Gospel of Mark Study #8

“Cheapskate Solutions”

Mark 2:21-28

Study #8 in Mark Series

INTRODUCTION:

I am a frugal person. My wife says I am cheap, “tighter than the paper on the wall,” but I prefer the words, “frugal” or “thrifty.” That means, when something breaks, before going out and buying a brand new one, I am going to do my level best to repair the old one. That sometimes requires a bit of creativity. Fortunately, I have lots of that. I also have some tools and products that I have discovered that make my cheapskate fixes much easier.

·         I use Gorilla Tape.

·         I use plumber’s putty.

·         I use J-B Weld.

TRANSITION:

However, there are some things that cannot be fixed, even with Gorilla Tape or plumber’s putty or J-B Weld. They can only be replaced. In the Bible Jesus talked about the dilemma of fixing things versus replacing them. In our text for today, in Mark 2:21, He teaches about that dilemma. Last week we studied the verses leading up to this about the conversion and call of Matthew, who left his tax collector’s booth to follow Jesus, then, he threw a big reception to introduce Jesus to all his tax collector buddies. However, a bunch of Pharisees crashed the party and showed up to that reception to quiz Jesus about why He and His disciples would dare to eat with “publicans and sinners.” Jesus informed them that He had come to bring healing to those who were sick. In verse 17 Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Then someone asked Him another question: “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but Yours are not?” In verse 19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. ²⁰ But the time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.” We looked at the fact that Jesus was giving a prophetic word concerning Himself and His future sacrifice on the cross. He is obviously the Bridegroom in the parable.

Then Jesus went right on talking to the Pharisees in verse 21... 

NOTES on the Text:

Verse 21: “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.

·         As He often did, here Jesus used the Pharisees’ criticism as the occasion for teaching. The Pharisees and Scribes were always insisting that Jesus conform to their traditions. Here Jesus speaks to them in a parable to explain—especially for his disciples’ benefit—why it is important that He does not try to fit His new teaching into their old mold.

·         First, He uses the metaphor of patched garments: “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.”

·         Did you notice the deliberate contrast here between the old and the new? That is the point of the parable. Jesus says that to try to attach the new to the old not only results in destruction of the new, but also the old, which will not look right and will eventually tear again. It is a cheapskate solution that simply will not work! He makes the same point with a second parable about wineskins. 

Verse 22: And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”

·         Here Jesus uses a different word picture to convey the same truth. Instead of a piece of clothing He uses the case of an old wineskin.

·         In that day, wine was the most common household beverage. There are 256 references to wine in the Bible, all of them referring to alcoholic wine. They raised lots of grapes in Israel, although they also made wine from other kinds of fruit as well including figs, dates, and pomegranates. Without refrigeration the only way to conserve the fruit was to make it into something that would keep and not turn into vinegar.

·         However, the image of wineskins that Jesus uses in His parable is foreign to our culture. The only leather wine container we can imagine is the tear-shaped leather “bota” that Spaniards use to carry wine and squirt it into their mouth. But that is very unlike the wineskin Jesus refers to.

·         Wine was made by treading barefoot on the grapes in a wine press, a square or circular pit hewn out of the rock or dug out and lined with rocks and sealed with plaster. The juice then flowed through a channel into a lower vessel, a wine vat, which functioned as a collecting and fermenting container for the grape juice, or “must” as it is called.

·         In the warm climate of Palestine, grape juice began to ferment very quickly and there was no easy way to prevent fermentation. After the first stage of fermentation had taken place in the wine vat, the wine was separated from the “lees” (that is, sediment of dead yeast, tartar crystals, small fragments of grape skins, etc.) and strained through a sieve or piece of cloth. After four to six days, it was poured into clay jars lined with pitch (called amphorae in Greek) or animal skins for storage and further fermentation.

·         Wineskins were made of whole tanned goatskins where the legs and tail were cut off and the holes had been sewn and sealed. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word nebel, meaning “skin-bottle,” is translated by the KJV as “bottle” which gives us images of glass wine bottles. But nothing could be further from reality. These “bottles” were nearly whole goatskins, with nubbins bulging out where the legs once were, the neck tied off where the wine has been poured in, and the whole large skin bulging almost to bursting as the carbon dioxide gas generated by the fermentation process stretched it to its limit.

