After choosing the Twelve, Mark tells us Jesus and his disciples were together in a house. Knowing this, we are able to gather that the weeklong Feast of Tabernacles, which was celebrated in temporary dwellings or under the open sky, was now complete, and the Jews were celebrating the Last Great Day, the eighth day of the festival.[1] This was the final annual Holy Day Sabbath of the year, according to the Law (cp. Leviticus 23). The house they returned to was Jesus’ home in Capernaum, and once they entered there a multitude gathered at Jesus’ home. The multitude was composed of Jews from Galilee and Judea, Jerusalem, from the east side of the Jordan, and even from gentile cities like Tyre and Sidon (cp. Mark 3:7-8). These folks were still in Capernaum, intending to celebrate this, the final annual holy day of the year (Leviticus 23:36, 39; cp. Mark 3:19-20).
According to Matthew, Jesus had just healed a man who was both blind and dumb (Matthew 12:22), and, apparently, another demonic began telling everyone Jesus must be the Messiah, because of the miracle he had just done (Matthew 12:23). This excited the crowd to the point where many of them gathered in and around Jesus’ home, so there wasn’t room enough for Jesus and his disciples to even partake of their daily meals (Mark 3:20). This resulted in the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem accusing Jesus of having a demon, concluding he used the power of evil to cast out evil spirits (Mark 3:22).
The mention of Jesus’ and his disciples’ inability to partake of food points to the time of the end of Jesus’ fast. In the beginning Mark told us that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days (Mark 1:12-13), and both Matthew and Luke tell us that during those days Jesus didn’t eat any food (Matthew 4:1-2; Luke 4:1-2). The only reference in Mark that could be taken that Jesus ate any food is Mark 2:16. This is where the Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples why he ate with publicans and sinners, the context being that Matthew made a feast in Jesus’ honor and invited all his friends—other publicans and sinners. The Pharisees weren’t in Matthew’s home and couldn’t actually **see** Jesus eat anything. They merely assumed he did, because the feast was in his honor. Nevertheless, the text denies Jesus ate anything for forty days, and Mark’s record shouldn’t be construed to show he ate anything. The text merely says the Pharisees said he ate, but they actually witnessed only that he was in the house with Matthew’s friends, and the feast in question was held in Jesus’ honor. Obviously, Jesus’ closest disciples knew he was fasting, as, no doubt, did his family, but to the casual reader the fact that Jesus was fasting is not so readily derived from the text (cp. Matthew 6:4, 6, 16-18). It is derived by believing the word of God, which claims Jesus was, at present, in the wilderness of people (cp. Ezekiel 20:35), and while he was there, he ate nothing (Luke 4:1-2).
I’m making this point to show why Jesus’ friends[2] (Mark 3:21), most likely Mark means his relatives (Mark 3:31-32), assumed Jesus wasn’t in his right mind. It had been told them by the Jewish authorities, or folks who were with them and knew Jesus’ family, that the religious authorities claimed Jesus had a demon. Certainly, if Jesus’ close relatives were celebrating the annual holy days in the same city, they would have known Jesus wasn’t eating food, and they would also have known he was very busy tending the sick, teaching and traveling from one disciple’s home to another. It wouldn’t be strange for them to assume Jesus wasn’t in his right mind, while under all this stress and not taking care of himself. I believe this was the idea behind their seeking to take him away with them.
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[1] This is not to say that Jesus didn’t go into a house throughout this period (cp. Mark 1:29; 2:1, 15, 19), but it can be shown that Jesus was either preaching in the house, healing in the house or teaching in the house. Much of the living during this time was spent outdoors in the hills, the fields, or the beach along the Sea of Galilee.
[2] The Greek word translated friends is para (G3844) and merely means near. The Greek word for friend, philos (G5384) isn’t in the text. So, the verse actually says “when those near him heard of it…” Of its 68 occurrences in the New Covenant text, para (G3844) is translated friends only at Mark 3:21 and nowhere else. The word is usually translated into: side (15 times) at (12 times) and than (12 times) in the KJV.
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