Pastor Tom Johnson, June 10, 2012
We normally do not picture Jesus coming from a family with challenges. We picture his mother and stepfather looking adoringly at him in the manger. Or we think of his half brother, James, who rose up quickly to become an early Church leader. But it wasn’t always that easy. Here his family comes to have an intervention for Jesus. Our text says they came to “restrain him” because people were beginning to say he was going out of his mind and possessed by an evil spirit. Jesus’ ministry is so vibrant and demanding that he does not adequately rest and nourish his body. A devoted family should show concern for their loved ones and their physical welfare. They should care about rumors of madness and false religion. You can hardly fault his family for their sense of urgency.
But the people who really cross the line are not his family members, the ones who think he is a workaholic, nor those who conclude he is mentally ill. The people who are in real danger are the ones who consider Jesus an agent of evil. Jesus says every sin will be forgiven. But if we believe that the words and actions of Jesus promote evil and serve the powers of darkness, we are in no condition to receive forgiveness. We will not receive forgiveness in a state of unbelief.
The Holy Spirit delivers forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Jesus to restores, heals, and forgives sins. That is why he came—to teach about forgiveness, to die on the cross to break the power of sin, and rise again from the death to assure us of eternal life. The Holy Spirit and Jesus have an inseparable bond and partnership to deliver forgiveness. To reject Jesus is to reject the Holy Spirit. And to reject the work of God is the epitome of unbelief. And as long as we don’t believe that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are working for our good, we deny ourselves forgiveness. Jesus reminds us that the persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit will never be divided. God is One. And the powers and principalities of evil also will not be divided until the end of all things; and that time has not yet come.
In the meantime, we live in a divided world—divided political ideals throughout the world, divided kingdoms and nations, divided political parties, divided communities, divided school districts, and divided families. Jesus says, “A house divided against itself will not be able to stand.” The most insidious and destructive thing for a house is internal strife. There is nothing more threatening than when one member of a home is against another. This is called “self-destruction;” we become unhinged and fall apart under our own weight. We are in great danger when we no longer see one another as friends and family but as “the enemy.”
The most deadly American war by far was the Civil War. 100% of the soldiers were American. Even with the enormous population increase from the time of the Civil War to World War II, there were 200,000 more deaths in the Civil War than WWII. About two percent of the American population died in the Civil War. Three-tenths of a percent died World War II. It is no accident that President Lincoln entitled his Civil War speech with Jesus’ words when he heard about the devastation on both sides: “A house divided against itself will not be able to stand.”
Recently, the United States waged a cyber battle against Iran and their nuclear facilities. Our government created a computer worm called “Olympic Games” in order to set Iranian computers against one another and destroy their own equipment. It worked. Iranians blamed one another. Workers were fired. And their work was unable to go forward for months; divided, they could not stand.
Businesses close when owners cannot work together. Beloved Kiddieland, an amusement park just blocks from our house had to close—not because of a lack of business—but because of a family feud. A house divided cannot stand.
Recent studies encourage parents not to emotionally damage their children by marital strife. When parents fight, they are hurting the whole home. Even divorce will not solve this if there is continued or escalated strife. A house divided cannot stand.
There are two disturbing truths in Jesus’ words: First, there is evil in the world trying to divide and conquer us on a global, national, local level—in our diplomatic rooms, court rooms, board rooms, and bedrooms. The second disturbing truth in Jesus’ words is this: that when we allow conflict to grow and fester and ignore God’s work of peace by the Holy Spirit through Jesus—when we ignore or neglect God who is building his Family, we find that the so-called “enemy” is ourselves. We will not receive forgiveness because we reject its Source.
God by means of the Holy Spirit through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ is building his House. As Joshua built a nation under God, he said, “choose this day whom you will serve…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh 24.15). God is building his Family despite the greatest obstacles—even those relationships closest to us. Scripture says, “my father and my mother [may] have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in” (Ps 27.10). And, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov 18.24). That friend is Jesus.
In our text, Jesus looks around the crowded room with great love and affection and calls them his sisters, brothers, and mothers. And so God looks at us through the eyes, Person and work of Jesus and calls us his beloved family. He grafts us into his family tree and calls us his own—not because of our ethnicity, geography, or diplomacy—but because we trust him as our Brother and Son. A house divided cannot stand; but the House of God will stand forever.
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