·         This image is well described in the OT by Job: “For I am full of words, and the spirit within me compels me; inside I am like bottled-up wine, like new wineskins ready to burst” (Job 32:18-19).

·         Fermentation in the wineskin continued for another 2-4 months until the process slowed down and finally stopped. By that time, the skin had been stretched to its limit. The alcohol was about 12%, and the collagen protein that gave the leather its stretching ability had been stretched out, and denatured by the alcohol, destroying its natural resiliency. This means that the skin’s ability to contract and stretch again had been lost.

·         While we are not familiar with the details of wineskins, Jesus’ hearers certainly were. He did not have to explain fermentation and the aging of leather to them. They knew what He meant when He said, “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”

·         Here is the same contrast of old and new that we saw in the parable of the patched garment. His point is the same: You cannot join the new to the old or you will ruin both the new wine and the old skin. The gas pressure from the fermentation is eventually so great that the inflexible old skin ruptures, and the new wine gushes out onto the ground and is wasted. His hearers all knew not to use old skins with new wine. They understood.

·         But why talk about the contrast between old and new? What is new that would be ruined by being attached to the old? What is He getting at? Here it is... Jesus came with a radical Gospel of Good News to the poor, the disenfranchised, the oppressed, the sick, and the broken-hearted. He spoke with authority, rather than the sophistry of the Scribes of His day. Their manmade rules about who He could eat with, and how He should fast, would just get in the way of Him completing His mission. They are externals; that is all! Jesus, on the other hand, was aiming to expose afresh the heart of their ancient faith. He came to help them return anew to love for God and for one’s neighbor, “to do mercy, and love justice, and walk humbly with their God” (cf. Micah 6:8). These were the core of the Hebrew faith—its life, not the dead Pharisaical external traditions that offered an appearance of piety but did not change the heart (see Colossians 2:23).

·         Now you may think that this is a dead issue, but it is not! This problem has a way of raising its ugly head again and again. Paul, who was trained as a strict Pharisee, grasped the radical nature of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, and he went preaching it boldly throughout the Mediterranean. Soon he was called on the carpet to explain why he was not imposing the familiar Jewish regulations on his Gentile converts (cf. Acts 15). Again and again, he had to insist that we are free in Christ, so we must not become entangled again in a legalistic religion trying to pass itself off as Christianity (cf. Galatians 5, for example). We know that the Judaizers tried to infect church after church with their legalism; the recipients of the Letter to the Hebrews were apparently being tempted to turn back again to the regulations of Judaism. Yes, legalism and external faith are problems of every generation, including ours.

·         Why is that so? In Luke’s Gospel, at the close of His parable of the wineskins, Jesus put it this way: “And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better’” (Luke 5:39). It is much easier to fall back to what is familiar and comfortable, and justify that, rather than launch out into a life guided not by laws and regulations but led by the voice of the Spirit of God. The two are opposites, the old and the new. You cannot combine them without destroying both.

·         No, Jesus insists, the Gospel of the Kingdom must not be hindered by the manmade rules of the Pharisees’ religion. It must be free to work its power unfettered. The New Wine may not be as smooth to the tongue, and finely aged as old wine. It may be a bit sharp and unrefined. But it is alive! You cannot contain it in old structures. You must find new wineskins for it or none at all.

·         That is not to say that Jesus threw out the Old Covenant. He makes it very clear in the Sermon on the Mount that He came to fulfill the Law, not to do away with it: (cf. Matt. 5:17-20) “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until Heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

·         Jesus did not come to set aside the Law, but to strip away the Pharisees’ precious oral tradition so people could see the power and spirit of the Law, and repent of their sins, preparing for the coming of the Kingdom. The Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent now fulfills the Law within us.

Verse 23: One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as His disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.

·         There is obviously a chronological break between verse 22 and verse 23. This is a different occasion, but the issue is the same—how to reconcile the nit-picky rules of the Pharisees with the fact that Jesus was the Sovereign Lord and Messiah, and not subject to their little pennyante laws and manmade religious restrictions.

