This is one of those Gospels that makes us squirm in our seats when we hear it. Now that the Easter Season and Pentecost are over and our two idea feasts are celebrated, we return to the tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.  We are back to regularly hearing Mark’s Gospel in this Year B, and it is not an easy return.  Well, we need to get used to this escalating conflict that we see clearly in our passage this weekend.

Our passage is from Chapter 3, and if we recall what we have heard from Mark so far in our liturgical year, we know that Jesus has been baptized by John, and He begins many healings that both attract crowds and also confuse the religious authorities. Jesus’ activity is something to reckon with as we see here early in Chapter 3 of Mark’s Gospel.  The religious authorities have now called in the heavy hitters, the Scribes, to assess Jesus’ activity.  In this passage, they accuse Jesus of being both “out of his mind” and “being possessed by Beelzebul”.  Even His family comes to get Him because of His behavior which does not look like what they expect from the work of God. This is where we squirm a lot. Here, Jesus refuses the bonds of relatives which for us is shocking and for His time, even more shocking. Then He redraws the lines of family to include those who follow the will of God.

In Mark’s Gospel, this conflict, these confrontations, this reordering of how we normally think about our faith will continue to occur. Jesus has come to preach the Kingdom of God, and this Kingdom will set us free. However, it is very much in conflict with the kingdom we know on earth. What Jesus is doing does not look like how God has worked in the world before. The power of Jesus is something to reckon with, as we can tell from this passage. Those hearing the Gospel must make the decision of which kingdom they want to be a part.

This brings us to our first reading, the story of Adam and Eve after they have eaten of the forbidden fruit. What always strikes me about this story is that neither one made a definitive decision to go against God or woke up that day planning to eat of that fruit. The ways of the serpent were cunning and convincing, and he instilled doubt and fear that led to such sinfulness. The conflict is real between what is of the kingdom of God and what is not, and we do need to be careful about where we give our attention. There will be conflict and confrontation and hard choices that need to be made. We will squirm in our seats a lot in the living out of our Christian lives. In all of this, we are left with a strong image from our first reading. Even after they have eaten of the forbidden fruit, God is in the garden LOOKING FOR THEM. He is seeking out their companionship. He asks, “Where are you?” 

As we navigate the struggles between good and evil, as we undoubtedly need to seek out God’s restorative power from the messes we make and the many ways we do not quite get it right, we are offered again and again, the Kingdom of God that will set us free. Because with the Lord, there truly is mercy and fullness of redemption!