Question: Are we Sinful Enough to need Jesus? Mark 2:17says “It
is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners." So is sin
like a disease? Well we know that if we lie, one or two things will happen. We
will either get found out right at the beginning or we will follow it with
another, then another, then it becomes a headache remembering all the others
lies that in the end you become overwhelmed and stressed out that it can lead
to all sorts of sickness. It begins to
consume our every waking hour. And as we know stress can lead to problems with
the heart for instance. We also know
that if we do something unhelpful or wrong, we can seek forgiveness. If we wish
to be forgiven, we must first recognise our need of forgiveness and believe
that Jesus can and will forgive. One
could leave the sermon at that. Or not.
But If we look at the passage, we
see that although Jesus has be given the power, the authority to forgive sins,
and indeed was doing so, it provoked an outcry from the teachers of the law,
the Pharisees so much that a delegation of religious experts was sent up from
Jerusalem to find out what this travelling preacher and miracle worker was up
to. The teachers of law pointedly questioned what Jesus was doing, even saying
Jesus was blaspheming. ‘Who can forgive but God alone’. They were not happy and
as we continue to read Mark’s gospel , we will encounter other times when Jesus
annoyed the teachers of the law just for doing what the Father had asked.
Despite their complaining Jesus not only healed people but Jesus also forgave
people of their sins, because God has given Jesus the right to do this. Mark
tells us that everyone is ‘amazed’ or ‘astonished’. This probably upset the
teachers of law more than anything else because the people were showing ‘faith’
in Him.
Because we know the whole story
about Jesus on how his obedience led Him to His death on the cross, It is easy
when reading verses like these about the scribes and Pharisees to shake our
heads and tut in disapproval at their misguided attitudes, yet to do that is to
make the same mistake they did: to find fault. How often are we guilty of just
that – swift to see the worst, slow to see the best; eager to criticise,
reluctant to praise? We ignore a thousand good things and focus instead on one
bad point, we destroy and undermine rather than build up and encourage, yet so
often the faults we dwell on are trivial compared to our own.
Perhaps more disturbing still is
that this response came from the overtly religious, those who believed
themselves to be right with God. In similar fashion, the church across the
years has frequently been associated with narrow and nit-picking, attitudes
rather than a joyful celebration of all that is good. We should not let such a
carping and negative spirit find a place in our lives , for not only does it
causes pain to other; ultimately it makes us the biggest losers, blinding us
not only to one another but, above all, to God himself.
To seek forgiveness requires
faith (1-5). The paralytic and his 4 friends showed Jesus their faith. They
made the effort to bring their friend to Jesus and not only that in seeing that
the crowds were blocking them from the house, they doubled their efforts, going
through the roof. The friends demonstrated their love of a friend and they had
faith enough to not just carry their friend but to go the extra mile.
Verses 6 and 7 tell us that Forgiveness comes from God alone.
God is the one our sins offend, and only he can declare us forgiven. The
scribes are right in their theology, but wrong in their application; Jesus is
not blaspheming because God has given him the authority to forgive sins. They
had not remembered the Isaiah passage
where we read; ‘Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I
delight. I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the
nations’.
Forgiveness is more important than physical healing (8-12). Forgiving
sins is a hard thing to do. When we annoyed or angry, it’s the last thing we want
to do is blow the other person up. We end up blowing ourselves up. Mark points us to the authority of Jesus'
healing of the paralytic and to his authority to forgive sins. Jesus'
forgiveness of sins points to the future healing of all believers and while
healing, is miraculous, it’s actually less a miracle than forgiveness.
One of the most important qualities for a doctor is
empathy – the ability to identify with someone else’s feelings. For example, if
a paralysed man was brought to you, would you know if his deepest need was
God’s forgiveness? If you saw a crowd of well-known ‘sinners’, would you be
able to tell whether they were really seeking God or not? Clearly, the
‘teachers of the law’ (really, experts in religion) did not. When Jesus acted in
empathy, they thought that they heard blasphemy. When they heard his words of
forgiveness, they thought that only God could speak such words. Ironically,
they were right – these were God’s words.
Mark
points out that Jesus has the desire to forgive those who know they are sinners
(13-17). For Jesus calls people who are disliked to follow him (13-14). Levi
works a toll-booth for Herod at the border town of Capernaum. He is an
important tax collector – not well liked then because tax men made a living by
going over their quota of taxes; they turned over the quota to the king, and
kept whatever else they could make. The tax profession was seen as greedy,
traitorous, and dishonest. But Jesus knew this man was in need of a doctor, one
who could forgive him and be seen to as his friend. The teachers of the
law had no empathy with the crowd of tax-collectors either. The teachers of the
law considered the tax-collectors greedy, money-making, and unscrupulous. And
perhaps they were right. But as Jesus told them, ‘It is not the healthy who
need a doctor, but the sick.’
Jesus offers his friendship and forgiveness to sinners of all
kinds (15-17). Jesus is "the friend of sinners", which he shows by
eating with them and letting them follow him. The scribes see themselves as
different from these sinners, and question Jesus' decision to associate with
them. Jesus came to heal the sick and to forgive sinners. This implies that the scribes simply don't
recognise their own sin, and remain unforgiven. Again those with ‘orthodox’
religious views criticised Him.
So who do we identify with most in these stories? The paralytic and his friends, who would dig
through a roof to get to Jesus? Levi,
who would leave behind his lucrative dishonest career and invite his outcast
friends to Jesus? Or the scribes, who
constantly question the motives of people who reach out to sinners and extend
God's forgiveness?
Jesus said I have not come to call the righteous, but
sinners. Amen.
Questions:
So who do we identify with most in these stories? The paralytic and his friends, who would dig
through a roof to get to Jesus? Levi,
who would leave behind his lucrative dishonest career and invite his outcast
friends to Jesus? Or the scribes, who
constantly question the motives of people who reach out to sinners and extend
God's forgiveness?
What stops us from forgiving others?
If sin can causes us harm – why do we feel the need to carry
it around for a while before giving it to God and asking for forgiveness?
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