Has your life ever gotten out of balance? If you have children, I can almost guarantee that sleep has been lost, exhaustion has set in, and words have been spoken that shouldn’t have been spoken. It can be hard in our fragmented world to get those moments of support that are needed during those difficult early years of childrearing. Or maybe the out of balance happened with your work, or with your spending which raised the pressure at work. Too many hours away. Too many deadlines. Commute too long. Or maybe it is happening with extracurricular activities with your children, running to practices and games eating your life. My point is that we all get out of balance sometimes.
It looks as though Jesus and His disciples got to a tipping point. Jesus tries to get away from the crowds, to have time for His disciples, but the crowd rushes in again. They were trying to have balance, but other people kept pushing them off course. I am sure Jesus was able to keep His head in this situation, but I am sure the disciples were feeling the pressure of the crowds.
The reason we know they were out of balance is the reality that they didn’t even have the ability to eat. We don’t know If the crowds were pushing in so much they did have physical space to eat, or if crowd control took priority. We don’t know the reason for their inability to eat. All we know is that eating took a back seat to whatever else was happening at that moment.
Eating, sleeping, and exercise are the three pillars of self care. It seems as though one of the pillars was being neglected. And this neglect was not a one-time happening. Jesus’ family hears and comes to take over the situation. In an age without Facebook posts and selfies, it would have taken a few days for news to travel and for His family to arrive.
Jesus’ family is going to step in and stop this. They think He is out of His mind, that He has gone crazy. I can tell you this much, if you don’t take care of yourself you can appear crazy. Ask any mother of four or more toddlers if crazy happens! Or someone working two jobs to make ends meet. Or someone facing a life crisis. Crazy pokes its head up in most of our lives at some point.
For Jesus’ family, that point had arrived. We don’t know exactly what they saw that they labeled crazy, but something did. They hear “this” and off they go to rescue Him from Himself, from the circumstances, from the public eye. Can you imagine if your family showed up with the men in white coats? This is the sense you get from the original language. They have come to arrest Him for psychiatric reasons.
The Arnold Journey 