Mark 3:20 Commentary and Bible Study

They came down from the mountain, we imagine, and entered into Capernaum into a house, and the crowds poured in. They seemed to be trapped in the house by the crowds and there is a measure of crowd hysteria – people pressing upon him – so that there was no room even to set a table or to eat, and anyway in all probability they couldn’t go out for provisions.‘When his friends heard of it.’ The Greek there uses words which could be translated roughly: ‘When those who were of him heard of it’, in other words, his family. This isn’t the disciples; this is his family, and there are a number of them. We read in John 7:1-5 of an event when his brethren tried to persuade him to leave Galilee and go show himself to the crowds. ‘Go to Jerusalem, but just show yourself to the crowds; go to work miracles, don’t go to preach. You will be executed’ – they thought he wanted to set up an earthly kingdom. They wanted to persuade him to take a different policy because they didn't understand him. John records that they said, ‘Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. ⁵ For neither did his brethren believe in him’ (John 7:4-5). They thought he wanted to set up an earthly kingdom and how could that be done without showing his powers and impressing people? Later his brothers came to follow him and to understanding him, but at this stage they didn't. We see the same here in Mark: When his family – I don't think they have got Mary in on this just yet; in a few verses they will have – his brethren ‘heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.’ The modern translations say, ‘he is out of his mind.’ They rather like that. But that is a bit strong. ‘He is beside himself’ is better. He has just got overexcited. ‘Why, our brother Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth; he is a prophet of God, we think, of some kind.’ They didn't understand his Messianic nature: that he was divine. ‘He can do amazing things, but he ha's upset everybody with this preaching, and he has upset the leaders, the clergy, the scribes, the Pharisees. He is virtually telling them that they are not of God, that they need to be born again. He went to Jerusalem and told one of their leaders [that] he needs an entirely new life. He's even called them’ – and it’s going to be recorded here in due course – ‘a generation of vipers, and he is saying that people should repent. He is implying that we Jewish people are not God's people unless we repent, and have some close relationship with him. Whoever heard of such things? And now the crowds are coming. and we think he has just got beside himself, overexcited. They are going to arrest him. They will surely kill him.’ They must have heard of the plots and the scheming of the scribes and the Pharisees. They see a big delegation come all the way down from Jerusalem to Capernaum to look at him and inspect him. ‘This is trouble’, they say. ‘Get hold of him; he is beside himself.’ You think of the humiliations that the Lord of glory had to suffer on earth. Even his family tried to protect him from himself, judging him, thinking he had overreached himself: ‘He's gone too far; he needs us to rescue him and put him straight.’ What indignities and humiliation! Even before they lashed him and nailed him to a cross; even before all the insults and the spurning of him.