·         Picture this... Jesus and the boys were walking along out in the country. Jesus was teaching and they were listening. Passing by a wheat or barley field Jesus and His disciples gleaned a few handfuls of grain. They pulled off a few heads of grain and began crushing them between their two hands. Then, they blew on the crushed heads to blow away the chaff and twigs. Once they had just the clean grains left, they would pop the unroasted grains into their mouths and chew them up. 

Verse 24: The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

·         These Pharisees were totally scandalized by what Jesus’ disciples were doing. And exactly why was that? It was not the gleaning of the grain to which they objected. That was allowed in the Law in Deut. 23:25. No, it was because they were doing it on Saturday, the Sabbath, the day of rest. And according to the rules of the Pharisees, based on their understanding of Exodus 20:10 what these men were doing was defined as “harvesting grain,” which is “work,” and work was strictly forbidden on the Sabbath.

Verse 25: He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?

·         This was a slap in their faces because, of course, they had read the Scriptures and knew the story very well. Jesus was just tweaking them. He was referring to the account about David and his men in 1 Samuel 21:1-6. Like many other things, they knew the Bible story but failed to grasp the principle or the significance behind it. They had knowledge but they were lacking in understanding.

·         Notice Jesus’ words, “…when they were hungry and in need.” He was saying to the Pharisees that human need trumps all ritual and ceremony. 

Verse 26: In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he [i.e., David] entered the house of God [i.e., the Tabernacle] and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

·         Jesus, the consummate teacher, and Rabbi tells them the story and then explains its significance, the way He would to a group of children.

Verse 27: Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

·         Here Jesus sums up an important principle, and one that was missed by most of the observant Orthodox Jews of His day. Yes, God had told His people to keep the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship, but He did not impose these kinds of nit-picky rules. He gave them a principle. The Sabbath was given for man’s benefit, to meet his need for rest. Instead of accepting and understanding the principle, the Pharisees turned it into a mountain of manmade rules and regulations. They had it all backwards. 

Verse 28: So, the Son of Man is LORD, even of the Sabbath.”

·         This is the bottom line. Jesus is LORD of all! He is Lord of Life and Death. He is the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe. He is Eternally God. He is greater than any manmade rule of religion.

CONCLUSION:

Having put Jesus’ teaching in perspective, we must pause to grapple personally with the power of His words: “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.” 

What are the “old wineskin” structures of our own age and culture and church life that cannot coexist with the new wine that the Spirit wants to pour out on us? What have we tried to sew our Christianity onto that will cause a greater tear and undermine the faith itself? In Jesus’ day it was the legalistic spirit of Pharisaism. What is it in our day?

“New wine must be poured into new wineskins,” not accommodated to those comfortable things in our lives with which it is basically incompatible. The message for disciples is to be uncompromising about our faith and the work of the Spirit in our lives. If our honored customs and habits, and the structures of our society must adjust to that, then so be it. 

Prayer:

Lord, fill us again with your New Wine. This time, help us to contain it and grow with it, rather than lose it through our stubbornness and our inflexibility. Help me, Lord, to recognize the powerful new ways you want to work in my life and not miss it. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Gospel of Mark Study #7

“IRS Agents and Other Sinners”

Mark 2:13-20

Study #7 in Mark Series

INTRODUCTION:

In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Paul cites an appalling list of sins. He says, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the...

ü  sexually immoral nor

ü  idolaters nor

ü  adulterers nor

ü  male prostitutes nor

ü  homosexual offenders ¹⁰ nor

ü  thieves nor

ü  the greedy nor

ü  drunkards nor

ü  slanderers nor

ü  swindlers... will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Given Paul’s list of sins how would you rank these 10 things from “worst” to “least bad.” On what is your ranking based? How did you determine which one is worse than the other? Which sins are on the extreme ends of your list?

