Mark 3
Big Idea
Jesus again leaves the urban setting for a ministry at the Sea of Galilee, healing the sick and demonstrating authority over all powers. At the same time, we see the second stage of discipleship as Jesus elects and empowers twelve disciples/apostles, making them the restored new Israel.
Key Themes of Mark 3:7–19
- Jesus’s compassionate healing extends to anyone who comes to him.
- Jesus is in charge of the church and elects its leadership.
- Discipleship is first and foremost becoming like Christ.
- The leaders of the church exercise Jesus’s authority in their mission.
v.5
He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.
Heart similar to Hebrews 3:7. See how our Savior longs to comfort and amaze our hearts lest it not be hardened.
v.11
Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell face down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”
Jesus’s response is to “sternly rebuke” (NIV: “gave strict orders”), utilizing the strong verb epitimaō, used also of the rebuking and silencing of wind and sea in 4:39. This is a cosmic battle, and Jesus’s victory is overwhelming and final. The command not to tell is part of the messianic secret described at 1:34. Jesus did not want his messianic identity bandied about in the incendiary situation of first-century Palestine; the political overtones were too dangerous, and the Jewish people expected the wrong kind of messiah, a conquering king. In a sense, Jesus wanted to travel incognito,3 to make sure that his messianic nature emerged from his deeds, especially from his suffering and the cross.
v.11-12
Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.
By crying out “You are the Son of God,” they were trying to control him and neutralize his power (in Bible times, knowledge of a person’s name conferred power over that person). “Son of God” is a true designation of who Jesus is. Jesus silenced the outcries of the demons because the time for the clear revelation of who he was had not yet come.
See also comment in Mark 1:23-24.
v.13
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.
What we see throughout the Gospels is that Jesus did not allow people to follow him on their terms but loved them enough to challenge them to surrender fully to his lordship.
v.14-15
He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15and to have authority to drive out demons.
The apostolic band will be called “the Twelve” (e.g., 4:10; 6:7; 9:35), and the number is symbolic, recalling the twelve tribes of Israel and constituting the restoration of the people of God in a “new Israel,” the church (part of the “new wineskins” of 2:22). There are eschatological (with the tribes regathered and reunited, as Jesus brings redemption and reconstitutes the nation as a whole) and ecclesiological (they symbolize the nation, with Jesus establishing a new people under their overseeing presence) dimensions.
v.16-18
These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); 18Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot
Since Bartholomew is not a personal name but a patronymic, meaning “son of Talmai,” this disciple probably had another name (Nathaniel? cf. Jn 1:45).
See more in GotQuestions on James son Alphaeus Mark3 v 18.
v.21
And when His own people heard this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”
The reason why this report gained any belief was, probably, that he had lived among them as a carpenter; that he was poor and unknown; and that now, at 30 years of age, he broke off from his occupations, abandoned his common employment, spent much time in the deserts, denied himself the common comforts of life, and set up his claims to be the Messiah who was expected by all the people to come with great pomp and splendor.
Let a man be made deeply sensible of his sins, and spend much of his time in prayer, and have no relish for the ordinary amusements or business of life; or let a Christian be much impressed with his obligation to devote himself to God, and “act” as if he believed there was an “eternity,” and warn his neighbors of their danger; or let a minister show uncommon zeal and spend his strength in the service of his Master, and the world is not slow to call it derangement.
v.24
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
v.29
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”
v.35
Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Obedience to Him is the first and main thing to which everything else bows, and which determines everything. If others compete or interfere, reject them.
It can easily be imagined what this statement meant to the original readers of Mark’s gospel. Though many had broken family relations and were being persecuted, they had an intimate relationship with the Son of God.
There are two emphases here. First, “the will of God” is a central theme in the New Testament for true discipleship (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:17; 1 Thess. 4:3; 5:18; 1 Pet. 4:2). This means that in every area of life the Christian seeks to live as God wants; the principles for doing so are encapsulated in his revealed word. Second, we must “do” God’s will or, as in James 1:22–25, be “doers” of the word and not mere “hearers.”