A Children’s Sermon on Mark 3:20-35

Preface for Parents and Pastors

Here’s a children’s sermon on Mark 3:20-35, the Gospel assigned by the lectionary for “Proper 5(10).” This year that is the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost. 

• Jesus’ family thinks he’s gone crazy!
• The Scribes accuse him of being demon possessed! 
• Jesus suggests they’ve committed the unforgivable sin! 
• Then he either disowns his family, or adopts us all into it!

It’s all kinds of amazing. Over the years I have given a lot of thought to the more vexing parts of the passage, so I figure why not jump into the thick of it in my children’s sermon on Mark 3:20-35? Wish me luck…

This is a pretty long one. If it seems too long for your purposes, feel free to trim and adapt. You can either take the beginning and the end on Jesus’ family, or the middle with the scribes. 

Oh, and if you find it odd that I name four brothers of Jesus, plus refer to his sisters, you’ll find it all in Mark 6:3.

A Children’s Sermon on Mark 3:20-35

Good morning, kids! I’m so glad to see you. Thanks for coming up to hear the children’s sermon.

Today’s story about Jesus comes from pretty soon after he started healing, and teaching, and helping people. 

Everywhere he went, he healed people who were sick in their bodies or their minds. And of course everybody he healed told everybody they knew. Pretty soon, everywhere Jesus went, a crowd would gather, all full of people who wanted Jesus to heal them, and teach them, and help them.

Well, just imagine if your big sister or your little brother started to be so famous that everywhere they went, crowds would gather. You’d probably think it was pretty crazy. That’s what happened with Jesus’ family.

Jesus had grown up in a town called Nazareth. His mom, Mary, still lived in Nazareth. So did his brothers—James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon—and his sisters too.

Back Home in Nazareth

One Saturday evening they all got together for dinner. And while they ate, they started talking about Jesus.

Jesus’ brother James spoke up first. “You know, Mom, I’m really worried about Jesus.”

“Yeah!” said one of Jesus’ sisters. “Have you heard the rumors that are going around?”

“Oh, come on, kids,” said Mary. “You know how it is with rumors. You shouldn’t believe half of them most of the time.”

“But it’s pretty bad,” said James. 

“It does sound pretty bad,” said his sister. 

“But Jesus is such a good man,” said Jesus’ mom. “How bad could it be really?”

“I heard he was talking to a demon!” said Jesus’ brother Joses.

“But he was healing that man,” said Mary, “He told the demon to leave so the man could be well again.”

“I heard Jesus’ touched a woman!” said Jesus’ brother Simon. “He shouldn’t do that.”

“Oh that was Jesus’ friend Peter’s wife’s mom,” said Mary. “She was sick with a fever. Jesus touched her to heal her.”

“But that’s not all,” said Jesus’ brother Judas. “They say Jesus touched a leper! That’s disgusting.”

“Oh Judas,” said Mary, “Jesus was touching him to heal him too. Then he didn’t have leprosy any more.”

“Mom,” said Simon, “He’s causing trouble. I hear he’s arguing with people in the synagogue. Important people.”

Joses added, “And now a crowd gathers around him every time he comes into town. He and his friends are living out in the wilderness. It’s not respectable.”

James finally said, “Mom I think the people I talked to are right. I think Jesus has gone crazy.”

“Okay! Okay!” said Mary. “Let’s go talk to Jesus.”

With Jesus in Capernaum

Meanwhile, at his house in Capernaum, Jesus was doing what he always did. He was healing people and teaching people. But on this particular day, some very important religious leaders arrived from the Big City, Jerusalem. They come up right in front of Jesus, right when he was in the middle of teaching about the Kingdom of God.

“Stop this right now!” the leaders said. “We hear you’ve been casting out demons. This has to stop immediately.”

Jesus looked at them, surprised. Then he said with a smile, “Don’t you think casting out demons is a good thing?”

“Well…” this said. “Why…” they said. “But…” they said, “Why do you ask?”

Jesus said, “You see, I’m casting out demons, because I’m on God’s side. If you want me to stop casting demons out, whose side are you on?”

“Well, of course we’re on God’s side!” they sputtered. “That is why we’re telling you to stop. We are the religious authorities.”

“Oh, I see,” said Jesus. “But if I’m making the demons go away, why do you want me to stop?”

The religious leaders looked at each other for a minute.

“You tell him,” said the first one. 

“No, you tell him,” said the second one. 

Then both of them pointed at the third one, and said to Jesus, “He’ll explain it to you.”

“Okay,” said the third guy at last, “We are telling you to stop, because we figured out how you are casting out demons. You’re using the power of the Devil to cast out the demons!”

“Yeah that’s right!” said the first guy. “We figured it all out. You have a demon inside you! You’re possessed.”

“So you need to stop,” said the second guy.

Hopeless?

Jesus looked at each of the religious leaders one by one. He shook his head sadly.

“Oh you guys,” he said, “I’m so sorry to hear you say that. It makes me really sad for you.”

“Why is that?” said one of them.

Jesus said, “Because it sounds like you’ve been going the wrong direction in your life. You’ve traveled so far way from God! That makes me sad. God really loves you. God wants to forgive everybody for everything. But you’re making it really hard.”

“What?” one of them asked. “Hard to forgive us? But we are very, very religious!”

“Yeah,” said Jesus, “I see that. But you’ve gotten all confused about what is good and what is bad—about what is from God and what is from the enemy.”

This made the religious leaders very angry.

“How dare you!” they sputtered. 

“Seriously,” said Jesus, “If you see someone making demons go away, and healing sick people, and feeding poor people and teaching people to be part of God’s Kingdom… If you can look at all that goodness and say that it is evil—well then how can God help you? Maybe you’ve gone too far the wrong way.” 

“But Jesus,” said one of them, “you need to give us an answer! Are you going to stop casting out demons? Or not?”

Jesus’ Family

Just then there was a knock at the door. 

Peter opened it and said “Oh, hello Mary! Hi James! Hi Joses! Hi Simon! Hi Judas! Oh, look Jesus’ sisters are here too. Hello!”

And then he called across the room to Jesus, “Hey Jesus! Your family is here!”

“My family!” said Jesus. “How great! But you know every one of you who does what God wants people to do is also my family–my mother, my sister, my brother, whatever.”

Two of the religious leaders were making their way to the door. But one was still listening to Jesus’ words, and looking at him silently.

Wondering 

I wonder if Jesus’ mom and brothers and sisters ever stopped thinking he was crazy? 

I wonder how the religious leaders thought about good and evil after listening to Jesus?

I wonder how people like you and I can learn to live as Jesus’ family?

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You are, of course, free to use this children’s sermon, or adapt it as you find most useful. But, if you use it, please do one (or more!) of the following.

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