Mark
3:20-35
Like
Falling in Love
James
Sledge June
10, 2012
So,
Jesus’ family thought he had taken leave of his senses, that he was out of his
mind. Probably not the most unusual
occurrence in families. Families
frequently think a child is acting in ways that aren’t rational. And on occasion I’ve had parents come to me
as a pastor, seeking assistance in some sort of intervention they were planning
for a child they thought had taken leave of his or her senses. But that’s pretty rare.
However, I’ve had a lot of dealings with
another situation where people can seem to have lost touch with reality. It’s a common condition, one that afflicts
most all of us at some point in our lives. It’s usually called “falling in
love.”
Falling
in love leads people to do any number of less than completely rational
things. There’s a good reason that
people who are in love say, “I’m just crazy about Jane,” or John or
whomever. People who are in love will
drive for hours and hours just to spend a brief bit of time with their
beloved. Natural tightwads will
inexplicably experience bouts of extravagant gift giving. Meticulously laid out career plans may be put
on hold or abandoned altogether. And
sometimes such behavior becomes too much for friends and family to sit idly by,
and they feel the need to stage some sort of rescue or intervention. Someone needs to reconnect the person with
reality.
Jesus’
family seems to be engaged in just such an activity in today’s gospel
reading. The story is pretty short on
details so we can’t say for sure why the family thinks an intervention is in
order. The NRSV translators seem to
think the family is only trying to protect Jesus’ reputation. They go to “restrain him” because other folks
were saying Jesus was crazy. I
understand the translators preferring that Jesus’ family not come off too bad
in this story, but suspect that may have colored their translation.
As
I mentioned during the reading, the verse literally says, “When his family heard, they went
to restrain him, for they said that he had gone out of his mind.” Now perhaps the second “they” in the sentence
refers to other “people,” but it seems just as likely that there had been a big
family meeting and at the end “they” said Jesus was crazy and “they” needed to
go and get him before something terrible happened. And so they head out to “restrain him,” which
sounds a bit like they had a commitment order or a strait jacket or some such
thing.
But
just what is it that makes Jesus’ family think he needs restraining? Why are they convinced that an intervention
is necessary? After all, he is healing
people, and that sounds like a good thing.
Does that make him crazy?
Let
me suggest that what bothers Jesus’ family so is a craziness that looks very
much like “falling in love.” Jesus has fallen head over heels in love with
God. This is no good, respectable,
religious belief sort of thing. Jesus’
life, which from everything we know has been pretty typical, normal, and
pedestrian up until this point, has suddenly been consumed with a passion for
God that has completely reoriented his life.
If he had been expected to take over the family carpentry business, that
is now completely forgotten. Everything he says and does is about God. He’s healing.
He’s telling everyone who will listen to change and get ready. And he seems to think this is normal, that
everyone should fall in love with God just like he has.
It
strikes me that one of the real problems with Christian faith, at least with
Christian faith as it gets lived out in good, respectable congregations, is
that we have tried to fit something that involves a passion not unlike “falling
in love” into something neat and orderly and rational and respectable. We’ve tried to shoehorn something that looks
just a little bit crazy into a something that is done very decently and in
order.
And
as a pastor in this decently-and-in-order denomination, it occasionally dawns
on me how caught up I am in this arrangement.
I realize that I often preach to folks, even plead with them, to live in
ways that look a little crazy without actually connecting that craziness to any
passion. It’s like trying to convince
someone to fall in love. I tell people,
“Give freely and selflessly of your time. Give extravagantly to God, the
Church, and those in need. Rearrange career and life plans to align yourself
with God’s will.” But such things simply
sound crazy without the passion, the “in love” part.
I
don’t think that anyone was ever convinced or explained into falling in
love. It has to happen to you. You have to meet someone, spend time with him,
get to know her, and then begin to realize – sometimes quickly and sometimes
gradually – that you are falling for her, that your life is starting to become
reorganized around him.
For
Jesus, that seems to have happened when he was baptized. The Holy Spirit came over him and he heard
the voice of God saying, “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am
well pleased.” And shortly after
Jesus started hearing God’s voice and falling in love, his family started
thinking he was crazy.
In
just a few minutes, we will celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism. It’s a quaint little ritual. There’s sometimes a treasured baptismal gown
that’s been in the family for generations.
Even in churches that frown on cameras disrupting worship, almost no one
begrudges grandma snapping a few photos.
And speaking of grandparents, it’s not at all uncommon for them to urge
their grown children, even those who rarely go near a church, to get their kids
baptized.
But
I wonder if we parents would bring our children for baptism, or if grandparents
would lobby for getting the grandkids done, if we realized the risks
involved. In the waters of baptism God
claims us. At our baptisms, God speaks
the same words Jesus heard. “You are my
beloved son; you are my beloved daughter; with you I am well pleased.”
Those
words arrive on the breath of the Spirit, a whisper often missed because we are
ever so good at tuning out the Spirit.
But still, there is always the risk that those embraced by God in the
waters may catch the echo of that whisper.
And if they hear the voice and sense the Spirit, they may be drawn
in. They may meet Jesus. They may encounter God. And quickly or gradually, they may just fall
in love. And you know how people act
when they fall in love. Families may
need to stage an intervention.
In
our gospel story today, the folks who would seem most likely to get Jesus, to be
drawn to him – the good religious folk and his very own family – think he is
either crazy or possessed. But in the
throes of passion, Jesus redefines family.
“My mother and brothers and sisters are those who are crazy in love with
God, just like me.”
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