 

Obviously, Paul was not putting these sins in ranking order. Moreover, the list is incomplete. Without a doubt the Christians in the Corinthian church had committed other gross sins that he does not even mention here. So, what is the point? Was Paul just trying to rub salt into their wounds, reminding them of all their past sins and shortcomings? NO! Quite the opposite. He was reminding them that what they had done in the past, what they had been before they came to know Christ, no longer defined who they were now in the present. Regardless of the enormity of their past sins they had been washed, sanctified, and justified by the power and authority of God himself.

TRANSITION:

The apostle Paul once claimed to be the world’s worst sinner. He made that claim in 1 Timothy 1:12-16. I do not know if he really was or not, but that is how he felt about it. He wrote, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service. ¹³ Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. ¹⁴ The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—of whom I am the worst. ¹⁶ But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life.”

In our passage for today we can see that the Jewish religious leaders had a definite list in their minds about some sins being greater than others. They put people into categories based on the seriousness of their sins. “Tax collectors” were one of the categories. “Prostitutes” were another category. However, these self-appointed spiritual giants failed to see that their sins of slander, hatred, jealousy, discord, pride, arrogance, bigotry, and gossip were as bad or worse than the sins they were so quick to point out in the lives of other people. That is why on several occasions Jesus called them “hypocrites,” and He did it to their faces.

NOTES on the Text:

Verse 13: Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to Him, and He began to teach them.

·         Which lake? The Sea of Galilee, of course. It was not really a sea, just a big fresh-water lake 13 miles long by 8.1 miles wide.

·         “A large crowd” That is a redundancy, like, “a huge multitude,” but these are common in the Bible. Is there any other kind of crowd besides a large crowd? Anyway, a bunch of people followed Jesus out to the lakeside, anxious to see Him and hear His words. He used the opportunity to teach them the Gospel, the Good News about God’s love for them and the plan of salvation.

Verse 14: As He walked along, He saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow Me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed Him.

·         Was Levi sitting by the lakeshore? Probably not. This must have happened as Jesus re-entered Capernaum through the town’s main gate. Capernaum sat on a major trade route connecting Egypt and Damascus of Syria. Being the gateway into Herod Antipas’ territory it was one of the places where Herod set up a customs office and tollhouse to tax everyone passing through. Levi worked as a collection agent, collecting taxes from his own people, the Jews, and turning it over to their hated enemies. He worked on a commission basis—the more he could squeeze out of people, the more both he and Herod’s administration would benefit. As a result of this, there was no more despised group of people than the hated publicani, or “publicans” as they are called in the KJV. They were viewed as collaborators and traitors and were hated by their fellow Jews.

·         This man is known in the Scriptures by two names. Here in Mark’s Gospel and in Luke 5:27 he is called Levi. In the Gospel of Matthew, written by Matthew himself, he is called Matthew, which in Hebrew means “Gift of Yahweh.” It is possible that Levi (from the Hebrew verb meaning “to join or unite”) was the name his parents gave him at birth, and Matthew was his nickname, perhaps given to him by the Lord at his new birth. We have similar circumstances with Simon coming to be called Peter (meaning “stone, or pebble”), and Joseph being given the nickname, Barnabas (meaning “son of consolation”).

·         Something important to notice about Levi (Matthew)... when he “left all” to follow Christ, he really LEFT ALL! Peter and the other guys left their boats and nets, but they often went back to them. Levi had no job to go back to. He gave up far more than the other disciples.

Verse 15: While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him.

·         This by itself is amazing. Jesus was doing what no one else among the Jews would do. He was sitting down to eat with a tax collector and a bunch of his tax collector friends, in his own house. This was scandalous! This was unheard of! Did Jesus not know who these people were for crying out loud?

·         Also amazing is this phrase, “...for there were many who followed Him.” Many of these followers of Jesus not long before this would have been just like the Pharisees we read about in the next verse. These are Jews who if not for being changed by Jesus would have never considered going to a party at a publican’s house. This shows the amazing influence that Jesus had on His followers.

·         The syntax of this sentence allows for two possible interpretations. It is probably true either way you take it.

1.       That Jesus had many disciples at the reception, or

2.      That many of Levi’s fellow publicans and other assorted “sinners” and immoral people had become followers of Jesus. This is the option the makes the most sense to me based on the law of the nearest antecedent.

