Author: Wesley White

There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and some of them said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.”

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a crowd gathers for spectacle
soon there will be a you-and-them fight
that can be egged on to cathartic release
and we can all go back to our homes
to keep it alive through re-telling
until we need a next hit of circus

even better than Hatfield v. McCoy
an intra-familial throw down
mother against son and vice versa
brother and sister against a sibling
one against all winner disowning loser
we know this outcome all too well

we knew this was coming
now it has arrived
soon a trigger point will explode
fireworks will light the sky
tag team take your corner
purported hero over there

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With an anxious family outside another packed house which has not yet had its roof removed, there is sufficient hubbub to disturb those still debriefing the aftermath of an energetically repulsed ambush.

The intrusion of the Jerusalem contingent into the family story suggests that the crowd was not just in a reflective mood but one agitated enough to be ready for another skirmish.

Wildernesses are also sandwiched, one included within another. There is no end to powers from the outside or confusion within. We are born into a world of rules and make up additional protective boundaries in response to difficult situations. Between these external and internal guides to which we give authority there is little room for listening to calls that act like strange attractors. We continue to attend to the chaos of too much information without a deep analysis of what needs disrupting or accelerating.

The fulcrum point identified by Jesus is that of healing which stands in contrast to curing symptoms and reveals the depth of disease within every power structure privileging mine over yours and one over many. Implicit in healing is the destruction of the captivating force. This force, in turn, ups the ante on dis-ease and destruction.

Jesus has been called out. Put down your calling. Remember you are from Nazareth, the center of “nothing good”. What can one person do, particularly if that one person is you? This is just a childhood fantasy like your story about turning a clay bird into a soaring eagle.

His mother and his brothers came, and stood outside, and sent to ask him to come to them.

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it takes awhile
for families to affirm
their embarrassing members

we will attempt correction
lapse into ignoring
justify our anger
intervene and exile

family status is powerful enough
to willingly sacrifice one
for the benefit of many

we will diminish and disallow
those who disappoint
all this may take a while
eventually it is the only solution

so we look to community belovedness
built on individual belovedness
to repent and trust belovedness

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Having just completed a very contentious scene with power from Jerusalem, it is helpful to go back ten verses and skip over the interrupting story.

Life is never solitary. The very forces that oppose the liberation of captive people have an effect on a whole culture and extended family units connected to anyone upsetting their system. Jesus’ family is under the same pressure as Jesus and any follower of his.

This, like the encounter with the Pharisees from Jerusalem, needs to be seen up-close and personal.

Even though surrounded by select followers and a variety of crowds, Jesus is deeply alone. Family is deep relationship that ties us by blood to our tribal roots. Can you actually see Jesus turning his back on his mother who, with sisters and brothers and cousins by the score, wants to protect Jesus before he is grievously hurt by a seemingly immovable force.

How far do we have to go to commit someone for their own safety and that of others? We officially sign that they are “out of their mind” because they are “out of their place or status”. If only Jesus had gone to Pharisee school instead of to John!

There is ample evidence already given that Jesus is weakening a system of relationships that keeps at least a little stability in a time of wilderness occupation. Some sympathy and identification with the family is in order, for we have all made the same argument to slow-down or work within the system to someone when their call is disrupting some part of our own life. Mark eventually confirms the family has reason to look ahead and worry.

This was said in reply to the charge that he had a foul spirit in him.

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when name calling gets serious
serious engagement slips away
leaving a contest of epithets

if you claim my spirit evil
let me show you how evil
even a holy spirit can be

this is no longer a spat
but has escalated to a spite
so there is nothing for you but a spit

roasting over ever-hot coals
puts Prometheus’ punishment to shame
escalate this line at your own peril

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Legal experts rely on precedent. In this fashion decisions can be made that give either/or results. This is also the way that the evil of the ages is carried alongside whatever wisdom finally surfaced after ages of injustice showed its harm to all, privileged and unprivileged alike.

It is the misnaming of good as destructive that brought forth the above indictment.

Go back and jump directly from verse 22 to 30. This puts an important  protection around verse 29 and our tendency to apply it inappropriately. Ministries of healing and justice are not blasphemous, but reveal a current unconscious or privileged blasphemy.

