Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” (Mark 3:20-21)
Mark doesn’t waste any time or words in his account of the life of Jesus. By chapter 3, great multitudes were already following Jesus. Here, Mark described a crowd so big that they could not so much as eat bread. The idea is that the huge crowds so pressed on Jesus and the disciples that they did not have the time or the space to eat.
You might think that this would make His family proud. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was still alive and He had brothers and sisters (Mark 6:3). Wouldn’t they be happy that their own brother was doing so much good and becoming so well known for it?
They weren’t happy, and they weren’t proud of their brother. Instead, His own people (Jesus’ family and possibly close friends), those who knew Jesus before this time of wide popularity, said Jesus was crazy.
That’s how Mark described it: They said, “He is out of His mind.” Jesus was the most sane, sensible man to ever live. How could people close to Him think He was crazy? I can think of a few reasons why some from His own people might think Jesus was out of His mind.
– He left a prosperous business to become an itinerant preacher.
– Religious and political leaders plotted to murder Him, but He did not back down (Mark 3:6). They were afraid for Jesus’ sake.
– Huge crowds followed Jesus, and they knew that fame, attention, and celebrity can go to someone’s head (Mark 3:7-8).
– Jesus picked such an unlikely group of disciples that His judgment could fairly be questioned (Mark 3:13-19).
– But there was one last straw: the pressures of this incredible ministry made Him miss regular mealtimes (they could not so much as eat bread).
Jesus constantly endured the rejection of the religious and political leaders, and in a way their hatred of Jesus made sense – He threatened their fame and fortune. Undoubtedly, it was more painful and challenging for Jesus to deal with the way His own people rejected Him. It isn’t easy to be profoundly misunderstood as you try to walk with God. When Jesus said a man’s enemies will be from his own home (Matthew 10:36), He spoke from personal experience.
The brothers of Jesus didn’t believe in Him until after His resurrection, and during His earthly ministry His brothers were contentious with Jesus (John 7:3-5).
All these years later, we don’t think Jesus was crazy. We think His own people were crazy for saying Jesus was out of His mind! In the end, what we think about Jesus says more about us than it says about Him. He ever remains the Son of God and God the Son.