Conversation Points for Mark 3:20-35

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• It is still quite early in Jesus’ ministry, yet already Mark describes how every time Jesus stops, crowds gather around him so that he cannot move. This is similar to what happened last time he was in Capernaum, when he healed Simon’s mother-in-law (Mark 2:2).
• This periscope includes a scene embedded within a scene, a typical Markan composition technique. The first scene is Jesus and his family (3:21, 31-35), the embedded scene is Jesus and the scribes(3:22-30).
• Accusations of the exercise of satanic power was a formal, legal charge, requiring investigation.
• The scribes in v. 22 did not speak to Jesus directly, but spoke about him. And Jesus similarly did not address them directly, but answered them “in parables” (en parabolais). The word parabole refers to various forms of metaphoric speech, from riddles and proverbs like these to short narratives to illustrate a point. The point of proverbial sayings is to turn the tables on an opponent by showing how any intelligent person would recognize the absurdity of the opponent’s views. Their memorability and shortness makes them fundamental to oral culture.
• There is never mention of Jesus’ father (besides God) or Mary’s husband, while there is mention of Jesus’ mother and brothers. Peter and Andrew also never have a father mentioned, and James and John leave their father to follow Jesus. Possibly the lack of fathers is part of Jesus’ rejection of the patriarchal culture of the time that placed all power in the hands of the male head of household.
• Despite Jesus’ ignoring of his family, this passage was probably not an indication of hostility between Jesus and his family. Rather it probably demonstrates Jesus’ insistence that nothing can be set above doing the will of God, even family.

Works Sourced:
Perkins, Pheme. “The Gospel of Mark.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.