Verse 16: When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw Him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked His disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

·         These Pharisees were totally scandalized by what Jesus was doing, but they did not have the nerve to approach Him directly with their questions. They posed their critical questions to Jesus’ disciples. They were probably standing outside in the street watching people come and go from Levi’s house, and it burned them up that their fellow Jews would have anything to do with that no-good turncoat scoundrel, Levi.

·         The Pharisees, whose name means, “separated ones,” were a sect who followed rigorously the precepts of the written and oral law, being meticulous in their attempts to maintain ceremonial purity. They viewed with disdain those who were not as strict as they were in observing the commandments, referring to them as “the people of the land.” The class designated as “sinners” here probably included all non-Pharisees.

Verse 17: On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

·         Last week we learned about the story of Jesus healing the paralytic man who was brought to Him by the man’s four friends. Sitting there, witnessing the whole thing, were a group of Scribes, taking notes about everything Jesus did and said. We read that Jesus could read their minds and knew exactly what they were thinking, and He confronted them over it.

·         On this occasion, the religious leaders present were not the Scribes but were from the sect of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the ultra-conservative, fundamentalist, legalistic, wealthy sect within Judaism. They were probably the ones who most hated Jesus because He did not follow their picky little manmade rules and He called them “hypocrites” all the time. Jesus explained the situation with an answer that needs some explanation. Notice the interplay in His answer between the words “healthy” and “sick,” and between “righteous” and “sinners.” The Pharisees believed that they themselves were spiritually healthy and spiritually righteous. They viewed the tax collectors as spiritually sick and spiritually unrighteous sinners through and through.

·         But Jesus was making a point that they missed entirely. Only people who realize and admit that they are sick will seek the help of a doctor. Those who think they are healthy are not interested in what a doctor can do for them. Likewise, a person who is truly righteous does not need saving. But sinners are the ones who need a Savior. What the Pharisees were missing was the fact that they were as sinful and in need of a Savior as those publicans and “sinners” sitting inside listening to Jesus’ words. Because the Pharisees were unwilling or unable to admit that they were sick, there was no treatment for them, leaving them to slip even deeper into spiritual terminal illness. Yet those around Levi’s table who were coming to see their sinfulness and sin-sickness, they were positioned to receive the treatment that would make them truly healthy.

·         Make no mistake. Jesus was not saying that the Pharisees were so righteous and spiritually healthy that they didn’t need a doctor. Quite the contrary! They were sickos!

Verse 18: Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but Yours are not?”

·         Try to picture this... Jesus and His disciples are at Levi’s house. They are eating and drinking and having a wonderful time. The conversation is engaging, and people are asking Jesus questions and He is sharing with them. Apparently at that time John the Baptist’s followers were fasting. We are not told the reason. Also, the Pharisees and their followers were fasting. Again, we do not know why, although we do know that the Pharisees regularly fasted twice a week, usually on Mondays and Thursdays (cf. Luke 18:12). Someone came up to Jesus during the evening and asked Him about this. Apparently, the question was posed publicly, so Jesus gave an answer that everyone could hear.

Verses 19-20: Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. ²⁰ But the time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.”

·         Jesus answered the question with a question. I hate it when people do that to me because it forces me to think, and that hurts my head.

·         Jesus gives them a scenario to think about: There is a wedding being planned. That wedding involves a bride and a groom. A wedding is a joyous event, an occasion for feasting, not fasting. People do not fast when they are celebrating. When we are celebrating, we want to eat and drink and dance and sing and laugh. Fasting is for times of sorrow, for times of grief, and pain, and loss, and mourning. While the bridegroom is present with his bride everyone is happy. The party is in full swing.

·         Jesus gives them a prophetic word at this moment. He says that the time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away. That will be the time for sorrow and for fasting. Who is the Bridegroom that He is referring to? It is Him, Jesus Himself. Several times in the Gospels Jesus employed this word picture. Jesus is the Bridegroom and we are His people, His Bride, the Bride of Christ. That is one of the titles for the Church. While Jesus was with His people it was a time of celebration. However, the day came when He went to the cross, leaving His Bride to mourn and weep and fast for a season. But praise God, He rose on the third day and is ALIVE today!