A note in the Christian Community Bible is much clearer about this than its successor, The New Christian Community Bible (how easy it is, little by little, to self-censor our prophetic self):

Those who systematically attribute bad intentions to good work done by others, by the Church, by other parties, sin against the Holy Spirit. The one who recognizes the truth but not God is better off than the one who says he believes in God and does not recognize the truth.

Into this life and death confrontation we have the equivalent of, “I’m rubber, you’re glue; your words bounce off me and stick to you.”

Eventually we will find that this is not a debate that can be “won” by verbal sparing in the short-run for it is as perennial as any of the seven deadly entitlements that keep showing up in lives not willing to come face-to-face with them—pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. All that is available is to continue acting out of their corresponding virtues and accept that as enough—humility, generosity, wisdom, kindness, justice, mercy, and persistence.

but whoever slanders the Holy Spirit remains unforgiven to the end; he has to answer for an enduring sin.”

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what spirit worthy
of an adjective holy
takes an insult as final
and so unforgivable

holiness claims a bigger picture
understanding past limits
and overly idealized futures
messing up present trust

to invest one event with eternity
loses track of a growing wholeness
and reduces G*D to score-keeper
with no next season to prepare for

this raises every play
to Super Bowl significance
which turns bitter in the mouth
when a false start occurs

finally a connection is made
prevenient grace and preemptive mercy
meet at universalized salvation
wholeness beats holiness paper takes rock

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Those who intentionally “demonize acts of healing and justice” (Myers, et. al.) may leave Jerusalem, but carry its power and privilege with them wherever they go.

Juan Luis Segundo writes in Capitalism and Socialism, “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.”

The consequence of no change lasting eternally, is a state of unassailable certainty that we easily wrap around our lives to be able to keep whatever advantage we have over another. If station is no longer connected with some divine right, “common good” will arise as a primary consideration in decisions to be made. This common good is not a promissory note to come due somewhere down the line, such as a payoff for the poor from a mythical trickle-down economy. There is an immediate result of reordering the present and building on in it the future.

The indiscriminate nature of the healings that Jesus is doing will soon turn to clearer teachings that will reveal the bondage of the powerful to their center of power: heads, I am advantaged; tails, you are disadvantaged—and it is all because G*D wants it that way.

The repudiation of Samuel and the institution of kings (1 Samuel 8) will always lead to the little those have who have but little being reallocated to those who already have much. Unforgivable.

I tell you that people will be forgiven everything – their sins, and all the slanders that they utter;

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categorical statements
belie messiness in actuality
we come up with umpteen theories
of forgiveness requiring much
from a forgiver and forgivee

what sacrifice or penance required
is laid out in great detail
forgiveness is not just forgiveness
but earned or a heap of coals

relationships turned transactions
count ways of love too often shorter
than a count of wrongs and forgiveness

there may be nothing unforgivable
but multiple ways to avoid forgiving

overstatement underwhelms

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We begin here with an affirmation of Truth, with a capital “T”—Amen! Having to aver something as true is always a bit problematic since it doesn’t just raise awareness of a significant point but often is a sign of an inveterate liar trying to hypnotize their mark.

In the midst of a deepening division between Jesus and religious/political leaders, this verse brings us back to people coming to John to be baptized. They desire their sins to be released and, like Mark, are not caught with fine distinctions between a general state of “sin” or its specific incidences.

Those coming to John from Jerusalem, seat of the economic and military power, religion and politics, desire forgiveness for the actual and worsening hurt carried by systems and structures that too easily exceed their bounds to claim ultimacy.

Whether we talk about an endemic or specific choice of sin, we can get bogged down in creedalism or minutiae and so miss the “Amen” point regarding the availability of forgiveness as a constituent part of a creation called from but never separable from chaos.

In a context of those now coming to Jesus from Jerusalem in a manner we might see as slanderous, libelous, or in some other way defaming his character, this continues to be a generous affirmation. Simultaneously, to be a part of Jesus’ context is to know that forms of argument are never done in discrete moments—they are as holistic as any positive quality.

The “Verily” that forgiveness is always available leads to a kicker to come—an on-going Prophetic tradition of non-negotiable care of the intentionally disadvantaged.

“No man who has broken into a strong man’s house can carry off his goods, without first tying him up; and not until then will he plunder his house.

