Scripture: Mark 3:20-35; Psalm 138; Isaiah 49:24; Mark 1:24 Series: After Pentecost
Preaching on Mark 3:20-35, this sermon centers on Jesus binding the strong man. Using Lincoln’s ‘house divided’ speech, it argues that the powers of evil are united in purpose while the church often fights itself, and that evil cannot be opposed with half-measures. Salvation is reframed as concrete rescue (a transitive verb) from the powers and principalities, accomplished through forgiveness that challenges structures of debt and authority. Drawing on Ched Myers, the sin against the Holy Spirit is refusing to recognize God’s concrete liberation. Jesus redefines kinship around doing God’s will rather than blood. The sermon names the many competing authorities (scribal establishment, devils, family, modern voices of insecurity) and asks who the strong men are that need binding in each listener’s life, distinguishing genuinely transformative good news from comfortable feel-good news.
Illustrations: lincoln-house-divided, gettysburg-address, transitive-intransitive-saves, ice-cream-sinking-ship
June 9
Binding the Strongman
Psalm 138
Mark 3:20-35
I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted your name and your word above everything. On the day I called, you answered me; you increased my strength of soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth. They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he perceives from far away. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies; you stretch out your hand, and your right hand delivers me. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. - Psalm 138
Then he went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered. “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.” Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” - Mark 3:20-35
I deeply appreciate the speeches and writings of Abraham Lincoln. They offer amazing examples of the power of the English language to communicate thoughts clearly and succinctly. The Gettysburg Address begins with the famous words many of us had to learn as kids.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
In 1858, after accepting the Republican nomination to the presidency.
He said
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed -“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
Lincoln’s speeches are always filled with biblical allusions. Here, Lincoln quotes from Mark’s gospel that a house divided against itself cannot stand. There’s an irony in this quotation. It’s one of those lines from the King James Bible that has kind of become common discourse. Yet when we read this passage itself, the house that Jesus is talking about is the house of Satan. He’s not talking about the Jews. He’s not talking about the church. He’s talking about the devil. The devil is not divided in the temptations, the treacheries of this world. Satan cannot cast out Satan. It’s a super dense passage in Mark. Mark is definitely the gospel writer most akin to Lincoln in his prose style. Mark’s writing is dense. It gets to the point quickly and then moves on to the next topic.
Here, Jesus is trying to defend himself from the accusations of scribes and pharisees that he works for the devil. And he says, “if I cast out a demon, I literally cannot work for the devil.” Then he gives his house divided line. And what I think we should understand from this is that the powers of evil are not divided against themselves in this world. They are not the ones bickering and fighting. They’re not the ones having arguments for 50 years. What does it mean for the church that even the devils are united?
I don’t think Lincoln was being biblically illiterate in quoting the house divided line. The argument he was making at the 1858 convention had to do with the end-goal: what were they working towards? What is the purpose? What is the telos? Slave states were united on their purpose and goal. Their purpose was clear: the perpetuation of slavery. Lincoln’s point was that the people opposed to slavery could not oppose it with half measures. They had to either unite around ending slavery, or they would lose.
When we come back to the Gospels, this is also what Jesus is getting at. We cannot oppose evil with half-measures, just as we can’t accuse every practice that confuses us of being evil.
The accusers themselves become the issue. Jesus flips the situation on his accusers by talking about how you must bind the strong man. Ched Meyers helps me to understand who the strong man is. He writes:
Jesus a.k.a. the stronger one heralded by John, Mark 1:8 intends to overthrow the reign of the strong man a.k.a. the scribal establishment represented by the demon of Mark 1:24. In this parable the oracle of second Isaiah lives again is making good on the promise liberate the pray of the strong and rescue the captives of the tyrants Isaiah 49:24.1.
The captives of the powers and principalities of this world shall be rescued.
Jesus has turned the tables completely upon his opponents: it is they who are outlined against God’s purposes. To be captive to the way things are, to resist criticism and change, to brutally suppress efforts at humanization – is to be bypassed by the grace of God. 2
I have been thinking about this language of rescue a lot recently. The biblical language of salvation could often be translated better as rescue. Jesus Saves has been changed from a transitive verb to an intransitive one. This is not the kind of pedantic detail for just english majors or seminary grads.
A transitive verb needs a direct object. An intransitive verb does not. A sentence, Jesus brings, would not be coherent. Brings is a transitive verb: it needs an object. Jesus brings good news works as a sentence. Jesus arrives is coherent. Arrives is intransitive.
