Mark · chapter 3 of 16
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Mark 3 shows Jesus healing a withered hand on the Sabbath, which leads the Pharisees and Herodians to plot his death. Jesus draws great crowds, chooses the twelve apostles on a mountain, answers the scribes who accuse him of acting by Beelzebul, and declares that his true family is made up of those who do God's will.
Mark 3 closes the series of controversies that began in chapter 2 and opens a new stage: Jesus forms the twelve and opposition hardens. The question of the chapter is who is really with Jesus: those who reject him, the crowd, his own family, or those who sit around him to listen.
In the synagogue a man with a withered hand is present, and some watch to see whether Jesus will heal him on the Sabbath so they can accuse him. Jesus asks whether it is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill, and no one answers. Angry and grieved at their hard hearts, he tells the man to stretch out his hand, and it is restored. The Pharisees go out and immediately plot with the Herodians how to destroy him.
Jesus withdraws to the sea with his disciples, and a great crowd from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon follows him. Unclean spirits fall down and call him the Son of God, but Jesus orders them not to make him known. Then he goes up a mountain and calls those he wants: he appoints twelve to be with him, to be sent out to preach and to have authority to cast out demons. Mark gives the list, including Simon, whom he names Peter, James and John, whom he calls Boanerges, sons of thunder, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Back at a house, the crowd is so large that they cannot even eat. His relatives set out to take charge of him, saying he is out of his mind. The scribes from Jerusalem accuse him of casting out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Jesus replies that a kingdom or house divided against itself cannot stand, that no one plunders the strong man's house without first binding him, and that whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness. When his mother and brothers arrive and send for him, Jesus looks at those sitting around him and says that whoever does the will of God is his brother, sister and mother.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Jesus asks whether it is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill. The question exposes that his critics are looking for a reason to accuse him, while he is concerned with saving a person.
Jesus appoints twelve to be with him and to be sent out to preach with authority over demons. The first thing asked of them is to be with Jesus; the mission grows out of that closeness.
Jesus declares that God forgives all sins and blasphemies, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness. In context it means attributing the Spirit's evident work to the devil, not a believer's fear after a bad moment.
Jesus says that whoever does the will of God is his brother, sister and mother. He does not despise his family, but shows that the deepest kinship is obedience to God and that the door is open to all.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Whether it is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill. — Mark 3:4
Answer: The Pharisees, together with the Herodians. — Mark 3:6
Answer: To be with him, to be sent out to preach and to have authority to cast out demons. — Mark 3:14-15
Answer: Boanerges, which means sons of thunder. — Mark 3:17
Answer: He said Satan cannot cast out Satan, because a kingdom or house divided against itself cannot stand. — Mark 3:22-26
Answer: Those who do the will of God. — Mark 3:34-35
Mark 3 invites us to ask what we do with people's real needs when our rules or habits collide with them. Jesus puts a person's good above religious comfort. In a class or small group you can check whether there is someone we have been viewing as a case to judge instead of a life to care for.
The call of the twelve shows that serving begins with being with Jesus. And Jesus' true family comforts anyone who feels rejected or lonely: in the church, those who obey God form a family, and each believer can be family to another.
Mark 3 ends with Jesus seated among those who want to hear the will of God. The question of who belongs to his family carries on into Mark 4, where Jesus teaches in parables from a boat and explains who truly receives the word.
It is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. In context the scribes saw the Spirit's work in Jesus and attributed it to an unclean spirit. Many interpreters understand it as a persistent, deliberate rejection of God's work rather than a word spoken in a bad moment; someone who fears having committed it is showing concern for God instead.
They were supporters of the Herod dynasty, which ruled Galilee with Rome's permission. They normally did not get along with the Pharisees, yet they joined forces against Jesus. Mark mentions them here and in Mark 12:13.
Mark says his relatives set out to take charge of him because people were saying he was out of his mind, probably seeing the pressure of the crowds and the opposition. Mark 6:3-4 and John 7:5 show that his brothers were slow to believe in him.