Jesus’ Friends Thought He was Mad • Deshen Daily

And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself (Mark 3:21, KJV)

Did you know that Jesus had friends? Well, He did! He had friends as we all do in our hometown. But something quite interesting occurred in Mark 3:21 above with His friends. Jesus’ fame was escalating, His followers were multiplying and people were coming from everywhere to attend His meetings and get healed from sicknesses and delivered from demons. His friends heard of it, and said: “ He is out of His mind”! This by itself is beyond imagination. How many mad people have you seen pulling crowds from everywhere, healing sick people, delivering those who are demon-possessed including those who are insane?

The question is this—why did His friends who knew Him so well suddenly thought He was out of His mind? Remember that this was a similar attitude of those who were living in His hometown. They knew Him as every other young man coming up. They could not stand the wisdom and power that they saw in His life. When they saw Him ministering, they could not reconcile what they were seeing with what they knew about Him growing up with them.

When people do not understand you anymore, they might console themselves by calling you names in mockery. How many of you have been called names such as “ religious fanatics”, “idiots”, “foolish people”, etc. just because you are identified with Jesus? If they called Jesus a mad Man, there is no telling what they will call us. Do not be upset, feel rejected or defeated when the world tries to belittle you. Mad people do not do what we do! Mad people do not change the world!

MEDITATE

Could the insecurity of Jesus’s friends have contributed to their attitude towards Jesus’s sudden rise in fame?

APPLY THE WORD

The world tries to subdue us with labels such as the label that was put on Jesus. Do not give in to that. Do not stop. Keep moving forward as the Master did.