If the sentence “Jesus saves” is coherent on its own, we have misread the Gospel. Throughout the New Testament, saves is never an intransitive verb. We are saved from something and for something. There is no general salvation
We are saved from the powers and principalities of this world. This takes place through forgiveness. Forgiveness challenges structures of debt and authority.
Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin
He now deals the final blow to the debt code: blanket, pardon, but there’s one exception: mistaking the work of the Holy Spirit for that of Satan… What is notable is using theology to turn real human liberation into something odious. The real sin against the Holy Spirit is refusing to recognize, with theological joy, some concrete liberation that is taking place before one’s very eyes. 3
The sin against the Holy Spirit is not suicide or any other discrete action like that, but the denial of God’s action in the world. The denial of God’s action through the world and denying God’s transformation and liberation in others.
Jesus then strikes out against kinship societies based on blood and family. After his knock down fight with the pharisees and scribes, Mark writes:
Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.
There is not a special place for the parent or sibling of Jesus. Relationships in the kingdom of heaven are based on something other than the circumstances of birth.
It isn’t as flashy a line but it is just as important. The scribes challenge Jesus after his family does. People are talking and the family of Jesus think that he should know that he doesn’t have to be so radical. He doesn’t have to ruffle as many feathers.
It is not out of the blue that Jesus challenges the authority of the family at the end of this passage. In the ancient world, the family was the most important authority to people.
The deep question throughout this passage is one of authority. The scribes offer one sort of authority. The devils offer another. The family can offer another. Jesus posits that there is still another, deeper authority than all of the above.
We are confronted by a tidal wave of competing authorities every day in the modern world. There is no shortage of people who are willing to tell you what is wrong with the world, what is wrong with your life, what is wrong with your body, what is wrong with your family, what is wrong with your kids. Every position of judgement comes with a claim to authority, and there is no shortage of judgment. There is not a safe space apart from the mercy of Jesus. Even our families can serve the strong man. With the best of intentions, our families can keep us from living in to who God has created us to be. Jesus isn’t saying here that family is bad but that it can’t save us.
The strong man in the time of Jesus was the scribal establishment. Mark even connects this authority directly to demon possession in Mark 1:24. There are other strong men who make claims of authority over us today.
And they are united. This the key to the passage. The strong men of the world know what they want. They want you. They want you to feel so insecure you must purchase happiness. They want you to feel so insecure that you give them power and attention.
The point is not for me to name names this day, but for us to look into our hearts in order to discern who the strong men are who are seeking to control us. Who does Jesus need to bind in your life?
The salvation offered by Jesus Christ is a concrete thing. We are rescued from something. We are rescued from self-destruction. We are rescued from the lie that we must save ourselves. We are rescued from the sin which claims us. We are rescued by someone. We do not rescue ourselves. Our leaders don’t rescue us. Our family cannot rescue us. Our family cannot save us. Only Jesus, the son of God, who offered himself fully for us.
Part of the way the strong man works in the world is by teaching us to focus on what we lack. Teaching us to say “if only I had this…if only I made this…if only they did this…”
This focus on lack builds division. Energy is split between the well-intentioned and the good-hearted. We can only confront this lack of focus with something new.
The word Gospel. It comes from the Greek word for Good News or good message. It is a message that is good.
We get lots of news today. Some of us actively seek out nice news. Pleasing news. We get plenty of bad news, can’t we get something that makes us feel good.
Jesus doesn’t give us feel-good news but good news. Feel-good news means we stay in the same place. Feel-good news never ruffles feathers. Feel-good news lets the strong man still rule. Feel-good news tells us not to worry about it. Feel-good news isn’t focused because focus takes energy and time and conversation.
Good news is different. Good news is focused on something truly good and truly new which transforms us, it doesn’t just make us feel good.
What if you were stuck in the middle of the ocean on a sinking ship that was full of Ice Cream. You could eat all the ice cream you want. It would feel good to stuff yourself as the boat went down. But it wouldn’t be good.
The Gospel of Mark cuts to the chase of our reality. There are strong men in this world that need to be bound. There is not a safe place to stand save under the blood of Jesus Christ. Even locations of comfort can be distorted to give us feel-good news and not good news. We need to be rescued, and the only one who can do that is Jesus Christ. Even if you like all the ice cream, you need to get of the boat or you will be destroyed.
Let us step joyfully into the freedom of Christ. Let us call on Jesus to bind the strong man, because Jesus is stronger, his love is purer, is purpose for us is greater.
Who needs to be bound in your life? You don’t need to listen to those voices of destruction anymore.
Thanks be to God.
Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the freedom you give us in Jesus. Bind for us those strong men that keep us from love. In the name of the father, and the son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.