Out Of His Mind

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.” (Mark 3:20-21)

Today’s Gospel is very short and to the point. Jesus’ relatives thought he was out of his mind.  Resisting the powers of his day was dangerous, and that resistance would have reflected on his family to include them as possible targets of violence as well.  

We all have said at one time or another, perhaps to our children: Are you out of your mind!?  For example, when a son or daughter took on a very risky behavior, they were out of their minds, and we said so.

Another way of considering what his relatives were thinking might be that Jesus was actually playing out of his mind.  In today’s meaning: playing out of one’s mind means we compete at 100%, leaving everything on the court and with a focus on playing out of our mind versus focusing on the thoughts going through our heads.  Playing out of our mind means to take all the learning that happened in practice and unleashing all of it.  

In a way Jesus “left everything on the court.”  He “played” in a Roman court with fearful Jewish leaders and co-conspirators as spectators.  Game, set, match went to his opponents.  Even so, he still jumped over the net and into our lives.

Deacon David Pierce