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Mission Impossible and MacGyver
employ all the technical tools needed
follow in the shadow of The Shadow
without a radical cloud of unknowing

in a world unable to suspend disbelief
we set up surveillance of our perimeter
our common defense at the expense
of strengthening the general welfare

only too late we become smart enough
to see we’ve tied our own hands
indentured servants see the situation first
and open a door to our projection

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“The social context reflected in Mark’s narrative may be alien in form from our own, but not in substance. Our world is hardly free of systems of domination. Today the free market has become the strong man.” ~Say to This Mountain: Mark’s Story of Discipleship, Myers, et. al.]

James Carvelle’s slogan, “The economy, stupid,” has had many other identifiers of what is seen as the issue at hand. It has been used to justify enough discontent to overlook negative characteristics in elected officials. As this is written, the latest to take advantage of the insecurity felt by many below the usual social markers is Donald Trump.

Using brute force to plunder a strongly gated community doesn’t work well. First the center must be weakened, tied up with its contradiction in terms. Whether it is Rome, Temple, Market, or Tribe, each is done in by its own rules privileging power over mercy, independence over compassion, and freedom over community.

Burglary is nothing compared to razing and salting by oppressors, no matter their compassionate conservatism or dictatorial divinity. Such an overthrow is hard on everyone, but hardest on the least, whether that be native people overcome, working class slavery in a variety of guises, women as women, racial, religious, sexual orientation minorities, children, or the land.

Bottom-line: Not only does Satan not destroy Satan, but, if you look closely, the part you are playing in binding others is going to be overthrown and thrown out.

Can you feel the conspiracy against Jesus and yourself growing by the moment? An authority of belovedness is not widely embraced.

So, if Satan is in revolt against himself and is divided, he cannot last – his end has come!

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the easiest argument to hand
slips from our grip
as soon as we apply it

those nuclear option either-ors
positing only one correct answer
can’t stand multiple responses

bringing G*D or Satan or Nature
too soon to an investigation
hides the deeper presence of each

we set G*D against G*D in details
are too broad in applying Satan
blind ourselves to Nature’s multiplicity

our easiest attack our anger
doesn’t convince everyone to follow
all that’s left is our basest power

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Matthew and Luke record this same series, but end with a question rather than a statement—“How then can Satan’s reign endure?

It is for this same reason that literalistic leaning expressions of faith are so hell-bent on uniformity of belief. If there is a chink in the armor of dogma, creed, or jot/tittle of scripture, then all is lost. This everything or nothing approach appeals to a top-down authority system.

Mark’s Jesus’ visits to the wilderness have acquainted him with all manner of tests beyond the three Matthew and Luke identify. In this it is understood that there is no literal temple or tower that can stand without eventually falling or turning into babble.

This makes it easier for Mark to simply make a statement that is very much in keeping with the Hebraic understanding of Satan as a servant of YHWH—always and already “done for”.

A distinction between rhetorical question and statement is one that comes around in every generation. How far do we sense that we can go when it come to announcing a message beyond the demonic?

Salmon Rushdie had a conspiracy raised against him for the publication of Satanic Verses. Jesus had a conspiracy raised against him for these sorts of satiric verses that poke fun at trying to figure out reasons and rationales to hold the present moment in stasis.

Relief from wilderness captivity by disease or demon or any other category our fertile minds conjure is release. Jesus’ focus seems to be on a return to health of body, mind, and community, not the assigning of blame. [Note: this is not anti-science or knowledge—when something can be done, waiting to assess a cause is for another time.]

and when a household is divided against itself, it will not be able to last.

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load bearing walls
carry removal consequences

simple houses are clear
remove a certain wall and all collapses

those which have lasted a while
cannot easily tell essentials any more

historians and structural architects
are called to put their skills to use

is this plank in a creed now needed
what about the whole of the doctrine

a beautiful wall covering
claiming structural authority

confuses DIYs and professionals
about options helpful and disastrous

who can tell truth from falsehood
asks cummings’ Santa Claus

to which comes our fatal flaw
saying more than we know

with load bearing language suspect
all falls down

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In good Hebraic fashion the effect of a divided land is put in parallel—kingdom and house.

