Big Idea: Opposition to Jesus takes a new turn as his family thinks that he is insane and the religious leaders accuse him of being demon possessed. Jesus’s response is twofold: he cannot be under the control of Satan because he has already bound Satan, and his true family consists of those who have joined him in the household of God.

Understanding the Text

Jesus’s ministry to sinners and his call to several outcasts to be among the Twelve will now get him in trouble with the authorities. This is the first intercalation, or “sandwiching” episode, in Mark, in which one story is placed within another so that the two interpret each other. In this case the Beelzebul charge (3:22–30) is placed within two parts of the story in which Jesus’s family comes to take him home (3:20–21, 31–35). The m…