Mark 3:20-27
“Notice what you notice.” I never really understood verse 28: But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. That is, I have understood the content of the verse but not the context, as to why Jesus said it. But today a note in my Study Bible helped me. Jesus is speaking of Himself as that person who enters that strong man’s house, where the house is a metaphor for the demon-possessed man and binding the strong man is Jesus overwhelming the demon. Plundering the house, then, is clearing out all the evil the demon left behind and freeing the man from his mute and blind condition. Now it makes sense!
Three other items…
First, we now have Jesus’ family showing up for the first time (v. 21), likely having come from Nazareth some 30 miles away. We will have this confirmed later in verse 31. I’ve always wondered about their perspective, He is out of His mind. Verse 31 refers to his family as “his mother and his brothers”. What troubles me about that verse is that His mother, Mary, is there with the rest of the family, coming “to seize Him”. But Mary knows more about who Jesus is, so it’s hard for me to imagine that she thought that He was “out of His mind”. Rather, I presume that she wanted to talk with Him and to learn more about where He was headed. So, reading between the lines, I imagine it’s Jesus’ brothers who have come to take Him away and Mary is there to intervene.
Second, Mark again offers us some details in today’s introductory verse 20 that the other writers do not, with some very different understandings depending on the translation. The ESV translation says, Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. I have always read that verse as Jesus simply returning to Capernaum, His “home” and that it was a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, such that even eating bread would have been difficult for the crowd. However, the NASB translation says, And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. Reading this translation I can see Jesus inside Peter’s home in Capernaum and sitting down to eat, but with people so crowded in that they could not even eat. A very different comprehension from what I get from the ESV…!! And certainly more vivid!
Finally, a small item. Verse 22 has scribes who have come from Jerusalem. This wording contrasts with “the people” in Luke and “the Pharisees” in Matthew. Again, more detail from Mark!!
Blessings!