Mark 1-3

[wolfpurplemoon]

Mark starts when John the Baptist meets Jesus, John believes himself to be unworthy of Jesus and has a humble existence eating only what he finds in the desert (locusts and wild honey). This time when Jesus is baptised the dramatic appearance of a dove and a booming voice drives him into the wilderness for 40 days.

No details about what 'temptations' Satan offered that Jesus endured, he hung out with wild animals and was looked after by angels (so can't have been too bad out there).

Jesus starts collecting disciples, driving out demons and healing people. He doesn't let the demons speak because they'll reveal who he is before he's can explain everything himself.

Jesus tries to avoid the mobs of people by sticking to remote areas but they find him anyway.

Jesus says he is mixing with sinners (and tax collectors) because a physician wouldn't be needed by a healthy person and therefore the righteous don't need Jesus.

Jesus' family think he is out of his mind and try to arrest him, and that leads to the same accusation as in Matthew, that he must be possessed by Beezelbub (I still think Jesus is wrong that Satan wouldn't work against his own in order to convince people to follow him), and now it makes sense why he would disown his own family, they did just accuse him of being out of his mind.

Comments

[zteccc.livejournal.com]

Chapter 3
The Pharisees try to trap Jesus by accusing him of healing (working) on the sabbath. Jesus asks if we should do good deeds or evil on the sabbath. This put the Pharisees in a bad spot, because healing the hand was clearly a good deed, and the sabbath is a day especially for good deeds, so they could not object to his healing the man.

Jesus chose twelve apostles out of his disciples. Anyone who followed Jesus was a disciple, but the apostles were closer to Jesus. Jesus sent the apostles out to preach, heal and cast out demons.

Jesus, while going around preaching, wasn't working at carpentry (which he learned from Joseph). His (extended) family attempted to pull him back into the family business (of course he was already doing the family business, they just didn't realize it yet).
The religious leaders took this opportunity to accuse Jesus of being possessed (because he wasn't acting like other people) and said that he cast out demons with the help of Beelzebul. Jesus asked how Satan could force himself out? If Satan fights against himself (casts out his own demons), then he would be destroying his own work. Jesus says that he has bound Satan (the strong man) so that he can take back the souls that Satan had possessed.

Let's assume for a moment that Satan did allow a few possessed souls to be released in order to get people to follow Satan instead of God. First off, Satan would have to do the work to possess those people. Then Satan would have to send some sort of emissary to release those people in the hopes that people would follow that emissary. The problems arise from there. Those released people would not talk kindly about their time being possessed. Satan wouldn't be able to control them without the possessing demon to control their testimony. As such, they wouldn't happily shout that they were better off possessed. The emissary would also be found out by his teachings and actions. If the emissary only did good, then the emissary wouldn't really be helping Satan. For the emissary to be helping Satan, then the emissary would have to teach people to sin, teach people the benefits of possession, etc. That's hard to do, especially if the emissary started out by casting out demons.

All sins can be forgiven (if we accept the forgiveness) with one exception.
Again the unforgivable sin, if someone denies the Holy Spirit, then by doing so, that person denies the forgiveness that God offers and therefore cannot be forgiven of the very sin of denial. Of course this is more than just saying words. Denying or speaking against the Holy Spirit (as used here) means refusing to allow the Holy Spirit to touch our heart. It means that we reject God.

Jesus did not reject or disown his family. We will learn from the gospels that both Jesus' Mother and at least one brother traveled with him and he took care of them. In fact, if Jesus had disowned his family, that would have been an egregious violation of the Law and would have probably been enough basis for the Pharisees to have him arrested. Jesus stated that all who obey God are Jesus' family. Jesus, as God's son, was saying that all believers are also God's children. This is the basis for believers calling each other "brother" or "sister" when no genealogical relationship exists. Further, believers are supposed to care for other believers as if they were immediate family. That is the point that Jesus was trying to make.