Summary: Several summers ago while on vacation, I purchased a small white wooden sign from a gift shop that read, "Friends welcome, relatives by appointment only." That sign arrested my attention while also stating an oft-unspoken truth. Friends are sometimes easier to deal with than family. Jesus says as much near the end of our passage today. His actions in this brisk-paced text have stirred the pot. He is harassed by the rumor of the crowd, demonized by the ideology of the scribes, and annoyed by the pressure of family. Here is evidence that no good deed of ministry goes unpunished. What's wrong with healing and casting out demons? Instead of order, there seems to be chaos. It seems that there are systems with a vested interest in unwellness. Yet, through all of this, Jesus remains on point, on mission and on message. Like a Timex, he takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Thomas Long is quoted by Kate Huey in Sermon Seeds as saying, "Jesus just moves right along." In this chaos-paced account of Mark, Jesus moves right along. I would add that Jesus moves right along. Let us be clear, "Right doesn't wrong anybody." He asks a few annoyed churchfolk, "Is it right to heal or just let a man with a withered hand suffer?" Jesus moves right along. His right, however, seems wrong to his very vocal critics. Because he is changing lives, he is deemed out of his mind. Because he is casting out demons, he must be Satan himself. He's even run afoul of his own family. What do you do when your good is called bad? How do you manage to press on to the higher calling when the Twitter feeds of your time mock and malign everything you do? Jesus came to love, heal, and forgive. And in this text Jesus moves right along.
