Lord or Lunatic

Lord or Lunatic

"His friends . . . went out to lay hold on Him: for they said, He is beside Himself" (Mark 3:21).

There is no more pitiful scene in all the Bible than this one where Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her later sons came to the scene where the Lord Jesus was at work and tried to draw Him away from His task, even going so far as to think that He was crazy.  There are many words in the languages of earth to express the idea of insanity, and it is interesting to note that such an authority as Roget gives only twenty–five words and phrases to describe sanity, but that he lists more than one hundred to describe insanity.  While some of these are very picturesque in their description of the poor unfortunates who have lost their minds, there is none more interesting than this phrase used in the Bible to voice the thought of the friends and family of the Lord Jesus.  They said, "He is beside Himself" (Mark 3:21).  There was a doubleness of personality in this man that opened Him to the charge of demon possession on the one side and lunacy on the other.  Poor humanity!  How far we all are from God by reason of our sin, and how we need the illumination of the Holy Spirit that we may understand spiritual matters.

As the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of His resurrection under the symbol of the great experience of Jonah, He went on to make a comparison.  The generation that had heard Jonah had repented.  The generation that heard.  Christ's generation did not, yet He said, "Behold, a greater than Jonah is here."  Then He gave them one more comparison.  The Queen of Sheba had come a great distance to hear the wisdom of Solomon, "But," said Christ, "behold a greater than Solomon is here" (Matthew 12:41-42).

There can be no mistaking the high and exalted position that Jesus Christ gave to Himself.  Once more the foolishness of the objectors is manifested.  There are those who pretend that Jesus did not claim to be more than man, but in a breath He chose the greatest preacher and the wisest king of the whole of Jewish history and calmly said that He Himself was their superior.  This is indeed God Almighty or a lunatic.

Dr. Barnhouse demands we make a choice…either see Jesus as a lunatic and be condemned or trust Him as Lord and be saved.  There are no other choices.

Further Reading: Mark 3:20-30