Daily Devotional • July 19
A Reading from Mark 3:19b-35
19 and Judas Iscariot, who handed him over.
20 Then he went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” 23 And he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27 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.
28 “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
31 Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” 33 And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Meditation
The NASB translation of today’s lesson begins, “Jesus came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal.” Boy, do I feel that. I am what the IRS calls a “homemaker,” a title I prefer over stay-at-home mom, because, although part of my “job description” includes being available to my children throughout the day (and night), I don’t spend most of my hours directly mothering, but rather indirectly providing what my family (not just my children!) need by making them a home.
Children grow up; in the meantime they do sleep, but the work of a home and family never ends. Much like the crowd that came to Jesus, there is too much to do. A lot of homemakers say it’s the laundry that never ends. I say it’s the cleaning. I tie on my apron like it’s Superman’s cape and go at the dust and dirt like Sisyphus.
I read the next sentence of the lesson and see that Jesus’ family is coming to get him because “they were saying, ‘He has lost his senses,’” and I laugh because most of the time I also think I am about to lose my senses and it would be nice if someone would come and take me away.
But Jesus knows exactly what he is doing. Remember, he left and went out in the countryside because of the great crowd who followed him, at one point got into a boat to escape being crushed, and yet now he has come back home to this crowd of endless needs which doesn’t leave him even a chance to eat. He chose to come back and give whatever he could. Likewise, I—and everyone else who has oriented their life around the needs of others—am making a choice, not because I think I can do it perfectly (even Jesus was overwhelmed by the crowd), and certainly not for accolades (our society doesn’t recognize unpaid work, and the church often isn’t any better—even Jesus was thought to have lost it), because I know that no other choice provides for the people I love as well as this one.
Elizabeth Baumann is a seminary graduate, a priest’s wife, and the mother of two small daughters. A transplant from the West Coast, she now lives in “the middle of nowhere” in the Midwest with too many cats.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Honolulu, Hawaii
The Diocese of Newcastle (Australia) – The Anglican Church of Australia
