Mark 3:20 Then Jesus went home, and once again a crowd gathered, so that He and His disciples could not even eat. 21 When His family heard about this, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, “He is out of His mind.” BSB
Home as referenced here isn’t Nazareth but Capernaum where, as the great Yogi Berra would say, it is “like deja vu all over again”. We are introduced to the family of Jesus in verse 21 (some translations use “his people” or “friends”).
The family has been receiving reports about Jesus and are concerned enough to make the journey in order to remove Him from the trouble. At least part of this is because they know He is in danger from the Pharisees who want to kill Him. Perhaps more telling is their comment that He is “out of His mind” as that implies something more than just wanting to remove Him from a present danger. Instead, they want to drag Him back to Nazareth and lock Him in the barn until He comes to His senses. This is understandable to some extent as John 7:5 tells us that the brothers of Jesus did not believe in Him (although this changes toward the end of His earthly ministry).
His opponents are upping the ante as the scribes that show up are from Jerusalem (which is a two or three day journey to Capernaum…..even today it is a five hour bus ride). This ties back to Mark 3:6 where the plot to kill Jesus begins.
Mark 3:22 And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons He drives out demons.” BSB
The Romans don’t see Jesus as a threat to Caesar but more like someone not in their right mind (not unlike what we heard from His family). The Jewish leaders don’t think He is crazy – they think He is possessed. Beelzebul is seen either as Satan’s assistant who commands an army of demons or as Satan himself. To their way of thinking, if Jesus has power over demons, He must be a demon or demon commander. Jesus makes his case with them using parables. (A parable will take something concrete and lay it along side a spiritual proof in order to explain that spiritual truth).
Mark 3: 23 So he called them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom will not be able to stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan rises against himself and is divided, he is not able to stand and his end has come. 27 But no one is able to enter a strong man’s house and steal his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can thoroughly plunder his house. 28 I tell you the truth, people will be forgiven for all sins, even all the blasphemies they utter. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin” 30 (because they said, “He has an unclean spirit”). NET
Jesus is saying that it is nonsense to think that He is a demon as if that were true, He would be opposing Himself. (The strong man is Satan with Jesus being the one breaking in). The world is in revolt to God as it is an enemy stronghold led by Satan. Jesus breaks into this world as a plunderer. We now have kingdoms that are opposing each other.
The scribes have hit a nerve with Jesus. The Pharisees have sent the big guns and are going to try to show Jesus as being aligned with with evil. He doesn’t pull any punches in His response as he tells them that God is good at forgiveness but you guys are the exception to the rule!
2Thessalonians 2:1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has already come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. 4 He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? 6 And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, 10 and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. 11 For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, 12 in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness. BSB
Paul’s is telling us that before Christ returns, there will be a power opposing Him. That power is here now but is being restrained. (Also see Revelation 20). The church universal, preaching the Gospel is what restrains the strong man. That is, we are the ones plundering the strong man’s house.
). The church universal, preaching the Gospel is what restrains the strong man. That is, we are the ones plundering the strong man’s house.
To many, it doesn’t feel like Jesus is binding the strong man in our age. This causes some to push this to end times but most put it as something current – it is a restraint of the strong man until the end when he is destroyed. (It’s hard for us to understand because we lack the perspective of what things were like prior to Christ. This leaves us without a standard of comparison of “before” binding and “after” binding).
Although Paul may have explained it to the Thessalonians, he hasn’t told us in his epistle what will cause the one who restrains to be taken out of the way so that the man of lawlessness can be revealed. The quick and easy answer is that the church is raptured leaving the world open for deception and lawlessness allowing Satan to strike against those who are perishing. Another possibility is that the church universal becomes so far removed from Truth that it can no longer restrain the strong man and keep him from becoming unleashed into the world. After all, it’s not like we haven’t seen large numbers of people in the Old Testament (who should have known better) going down the path of destruction by abandoning the one true God in order to worship false gods and idols.
Jesus “bound” Satan by preaching the word of God and exercising God’s powerful light in a dark world. We can too. Every time you spend 30 minutes in real, truthful Bible study you cinch a knot on that “strong man.” Every time you sincerely open your heart to your Father in humble prayer you “fling ’em back.” Every time you eat the body and blood with a discerning heart, pick up a fallen brother or sister, shed a tear for joy during a song of praise, or encourage one who is young in the faith you hogtie that old dragon…..Let us go to work “binding” this strong man, one knot at a time. With some faithful knot tying I think we’ll be surprised at how weak the Devil becomes and how much “plunder” we can take from him in joy, (From “I Ain’t A Skeered A You” by Carl P. McMurray)