Mar 3:1
And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.: This was another Sabbath. Jesus is again going to heal on the Sabbath.
Mar 3:2
So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.: Isn't it sick to think about? These guys knew Jesus could heal, and that He was willing to heal, yet instead of that sparking an interest in themselves as to how or why, they were looking for anything to use against Him, even doing good!
Mar 3:3
And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward.": Jesus had to know what these Pharasees were thinking and planning, yet He does good in the face of certain destruction of the body. Jesus does the will of the Father, always.
Mar 3:4
Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they kept silent.: They knew better than to tangle with Jesus. These people were so hardened that they couldn't understand that doing good is always the right thing. They had this crazy idea that the Sabbath was supposed to be a day of rest, so they should also rest from doing good! They had become so legalistic that they had completely missed God's law, and replaced it with their own. Of course they felt good about themselves because we can follow laws that are created by ourselves. If we do that and ignore God's law, which is to love God and each other, we can always feel good about ourselves. We humans are so evil that we can believe our own lies, and when confronted with the truth, we just get angry. God help us from becoming self-righteous. It's so easy to do.
Mar 3:5
And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.: It's interesting that Jesus tells this man to stretch out his hand. If you had a shriveled hand, wouldn't you wonder how? Yet he does. It had to have been by faith. Jesus said do it, and the guy did it. He couldn't have known how, but he started the motion and God carried it out. Isn't that a metaphor for how we should live? God tells us to do a thing, and we are always like, "How??" I wonder how many times I've heard that inner voice and discarded it for that very reason. Certainly more times than just doing it. If I were this guy, I'd probably still have a shriveled hand.
Mar 3:6
Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.: When the works of God do nothing but spark murder inside you, that's a terrible thing. Especially when it's the God of creation sitting in the room with you, doing those works. It's really heartbreaking from both sides. I know that Jesus was hurt because He was grieved by their hardness, but those religious leaders are now going to be judged and sent to Hell. It makes me sad, and I wish they would have reacted differently.
Mar 3:7
But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea: In these next couple of verses, we see what effect Jesus's preaching and working of miracles has had. His fame had spread very far.
Mar 3:8
and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.: Idumea was a region south of Judea, which was itself south of Galilee. Tyre and Sidon were to the northwest of Galilee. The mention of Tyre and Sidon show that Jesus's fame had spread even outside of the Jewish areas. The Jewish Library has a good map for visual reference.
Mar 3:9
So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him.: In Luk_5:3 we learn that Jesus boarded the boat and taught from it. That part isn't recorded in Mark's gospel.
Mar 3:10
For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him.: He didn't push them away, but endured all of the needy coming to Him with their afflictions. This is a picture of the loving kindness of the Heavenly Father (Joh 14:9 "...Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father...").
Mar 3:11
And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, "You are the Son of God.": The spirits knew who Jesus was, and they fell down in fear of Him, thinking that Jesus was coming to judge them and send them to Hell. This seems to point to the book of Enoch, where the angels made a pact among themselves to sleep with humans and had hybrids called nephalim. These unclean spirits are most probably the disembodied spirits of the nephalim. I'm not sure why they all would proclaim "You are the Son of God," but it is strange. And it definitely is ironic that even the unclean spirits recognize that Jesus is God, but the religious leaders didn't.
Mar 3:12
But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.: This seems strange that Jesus didn't want them to make it known that He was the Messiah. However, it makes sense that Jesus would want to control the timing of the revelation. If He made it known too soon, the people would expect Him to overthrow the Romans and set up His kingdom. He hadn't come to do that, but to die for our sins, bring salvation to the gentiles, and fulfill the law.
Mar 3:13
And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him.: Jesus does nothing of Himself. He always does the will of the Father, which reminds me of Joh 6:37-40. These who Jesus called are given to Him by the father, just as we who answer the call of Jesus are given Him by the Father. Just like the disciples, we only have to accept, leave this world behind, and follow Jesus. While it's true that we only have to believe the promises of Jesus, believing the promises will produce works that verify our belief (Jas 2:14-26). Faith without works is dead.
Mar 3:14
Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach,: They preached (Luk 9:1-6) and did works (Mar 9:18) while they were with Him, but mostly after His resurrection.
Mar 3:15
and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: Jesus gave them the power. Do we as Christians today have the authority to cast out demons? Doesn't seem that way.
Mar 3:16
Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter;: Simon's name meant hearer. Jesus changed his name to Peter, which means a rock. In Matt 16:18, Jesus made Peter the leader of the apostles, and head of the church, "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."
