Proper 5

A girl named Riley was a happy, hockey-loving 11-year-old.

Then her world turned upside down when she and her parents moved to San Francisco. She tried to navigate the transition with Joy, but the stress of the move put Sadness in control. Then Joy and Sadness were replaced by Anger, Fear and Disgust.

Riley’s emotional journey is presented in an animated film called Inside Out, one of the top films of 2015. In the movie, each of the girl’s emotions is expressed by a different character: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust.

When the family moves to San Francisco, Fear says to Joy, “I sure am glad you told me earthquakes are a myth.” Fear has more than a few worries about their new location.

On the way to their new home, Joy imagines that Riley will live in a house from a fairytale, made of various desserts. Disgust says, “Joy, for the last time, she cannot live in a cookie.”

The emotion Sadness is initially seen as a troublesome character, but in time she reveals her wisdom. At one point, Sadness says, “Crying helps me slow down.” Children need to learn this, don’t they? Crying gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect, sometimes about the more difficult aspects of life.

Author James Grebey writes that Inside Out showed us what things are like inside a young girl’s head. So, how do you raise the stakes for the sequel, Inside Out 2? Grebey’s answer: “Go inside a teenager’s head, of course. Inside Out 2 will revisit Riley now that she’s in college, and it will fittingly introduce a host of new emotions.”

In addition to the first five, we might meet Surprise, Interest, Contempt, Self-Hostility, Shame, Shyness and Guilt.

The third chapter of the Gospel of Mark might be called Inside Out: The Jesus Version. It begins with Jesus meeting a man with a withered hand, surrounded by a group of Pharisees who do not want Jesus to cure anyone on the Sabbath day. Mark tells us that Jesus is “grieved at their hardness of heart” (Mark 3:5). His first emotion is Grief. Then Jesus cures many more people, with his dominant emotion being Compassion (vv. 7-12). He appoints the 12 disciples, feeling a great deal of Hope (vv. 13-19).

When Jesus goes to Capernaum, a crowd surrounds him again. He and his disciples take refuge in a house. His family fears for his safety, so they go to get him. They have heard people saying, “He has gone out of his mind” (v. 21).

That sounds like Inside Out, doesn’t it? His emotions, they say, are out of control.

A group of religious leaders from Jerusalem, called the scribes, use this moment to go on the attack. They say, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons” (v. 22). They have seen Jesus driving out the demons called “unclean spirits,” and because he has power over these demons, they assume that he has been given this power by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.

No doubt this causes Jesus to feel Anger. And Frustration. He might even quote the character Anger from Inside Out, who said, “We should lock the door and scream.”

But, instead, Jesus speaks in parables. “How can Satan cast out Satan?” he asks. “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand” (vv. 23-24). That makes sense, doesn’t it? If Satan casts out Satan, he would be dividing his own kingdom. An army is not going to make progress if the general shoots his own soldiers.

When talking about Satan, Jesus sounds as though he feels nothing but Contempt.

Moving forward, Jesus says, “And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (v. 25). Abraham Lincoln quoted this verse in one of his most famous speeches, one that was made in 1858, before the start of the Civil War. “A house divided against itself, cannot stand,” he said. “I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

Lincoln was grieved when the Union did, in fact, dissolve. But he was right to expect that it would eventually cease to be divided. The United States became all free, but only after a bloody Civil War. And now, we continue to work for the freedom and dignity of all of God’s people.

Like Lincoln, Jesus uses the language of conflict and division to describe what he is doing. “And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand,” says Jesus, “but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered” (vv. 26-27).

Satan is the strong man, and Jesus is entering his house to take control. Here, it sounds as though Jesus is feeling the emotion of Pride. He knows that the kingdom of Satan is coming apart, being shattered by the actions of Jesus and the arrival of the kingdom of God. Jesus knows that he is stronger than Satan and able to tie him up and plunder his kingdom.

This is not the language of Sadness or Fear. No, the words of Jesus reflect Pride in doing the will of God. Plus, a smattering of Disgust towards evil powers. Jesus knows that the world will eventually become all free, but only after a spiritual civil war.

Then, the family of Jesus arrives at the house where Jesus is staying. They call to him and the crowd reports, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you” (v. 32). Jesus looks out the window, sees his family and realizes that he can use the moment to teach a lesson.

Jesus replies, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” (v. 33). The crowd is probably wondering what in the world he is talking about. Surely, Jesus knows his own mother and brothers.

Then, looking at those who are sitting around him in the house, Jesus says, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (vv. 34-35).

In the movie Inside Out, the emotion called Joy asks the question, “Do you ever look at someone and wonder?” That’s what people were doing as they looked at Jesus in the house in Capernaum. They were wondering, “What would it mean for me to be part of the family of Jesus?”

The Jesus version of Inside Out is full of deep and powerful emotions. Since Jesus felt them all, we should not be afraid of feeling them as well. Our lives as disciples of Christ should not be lived in a cold and completely intellectual way, separate from the pain and struggles that are part of every human life. Jesus wants us to put our hearts into discipleship, not just our heads.

We feel Grief when we encounter hardness of heart, in ourselves and in the people around us. Jesus wants our hearts to be broken by the same things that break the heart of God.

We feel Compassion when we see a person in need. Jesus wants us to offer food to the hungry and healing to the ill, just as he did.

We feel Anger, Frustration, Contempt and Disgust when we see the demonization of people on the margins of society. Our challenge is to see all the people of this world as individuals made in the image and likeness of God.

We feel Hope when we see children in Christian education classes and youth on mission trips. Jesus wants us to invest ourselves fully in the next generations of disciples.

Finally, we feel Pride when we join Jesus in doing the will of God. Truly, we are brothers and sisters of Jesus when we love as he loved, help as he helped, heal as he healed, and forgive as he forgave.

You don’t have to turn the Bible inside out to get the message. Simply look to the heart of Jesus – and be willing to express his emotions in everything you say and do.