Preached by Pastor Jeff Hamling

Sunday, November 29, 2020

Mark 3:20-35

Accused

Introduction: 

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan was running for a second term as president. He ran against Walter Mondale. 

Reagan was 73 years old—the oldest person to ever hold the office of President in American history. Walter Mondale was only 47 years old. 

During the election campaign, Reagan’s age became a major issue. In the first presidential debate with Mondale, Reagan displayed signs of cognitive decline. He couldn’t finish sentences. He lost his train of thought. He wasn’t very articulate. 

Mondale was quite confident at his shot of winning the Presidency after that first debate,

Then came the night of the second debate. The moderator asked the following question to Reagan: “You are already the oldest president in history. And some of your staff say you were tired after your most recent debate with Mr. Mondale. I recall that President Kennedy had to go days on end with very little sleep during the Cuban Missile crisis. Is there any doubt in your mind that you would be able to function in such circumstances?” 

Reagan responded: “Not at all. And I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue in this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” The audience exploded with laughter. Mondale himself couldn’t help laughing. In fact, later he would admit that he knew that in that moment he had lost the Presidency. Reagan would go on to win in a landslide—winning 49 states.  

Reagan took an attack and turned it into something winsome and compelling. People were attracted to him because of the way he responded to an accusation. 

What if Christians could do that? What if Christians could take accusations and criticism about Christianity and respond in a way that is winsome, compelling, and attractive? 

That’s what Jesus does in this passage: Ask: What Jesus is accused of? How does he respond? 

What is Jesus accused of? 

There are two accusations or criticisms raised against Jesus. 

First, in v.21 his family accuse him of being out of his mind. Attracted crowds, hanging out with fringe people, coming under attack from the religious leaders, so busy he doesn’t even have time to eat. 

In the Bible, being out of your mind is often associated with demon possession.  

This is connected to the second accusation levied against Jesus. In v.22 teachers of the law from Jerusalem accuse him. They are not local figures; these are the big guns from Jerusalem. They accuse Jesus of being possessed by Beelzebul or Satan. They are saying that the only way Jesus performs healing and casts out demons is because he’s possessed by Satan. 

There is a principle known as Godwin’s Rule. It states: As a discussion on social media grows longer, the probability increases that that someone will be compared to Hitler. Why? Because you can easily dismiss your opponent if you can associate them with someone evil. 

This is what the religious leaders are doing to Jesus. 

It’s important to recognize this because it also sometimes happens to Christians.      

Carl Trueman, seminary professor: You kid yourselves if you think you can be a Christian and be at the same time cool enough and hip enough to cut it in the wider world. Frankly, in a couple of years it will not matter how [many tattoos] you sport, how much fair trade coffee you drink, how many craft brews you can name…or how much money you give for social justice: maintaining biblical sexual ethics will be the equivalent in our culture of being a white supremacist.

What’s he saying? If you hold to a traditional, Christian view of marriage, gender, or sex—you’ll be accused of being a bigot. O