Mar 3:17
James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, "Sons of Thunder";: Nobody alive today is sure why they were named Sons of Thunder, but we know it wasn't derogatory. James is greek for Jacob.
Mar 3:18
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite;: Interesting that so many people were named the same name. We should remember these names, as these were the apostles of Jesus. Just remember out of respect, not of worship.
Mar 3:19
and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. And they went into a house.: Judas is greek for Judah, which means praised. Judas's life ended horribly after betraying Jesus. He hanged himself, fell from there and his guts were spilled out. And that's nothing compared to what awaits him in the afterlife. Matt 26:24 "The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”
Mar 3:20
Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.: This multitude must have come inside the house. It's either that, or the "Then the multitude" speaks of a gap in time. Hard to tell.
Mar 3:21
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.": Notice the difference in the response of the multitude vs the response of His friends, or the people He knew (His own people in this translation). When the people heard about Jesus, they were interested, but His own friends thought He was crazy.
Mar 3:22
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub," and, "By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.": This is just dumb. Saying that Jesus has Beelzebub is saying that Jesus is possessed by Satan. Beelzebub is the ruler of demons, or Satan. These religious people were something else. But I don't look down on them, because I know that I can easily end up with the same type of hardness of heart. I rather look at them as a precaution, keeping in mind how weak I am. We are all weak, and only through the Holy Spirit can we remain strong and not rely on our own selves. Our nature is to believe we can take care of ourselves, but that is contrary to God. These biblical reminders help us keep focused on the Heavenly Father, and our need for the Holy Spirit to keep our hearts soft.
Mar 3:23
So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: "How can Satan cast out Satan?: This reminds me of the movie, "The Naked Gun." At the very end, Leslie Nielson's character dressed up as a home plate umpire tries to throw out another umpire. Of course, the other umpire says, "You can't do that!" Just like in baseball, where an umpire can't cast out another umpire, in the spiritual battle, Satan can't cast out demons.
Mar 3:24
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.: Common sense. We see this throughout history.
Mar 3:25
And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.: More common sense.
Mar 3:26
And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.: Jesus is just like, "Man, these religious leaders have no sense!"
Mar 3:27
No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.: This is actually a hard verse to understand. How does it relate to what the scribes said? What I believe Jesus is saying here is that He can't cast out demons unless He has power over them. And since He has power over demons, He can cast them out. He's basically affirming that He's the Messiah.
Mar 3:28
"Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter;: This is comforting. Jesus says that all of our sins will be forgiven. Even blasphemy will be forgiven.
Mar 3:29
but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation"—: This does seem to indicate that there is a sin which God does not forgive: Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But what exactly is it? I think to understand, we need to go to verse 30.
Mar 3:30
because they said, "He has an unclean spirit.": Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit mentioned in verse 29 is because the scribes said that Jesus had an unclean spirit. So we know that saying Jesus has an unclean spirit is Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, but is that it? Certainly that can't be the summation, and that as long as we don't say Jesus was possessed by Satan, we're all good. gotquestions.org has a good article on it, that makes me think a bit differently. Their explanation is that this sin can't be reproduced today because Jesus isn't on Earth in human form, presenting Himself to us as the Messiah. We can't "personally witness Jesus performing a miracle and then attribute that power to Satan instead of the Spirit." I don't know about that though. I have personally witnessed miracles. What if I had attributed those miracles to Satan? I didn't because I am born again and have the Holy Spirit. But I wonder if when I was an unbeliever, I had been given the gift of witnessing a miracle and attributed it to Satan, would I have been committing blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls who He wants, and maybe it means that He wouldn't have called me. I really think I lean more in that direction because there is a point where God will write you off.
Mar 3:31
Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him.: First, his friends came, and now it's his family. The people probably went and grabbed Jesus's family.
Mar 3:32
And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You.": More than likely, Jesus's family was callling for him, or looking for Him, and this was relayed to Jesus.
Mar 3:33
But He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brothers?": He's saying here, "Who do I report to? Do I do the will of the Father, or my earthly family?"
Mar 3:34
And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!: And to make it clear that Jesus is making a distinction between His earthly family and the Father, He calls those listening to Him his family.
Mar 3:35
For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.": We need to consider this in our daily lives. Jesus considers us His family! If we follow Him, and let the Holy Spirit guide our lives, we are considered family. Not servants, like the fake Islam god Allah, but family.
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