committing yourself to your heavenly Father. You will enter into the realm of non-belonging to some in order to belong to all. As a result, you receive all of those who have chosen the same way as your brothers and sisters. This family is not united by blood but by faith. The ones who hear the word of God and do it are his disciples. They have begun this journey. Just how much of a sacrifice this family life is can be seen at the end of Jesus’s life. His brothers abandon him in the Garden of Gethsemane and leave him to his fate. In that dreadful human solitude it then becomes obvious to whom he belongs.

The family of Jesus and the scribe from Jerusalem were challenged by Jesus’s building of the new Israel, but in different ways. His family was challenged humanly. The scribes were religiously challenged. For the relatives who were humanly challenged Jesus was humanly out of his mind. For the scribes who were challenged as religious teachers, Jesus was demonically possessed. The scribes from Jerusalem saw their authority and power challenged. In response, they challenged not only Jesus’s authority and power, but the source of that authority and power, the Holy Spirit himself.

Readings: Genesis 3:9-15 | 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 | Mark 3:20-35

Image: Fresco by Fra Angelico from the cells of the Dominican convent of San Marco, Florence, photographed by Fr Lawrence Lew OP