Schism with the Scribes and Factions with the Family

with a mixture of corn and saliva. He pleaded their forgiveness, rose from the table hurriedly and gestured for the two Priests to follow him into another room. Once in the room he slammed his fist into the wall and turning around to the Priests he exclaimed, “It’s worse than we first thought. The Galilean. The one called Jesus. His popularity with the crowds grows every day. His fame and honour increases and ours decreases. We know where this is going. The same way it did with Hezekiah, Herod’s steward and Judas the Galilean. He must be stopped now.”
One of the priests asked cautiously, “Shall we kill him then?”
Caiaphas paused and stroked his bearded chin, “No, death will only make him a martyr. We don’t need to destroy him. We need only humiliate him in public. Disgrace him thoroughly. Then he won’t be worth following. You know what to do. Make it so.”
The two Priests nodded and left the room at a frantic pace.

Scene Three: Mk 3:20-35 [Read].

A Question of Honour

The confrontation that Jesus has with his family and the Jewish leadership revolves fundamentally around the question of honour. The reason why Jesus’ relatives try to seize him and why the Scribes attempt to discredit him is because honour is at stake.
Jesus is degrading his families honour and challenging the Scribes’ honour. This might seem odd to us but in first century Palestine honour or the claim to honour was a very important commodity. Honour was a claim to social value and public recognition of it.
In the ancient world honor was more important than your wealth, your vocation and even your heritage. Honour was a lot like your credit rating, it enabled you go places and get things. The problem was that honor was like money, it’s a limited commodity, there’s only so much that can go around. Honor can be ascribed based on your gender, your family, and social position. Honor can also be acquired by excelling over others. You acquire honor by dislodging others from their position of honor. But Jesus is not acting dishonorably. He is simply putting God’s honor above everyone elses. And because Jesus defends God’s honor he himself is honorable. But in defending God’s honor it leads to conflict with both the world and with family. And there are two points which I think emerge from the text before us.

1. Discipleship Means Enmity with the World - vv. 22-30

The scribes come down from the Jerusalem and try to neutralize or marginailize this young Galilean upstart. Their method is quite simply, publicly humiliate him.
They bring two accusations against him:
(a) He is Demon Possessed and (b) He is in collusion with Beelzebub the prince of demons. Beelzebub was the name of the Philistine god of Ekron who was “Lord of the Flies” Now the problem the scribes face is that they can’t deny the fact that Jesus is performing miraculous things, but the problem is that he is doing outside the normal circles of authority. Jesus bypasses or steps over all of the established boundaries and yet t appears as if God actually approves of it. Thus the scribes have to explain these miracles and the easiest thing to do is to attribute it to the work of Satan. To this accusation Jesus offers two refutations:

1st Refutation: It is illogical to ascribe Jesus’ exorcisms to Satan.

Jesus poses the question in sardonic fashion that it is ridiculous