Myers sees Mark’s use of these terms, here and elsewhere, to turn the tables. “Kingdom” is equated with a centralized state and “House” or Temple its symbolic center.

This far removed from the debate means we need to engage our imaginations to begin getting a better flavor of the vigor of the argument. This is not just a fine point being made, but a broad stroke aimed to take off a head.

If we were present at the time we may have heard in the original complaint that Jesus was taking orders from Beelzebul. That title can be seen as “Baal-zebul”, a Canaanite deity translatable as “Lord of the House”.

Again we have come around from an accusation playing on an image of a “house” to moving toward a response both dividing that house and re-assigning it to the defendant, Jesus. This rapid-fire response builds through parallel referents as though it were a flash flood washing away all in its path.

First, division is not being is at stake here, but a reordering of all.

Second, a kingdom divided is now or soon will be at civil war.

Third, a house empty on the inside will fall down.

When a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot last;

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o confusing satan
what a brilliant
simple strategy
get a word
to fight itself
meaning this and that
until fist finds nose
and we can’t go home again
a little mix-up here
a small misusage there
sibboleths and shibboleths
of their own design
a backward hat or tiara
signs without words
all get in the act
yes quite brilliant
justified rightness
so easily exploited
so many mini-explosions
teeter relatives
totter nations
until common good
whimpers away

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Suppose that the leader of a nation, even a nation of apprentice demons such as Wormwood, would collude against its military arm.

In such a kingdom, this traitorous act would bring about a civil war as demons desire presence as much as you or I. No one wants to simply be cannon-fodder.

This point is one made long ago with writing on a wall (Daniel 5). Daniel dealt with a divided kingdom. Here the allusion comes around as more than a one-to-one rebuttal, but is deep irony.

The words on the wall—MENE, TEKEL, PARES—means your days have been numbered, your significance come up short, and you are divided.

Philip Carrington, According to Mark: A Running Commentary on the Oldest Gospel, states “pharsin [pares] means ‘divided’, and is identical with the word Pharisee, the ‘separated’ sect.” He follows this with two questions you may hear under Jesus’ response to the Pharisee Investigation Team from occupied Jerusalem: “Has Satan’s kingdom gone ‘Pharisee’? Is the writing on the wall?”

This is word-play with a vengeance. A nice, quiet parable this is not. When listening in to Mark, the urgency felt is of life-and-death quality. Whether doing good and receiving a conspiracy or gathering internal leadership that contains a betrayer, paying attention to the little things begins to reveal significant considerations: where is a good message grounded? What resistance will it face? How best can it be implemented in a trickster or adversarial setting?

So Jesus called them to him, and answered them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan?

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when backed into a corner
it is always good to have
a storyteller on your side
for mute facts and figures
are ripe props for ventriloquists

a prayer has it easy
a quickie to St. Jude will do
after all god’s in charge
bring attention to a need
and leave it in good hands

but a storyteller o a storyteller
I wouldn’t want to be one
has to dive into their wilderness
of more stories than prayers
to find which fits the crime

is it a riddle this time
a shaggy dog tale
an ancient myth recast
what vehicle could possibly carry
my heart within your heart

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Parables come with explanations and without. There is a tendency for them to be presented as though a lawyer were using them during a trial.

It is important to not simply take them as tales or morality plays, but as organizing principles.

The accusation has been made in the public arena: Jesus can deal with demons because he is a confidant of the chief demon.

This is not a matter that can be volleyed back and forth among surrogates but needs a face-to-face encounter. So those who are accused need to find a debate forum where this can be dealt with. Jesus calls people, including his accusers, together to make his case.

Ched Myers says, “Parables were understood in Jewish tradition as metaphorical stories with thinly veiled political meanings (see Numbers 24; Ezekiel 17)”. Piece by piece Jesus will begin constructing a political response to a political accusation.

“You have been heard to say that I cast out demons because I have demonic power. This cannot hold together without explaining how it is that a Screwtape by any name can do a good that would undermine its basic mission to foul life up. So, in your own words, how does a Satan destroy a Satan?”

Here you might begin to hear a variety of responses. To each one a persistent reply can be made: “The question is, ‘How does a Satan destroy a Satan?’.

This is but prelude to a cascade of observations that will become a key metaphor of Jesus work—assurance of abundance.