CONCLUSION:

One of the things that stands out to me as I read this passage is that the Pharisees were not bad people, as we often assume. And for the most part they were right about tax collectors. As a rule, the men in that profession were greedy, unscrupulous, unprincipled, immoral crooks who cared only for money. So, who is the hero in this story?

The Pharisees were right about the tax collectors. Moreover, Levi and at least some of the tax collectors would have agreed with their assessment. Where the Pharisees went wrong was in their evaluation of themselves. They could see sin in others, but they could not see it in themselves. And what little they did see, they redefined and renamed and called it something else. “That is not sin, that is a character flaw.” “That is not sin, it is just a lapse in good judgment.” “That is not sin, it is a blind spot.” They could not bring themselves to admit their need for forgiveness and cleansing. Thus, they rejected Jesus and everything He said and missed out on what He came to bring us—peace, joy, forgiveness, a new life, and a future with Him in Heaven.

What is also alarming is that all of us have a little bit of Pharisee in us. We find it easier to find fault in others than to recognize it in ourselves. This accounts for one of the biggest problems in every church and explains the commonly heard criticism that “the church is full of hypocrites.” Can any of us deny it?

Gospel of Mark Study #6

“The Power of Friendship”

Mark 2:1-12

Study #6 in Mark Series

INTRODUCTION:

When I say the words “peer pressure” what comes to your mind? What influence do peers/friends have on us? Can you think of a time when friends got you into trouble and lured you off the right path? Can you think of a time when friends kept you out of trouble and helped you do the right thing?

When I was in junior high and my first two years of high school, I was like a feather blown in the wind. I had little backbone to do the right thing. I was so pitifully hungry for acceptance that I did whatever my so called “friends” wanted me to do. Believe me; that got me into all kinds of bad stuff. I was one of those kids who will do almost anything if it gets him in good with his “friends.”

TRANSITION:

Friendships are powerful, both for good and for evil. The Book of Proverbs has much good advice about friendships, about how good friends lead us in the paths of righteousness, and how evil friends draw us down the path toward destruction. It is undeniably true.

In our text for this study, we see four friends coming to the aid of a fifth friend to bring him to Jesus. Their faith in Jesus and their willingness to do something difficult and possibly even illegal on behalf of their friend resulted in great blessing for him and a powerful lesson in faith and friendship for us.

NOTES on the Text:

Verse 1: A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that He had come home.

·         Where had He been? In 1:21 He was in Capernaum, a small village on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee, where He cast a demon out of a man in the synagogue, healed Simon’s mother-in-law, and then healed a whole bunch of people that night out in the street. But after that Jesus led His disciples out into the other villages and towns of Galilee where He was preaching the Good News. Now they have come back to Capernaum.

·         It is interesting that at this point the people of the town recognized that He considered Capernaum to be His adopted home. He was from Nazareth but the people there had already rejected Him and written Him off.

Verse 2: So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and He preached the Word to them.

·         We are not told whose home He was in, but it was probably Simon’s house. That is where He had been staying before when all the people came to Him to be healed. Wherever it was, the room was not big enough for all the people who wanted to see and hear Jesus. Apparently, the crowd filled the house and spilled out into the street, with people trying to push in close to hear His words.

·         Notice the focus of His ministry—He was “preaching the Word to them.” He was telling them the Good News, that God loved them and that He had sent His Son to be their Savior. His primary mission was not healing physical bodies but saving souls from Hell. That is still His greatest concern. Our physical infirmities are important to Him, and it is OK to pray about them, but God is much more concerned with the condition of our eternal souls.

Verse 3: Some men came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four of them.

·         The Greek word describing this man is paralytikon, meaning “paralyzed.” The King James Version uses the word “palsy.” He may have trembled, but his main physical infirmity was paralysis.

