Mark 3 opens with Jesus healing a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. Rather than being in awe of God’s powers, the Pharisees’ hearts were stubborn and unyielding. This grieved Jesus. After Jesus heals the man’s hand, the Pharisees are angered that Jesus would do work on the Sabbath and wanted to put him to death. They had been plotting before this incident (2:6-7, 17-17,24) so this added more fuel to their fire to destroy Jesus. They could not see that He was the Son of God but saw Him as a threat to their religious empire.
The next section has Jesus casting out demons in 3:7-12. When the demons were confronted by Jesus, they fell at Jesus feet and shouted “You are the Son of God!” The demons falling at Jesus’ feet is a picture of worship. Those these entities were opposed to everything Jesus stood for, they still acknowledged and knew who Jesus was and worshiped Him unlike the Pharisees in the previous section who spent their lives studying the Old Testament and teaching people to obey the Law. The religious leaders could not see but the demons could.
The third group was Jesus’ family. Mark 3:20-21 reads “Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind (NIV).” Jesus’ family which we learn in Mark 3:31 are his mother Mary and his brother (and possibly sisters). They not only did not acknowledge His Lordship but feared Jesus had become insane or lost His mind. This section reminds me that there is a big difference between knowing a lot about God and actually knowing Him. The religious leaders who knew Scriptures and the Law did not know Him, nor His family. One would think that these two groups of people would know Him the best. But the demons, who oppose Jesus’ work, fall at His feet and acknowledge Jesus is the Son of God which Makes Him God (John 5:13-20).