Mark 3:21-35
To lay hold on him; to take him away from the danger which they supposed him to be in.—For they said; that is, the people said; and then, in verses 22-30, there is a particular account of their charging him with being possessed with an evil spirit, (v. 30,) or with being beside himself, as it is expressed in v. 21, and his answer to the charge. It was the anxiety for his safety, produced by this increasing excitement against him, which led his mother an his other friends to come and endeavor to take him away, as mentioned v. 21, and afterwards more particularly in v. 31.The strong man; meaning Satan,—with whom they had accused him of being in league.
Alluding to their sin in ascribing his divine power to the agency of evil spirits.
The sin of the Pharisees consisted in this,—that when they knew that it was the divine power which they saw imbodied in the person of Jesus, they ascribed the effects to the agency of evil spirits; it was thus a direct and deliberate opposition to the cause of God, as such. Most of the sins and blasphemies of mankind arise from the violence of human passions, uncontrolled by the authority of God, but without any positive hostility directed expressly and intentionally towards him. But when the human soul assumes an attitude of known and wilful opposition to the cause of God, from malignant feeling directed against this cause and its Author, it goes to the extreme limit of human guilt, and incurs the terrible denunciation which Jesus here pronounced against such sins.
There came; that is, in consequence of the excitement against him expressed in the preceding verses.—Standing without; the pressure of the crowd preventing their coming in to him.
This seems to have been a calm expression of confidence that he had then nothing to fear. He was surrounded by friends, as well as beset by enemies.
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