·         Observe that this man could not get to Jesus by himself. He was unable to walk or crawl or move himself in any way. We do not know how he came to be paralyzed. Perhaps he suffered a fall or was kicked by a horse. There are many ways that it could have happened. We are also not told how long he had been in this condition. All we know is that without the help of his four friends he would never have had a chance to meet Jesus. They were a vital part of this man’s story. 

Verse 4: Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

·         From this verse I conclude that first they tried to make their way to Jesus by pressing through the crowd. But that was unsuccessful. People would not give way and let them through. People can be very selfish and cruel. It often happens that when someone is trying to make his way to Jesus other people get in the way. They try to dissuade the seeker saying, “He cannot help you. Besides, he is probably too busy right now. Come back later.” Or they will say, “Don't be stupid! There is nothing wrong with you. You don't need him.”

·         But these four guys did not let an unhelpful and discouraging crowd turn them away from what they had come to do.

·         The houses in those days usually had a stairway to the roof that ran up one side of the house. People would go sit up there in the cool of the evening, would often eat their meals up there, and would even sleep up there when the weather was unbearably hot. This stairway would have allowed the four bearers to carry their paralytic friend up without difficulty. The roofs were usually made of wooden beams overlaid with lath strips. Then this would all be overlaid with a composite of dirt, dung, and grass, or plaster, or tiles.

·         Look back at the verse again: “... they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.” Can you imagine the audacity of these guys? Chances are they did not even know the owner of the house, but they did not let that stop them. They literally tore the roof apart to make an opening above Jesus’ head. And it was not a small opening either! It had to be big enough to let the man’s whole bed through.

·         Imagine the scene inside the house. Jesus is talking, preaching, teaching, and healing. Everyone is listening intently. Suddenly sunlight bursts into the room as dirt and dust and pieces of wood start raining down on everyone’s heads. They all look up as this paralyzed man is let down through the ceiling by four ropes. The four guys carefully drop their friend right down in front of Jesus.

·         Personally, I think this was Simon Peter’s house. Can you imagine what was going through his head as he saw these guys demolishing his house? Maybe Jesus leaned over and said to him: “Relax, Peter. I’m a carpenter, and I can fix that hole for you after everybody leaves.”

Verse 5: When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”

·         “When Jesus saw their faith...” Whose faith? Whose faith was really on display here? So far neither the paralytic nor any of his friends have uttered a word to Jesus. They just demonstrated their faith by acting. Maybe this means the faith of all five of them. Maybe it was the paralyzed guy’s idea from the beginning. Maybe he called up four of his best buddies and said, “Hey, I heard that Jesus is back in town, and I need your help to carry me over to that fisherman’s house so that maybe I can get healed.” Then again, maybe his four buddies came by his house and said, “We have talked it over and we are taking you to Simon’s house because we think that Jesus just might be able to heal you if we can get you close to Him.” We do not know how it all went down and, in a way, it is not important.

·         When Jesus looked at this situation, He saw their faith. He saw five guys that were willing to risk a lawsuit and getting beat up by an angry fisherman just to get their friend in front of Jesus.

·         But listen to Jesus’ words... He did not say what everyone expected Him to say. Those who believed in Him thought that He would say to the man, “Be healed! Get up and walk!” Instead of that He said: “Child, your sins are forgiven.” You could have heard a pin drop in the place. The four guys holding the ropes have their faces stuck through the hole in the roof to see how Jesus would heal their friend. But instead of that, Jesus forgave the man’s sins.

·         Why did Jesus address the young man as “Child” [Gr. téknon)? Possibly just as a term of endearment, although Jesus did not know this man. But maybe He used it to remind all of us that when we come to Him, we are to come with the faith of a little child.

·         Some of them there might have thought to themselves: “Well how many sins can a paralyzed guy even have? He doesn’t get out much.” But Jesus zeroed in on the biggest problem that all of us have, even quadriplegics. Our biggest problem is sin, not sickness. Jesus was using this occasion to teach everyone assembled there an important lesson. And the lesson is just as valid for us today. Our problem is spelled… SIN.

Verses 6-7: Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

·         Two studies ago, I described the three main groups of religious leaders in Israel: (1) Pharisees (ultra-conservative legalistic fundamentalists); (2) Sadducees (theologically liberal sceptics); and (3) Scribes, who hand-copied the OT Scriptures for a living and who were the main teachers of the Law, because they knew it backwards and forwards.

