An extremely short Gospel reading for today:
Jesus came with his disciples into the house.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
As I read this passage I was very confused. His own family accused Him of being out of His mind?! It was bad enough that Jesus had to deal with the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Scribes calling Him crazy and demon possessed, but not the people who knew Him well.
Then I got to thinking, these are the people that knew Jesus as a baby, a toddler, a teenager, and Joseph’s son. He was a carpenter. Not a miracle worker. How could He be claiming to be God’s Son. To be healing the sick and driving out demons. After all, He was embarrassing them. He was from their village. From Nazareth. Remember that it was Nathaniel, soon to be one of the twelve, who said that nothing good can come out of Nazareth. Why didn’t Jesus just keep His nice stable job as a carpenter instead of risking going up against the authorities. Play it safe.
In the film “Jesus Christ Superstar” the actor portraying Judas does a song called “Too Much Heaven On Their Minds”. In the song he laments how everything was going great when Jesus was just seen as a man. But then He started “believing what the people have been saying about Him”. Taking all this stuff of being the Son of God way too seriously. Now he knows where this will likely end up. With their deaths. Here is the link to the YouTube video of the number:
I recently re-watched the film “Heaven is for Real”. And one of the themes of the film which I had forgotten was the stance of the board of the church where Todd Burpo, the Father of Colton who saw heaven, was the minister. As the word spread about Colton’s claim that heaven is a real place, and Todd supporting his son, the board became embarrassed by what they believed was their preacher going a bit out of his mind. How could a Christian minister actually claim that heaven was an actual place. What would the rest of the community think? What would it do to attendance? After reading today’s Gospel, Todd would know that he was in good company.
And don’t we all worry about being labeled as being a bit “off our rocker” if we share too much of the good news. The story of God’s Son becoming man, giving us a glimpse of His Father, dying for us and opening the door to heaven. I sometimes worry what people might think of me if they see me praying in public. Or going to mass on New Year’s Day, the feast of Mary Mother of God. Or standing up for the Unborn (Today’s Prayer of Remembrance). Don’t go crazy. Watch a football game instead. You were able to get a tee time at that course you have been wanting to play. But it is Sunday morning. Don’t be crazy. Skip mass. No big deal.
So let people call us crazy for following Jesus. We ARE crazy! We are crazy about His words. Crazy about what He did for us. And crazy about where this life will lead. To an eternal existence with the One who was said to be out of His mind. Out of His mind in love with each one of us. Enough to lay down His life for each one of us.
