What Did They See ( Mark 3:7-12)

The Pharisees were holding council with the Herodians looking for a way to destroy Jesus. However, not everyone felt about Him the way they did. Word had spread about His power over demons and His ability to heal the sick. And so they came from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from Tyre and Sidon. Who were they? A mob, a horde, a mass of broken humanity. A light had shown in the darkness a glimmer of hope in the midst of their despair and so they came bringing with them their brokenness and pain.

Jesus’ early Galilean ministry began after John the Baptist was arrested by Herod Antipas. Jesus began His ministry with two declarations and two commands. “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near; repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14) He didn’t choose His disciples from the Pharisees or the scribes, but instead He chose fishermen and a tax collector. He astonished those who were attending the Capernaum synagogue because He spoke with authority that the scribes didn’t possess. “He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons” (Mark 1:33). He had the power to cleanse the leper and even showed that He had the power to cleanse a man from his sins when He healed the paralytic.

How did Jesus’ early Galilean ministry end? It ended with the Pharisees, those who considered themselves to be holy, wanting to destroy Jesus. Why? They were consumed with their outward appearance of being separate from everyone else. They gained their status not by keeping the law that God had given Moses but by making an elaborate maze of rules and regulations that were impossible to keep. Jesus didn’t acknowledge their man-made righteousness. He showed instead that at the heart of the problem was a matter of the heart. With their man-made laws they condemned Jesus and sought to destroy Him. The time had come, and not only the kingdom but the king Himself was in their midst, but they refused to repent and believe the good news. Instead they joined forces with the Herodians and tried to figure out how they could destroy Him. With their rejection, Jesus’ later Galilean ministry had begun.

Jesus withdrew from those who were seeking His destruction with His disciples, but many people from Galilee followed Him. They came from every region that had belonged to Israel during the time of the judges. Word had spread about all that He had done and so they came. Even the descendants of those who had resettled in distant regions after the Babylonian exile sought out this man. Jesus told His disciples to have a boat ready because of the crowd so that they wouldn’t crush Him. He had healed many and those who had come with diseased bodies were pressing around Him to touch Him.

Did this mass of broken humanity see who it was that they were longing to touch? In their frenzy for healing were they able to hear that the time had come and that the kingdom of God had come near? The Pharisees saw a threat. The wounded  saw a healer. But did anyone recognize Jesus as the Son of God? Yes! The demons did. Human flesh could not conceal His deity. Why did He order them not to make Him known? I believe that one of the greatest miracles of Jesus was to give spiritual sight. This spiritual vision was NOT to come from receiving recognition of unclean spirits.