Then Jesus went home; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, "He is beside himself."-St. Mark 3:20-21
It’s a brief excerpt from the gospel, and at first glance, an odd one. Why would it be appointed to be read at Mass, and what could it possibly be about?
St. Matthew records in his gospel (10:36) that Jesus had once made the statement, “A man’s foes will be those of his own household.” Here we have an example of something like that very thing coming true. Some members of His extended family were wanting to take hold of Him, because it appeared to them that “He is beside himself...” In other words, “He’s crazy!” Why did they feel that way? There are a couple of possible reasons.
First, Jesus had left home and had left what was probably a flourishing carpenter’s business developed by His foster-father Joseph in Nazareth. And what did He decide to do instead? He went out to be an itinerant rabbi. They probably thought that no sensible man would go from being a stable craftsman to being a wandering beggar with no place even to lay His head.
Also, Jesus had left His family only to gather a new little community of His own. And it probably seemed to be a rather strange gathering at that: some fishermen, a reformed tax collector, a fanatical nationalistic zealot. It would seem to many that these weren’t the kind of people whom a normal person would gather as one’s closest associates.
Therefore, taking account of those things, and from a purely human point of view, it is somewhat understandable that He might be thought of as being a bit mad. Apparently He didn’t care about being secure. He didn’t “play it safe.” He didn’t live according to the usual expectations of others.
So then, what apparently compelled these individuals to take Him in hand was that He seemed to be taking tremendous risks that no sensible man would take.
And yet, that is exactly what we as His disciples must be willing to do, which is why we should hear and take seriously this gospel account.