I’ve just published the 13th part of the Learn to read the Bible series on Mark’s Gospel. This week we are looking at Mark 3:20-35, when Jesus is accused by both his family and the teachers of the law.
For those who are coming to this new, the idea behind this series is not for me to simply explain everything to you, but rather to give you things to think about yourself. This is about training you to read the Bible for yourself, rather than just giving you all the answers!
See this page if you’d like a few pointers for how to use these videos. Don’t forget to pray!
You can read the passage online here (although I’d suggest it’s better in a physical Bible). You may also want to have a pen and paper handy to jot down notes and things you want to look into more.
Key points from Mark 3:20-35
There were three key points to think about from this passage:
- Jesus’ family thought that he was out of his mind. This is often the case in families: if someone starts to believe in Jesus, it can cause tension or division within the family. Is that the case in your experience? Are you prepared for following Jesus to cause problems in your relationships?
- The teachers of the Law thought that Jesus was possessed by Beelzebul – Satan, the “prince of demons”. They essentially claimed that what Jesus was doing was evil. Sadly, this is increasingly common in our society: Christians are not just seen as weird but immoral. Is that something you have seen? Are you prepared to put following Jesus first, even though people might wrongly think of you as immoral? (Stephen McAlpine has just written a new book called Being the Bad Guys which you might appreciate).
- Jesus’ family try to use their influence over him because they are family. But Jesus says that his true family are those who believe in and do the will of God the Father. The spiritual family is just as real and even closer than the biological family. Do we see other Christians like that? Do we see fellow Christians as our true family? How can we love them and demonstrate being a family?
Looking for more?
You can see the rest of the videos in this series on the this page. If you’d like a more focussed series teaching the Christian faith, check out the teaching programme.
You might also want to see the previous episode in the series on Mark 3:13-19.