·         After Jesus said those words, the Scribes immediately began grumbling among themselves. They were very bright and the conclusion they came to was correct. Indeed, only God can forgive sins. So, the question comes down to... who is Jesus? If He is God in the flesh, the Son of God sent to be the Savior of the world, then everything is good. But if He is not God, then He is a blasphemer, claiming to be able to do something that He cannot do. 

Verse 8: Immediately Jesus knew in His spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and He said to them, “Why are you thinking these things?”

·         It does not say that Jesus heard their words. They were speaking quietly among themselves. But Jesus could read their thoughts and He knew what was in their hearts. He confronted them head on.

Verse 9: Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?’

·         Jesus rebutted their questions with a question of His own. Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up, take up your mat and walk? Which of those is easier to say? The Scribes probably started counting the number of words in each of those phrases. But Jesus did not give them a chance to answer Him back. He was not inviting a dialogue with these clueless self-righteous, self-important religious leaders. Jesus was here to make a point, and He was using the paralytic man to do it.

Verses 10-11: But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” He said to the paralytic, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”

·         I love this verse! This whole thing was a setup from the beginning. Jesus was in charge, and He was using this as an occasion to run His flag up the pole to let them all know who He really was.

·         Jesus zeroed right in on the relevant issue—authority! Jesus not only had the power to heal, but He also had the authority to forgive sins, because He was God clothed in human flesh. However, from a human standpoint, any fool could pronounce the words, “Your sins are forgiven.” Who would know whether they were or were not? You cannot see forgiveness with your physical eyes. It is not scientifically verifiable. So, to prove the validity of the invisible act, Jesus performed a visible act of healing. The visible proved the invisible. 

Verse 12: He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

·         Capernaum was not a big town. It only got up to about 1,500 inhabitants in its heyday. Everybody in that town knew practically everybody else. This paralyzed guy was not some stranger from out of town, just brought in for the day. He was one of them, and so were the four friends who busted out the roof tiles to drop him down from above. They all knew that the guy really was paralyzed. His problem was not some weird kind of psychosomatic illness. It was not in his head. He was not a hypochondriac, inventing his own illness.

·         Now, right in front of all of them the guy stands up, reaches down, and rolls up his pallet, and heads out the door toward his home. What a sight that must have been!

·         The Greek word Mark uses here for “amazed” is existemi, which literally means “to stand out from.” In Mark 3:21 it is translated, “to be beside oneself.” It means to be completely astonished and amazed, almost to the point of losing control of your emotions. In other words, the whole crowd, including the Scribes and the four friends of the paralytic man, were totally overcome with joy and amazement. They were beside themselves.

·         Look at their response: “... They praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’” So, what made this healing different from all those others that Jesus had performed right there in town just a few days before? Remember back in chapter one when He healed many who came to Him that night and then again, the next morning? Many people got healed then, and He also cast demons out of a bunch of people. Why is this healing different?

·         Because this time Jesus performed a much bigger miracle—He forgave a man’s sins, right there if front of everyone! And all the people present knew that He had really forgiven those sins because He validated it with the accompanying miracle of healing the man physically. 

CONCLUSION:

I believe that the greatest need in the heart of every person and the thing we all crave the most is to know three simple things:

1.       That we are loved unconditionally,

2.      That we have truly been forgiven of the evil things we have done,

3.      That we will go to Heaven to be with Jesus when we die.

These are more important than physical health or material wealth in this life. If rich men thought that they could buy these three things, they would gladly give up their fortunes in exchange. The Good News of the Gospel contains these three assurances and many more.

·         We are loved unconditionally, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

·         We have been forgiven, “If we confess our sins, He is faith and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

·         We will go to Heaven when we die- “In My Father’s house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2-3)

Have you believed on the Lord Jesus to be your Savior and Lord? On that day when He healed that paralytic who was carried to Jesus by his four friends, many people put their faith and trust in Jesus as their Savior and Messiah. You can do that right now if you are willing.