Beyond the Surface: Our Ultimate need

Introduction: We are in a world full of problems

We are in a world full of needs and problems. We don’t have to look that far to see the many different needs/problems there are in the world.

We have a need for peace.

If we look on the news we will be inundated with articles of war and pain. Whether it be Gaza and Isreal, Russia and Ukraine that get on our news. Here is a map of all the known conflicts currently going on in the world. There is so much conflict.

There is a clear need for peace

We have a need for unity.

As we look at our country, clearly without being too political we have disunity. The rise of social media seems to have encouraged a cycloing of different groups. Countries are falling apart and many of the confliucts i have mentioned are actually cival wars - such as ethiopia.

We have a need for Unity

We have a need for healing

Thinking perhaps more close to home, there are so many needs, whether that be physically, or mentally. It has been said that we are in the midst of the biggest mental health crisis in history. Where suicide particuarly in men is at an all time high!

we are surrounded by needs.

These are just a few that sprung to my mind when i was preparing this. But I can imagine that in this small room there are many, many more needs we can think of.

and what is the answer to them… they all feel impossible to resolve. and you maybe here this morning with that question, what is the answer to all these needs in the world. Why is there so much suffering in the world? and in a church thinking of God… the natural question is does God even care about our needs? does he care about our suffering?

Context:

well this morning we are looking at two situations of desperate need and suffering. Found in Mark’s gospel - where the word Gospel simply means good news. Where marks is saying this is the good news of Jesus the messiah the son of God. That this book he has written is designed to show us who Jesus is, why he came and why that is good new to all who hear it. All of us, with all of our need and suffering.

and these two situations, two people start to reveal to us exactly why it can be good news for us.

and they do this firstly by revealing to us our ultimate need.

1. What is our ultimate need?

In both of these passages, we are presented with someone in desperate need.

Firstly we have the man with leprosy. a dreadful desease - Leprosy by the way is so much more than a skin desease. it is is a numbness that infects the whole body… where you body creates a natural anethetic as your body decays and rots around you due to you being unable to feel the damage you are continually doing to it. One commentary describes this man as being in a painless hell. he is in deperate need.

the second man is parylsed - unable to get up- to move - this man would have been helpless. Unlike in our day where if someone is paralysed it is life altering, but thankfully not to the same extent that it would have impacted this man. His life would of been not short futile, likly now short - completley at the mercy of anyone. and we see this depcted as his freinds carry him to Jesus on a mat.

these two man are in desperate need make no mistake.

but in both cases as we dig deeper into the text we can see how in both it reveals a need even more desperate.

having leprosy would not only have been a horrible illness but you would have been regarded as spiritually unclean, regarded as a living corpses by the community around him. he would have been condemened to live out his life in isolation from the rest of his community.

The reason for it - his leprosy would have been a symbol of sin, not that he was more sinful than anyone else but that he was a walking talking physical reminder … and outward sign of all of humanities inmost spiritual need.

The fact for humanity is that we are infected, with a musch more dangerous desease than leprosy we are full of Sin. Sin being our deviation, our rebellion against God. God who is goodness, God who is love God who is life… the source of all goodness and love and life and we rebel againts him, we want to live seperatly from him. and what we see results … sin is not just the things we do but the inward motivations of our heart away from God. in Ephesians 2:1 Paul writes

New International Version (2011) Chapter 2

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins

Though we are physically alive… we (just like the man with leprosy) are living corpses - we are the man with leprosy.

a similar thing could be said of the Parylsed man - not that he would have been unclean in the same way… but that his situation would have been understood as a result of sin … and his helplessness is our helplessness.

and helplessness is right because there is nothing we can do about it. The bible is full of people trying to deal with the problem of sin… and failing.

the world now tries to deal with the problem of evil but fails and even if they somehow create peace for a time… the reality is it never lasts. We try and cure as many illnesses, set up counceling clinics … all good things but they are like a childs plaster on a gaping wound!

These two people, these two needs reveal to us the ultimate need for every human. the ultimate need that is beyond the surface of any need or problem that we can see in the world.

Sin infects/impacts everything it is the underling reason… our ultimate need is that we are sinners, living in a sinfilled world.

and the only way for this to be delt with is for our sins to be forgiven, to be cleansed from the inside out...

something only God can do...

and this is why the Gospel is good news… because what we see next in both passages reveals to us How Jesus came to deal with our ultimate need.

2. Jesus came to deal with our Ultimate need

In both cases … all Jesus needed to do was speak he said to the man with leprosy “be clean!” and we are told that immediately he was clean… that this walking corpse was now alive!

we need to remember that Only God can do this… there is a history in the Old testament with people with leprosy and anytime they were cleased it was because of an act of God.

Yet Jesus just spoke and the man was clean…

and if that wasn’t clear enough we see this with the parylsed man

Jesus as he says himself, could of just as easily of said get up take up your mat and walk… but he said instead firstly Son, your sins are forgiven!

It should not suprise us what reaction there is in the room… the teachers of the law have correctly concluded the implication of Jesus’ words

Who can forgive sins but God alone

Jesus answers this question by decalring that the Son of Man can. The son of man wasn’t just any old term it comes from this vision of the prophet daniel … the one from the lions den.

which points to the son of man having divine authority over all things, he is given authority and glory and kingdom that is everlasting kingdom. This would have been someting that confused people for centuries because that would seem to take the place of God… Yet here is Jesus showing us that he has been given this authority...because the Son of Man is the son of God, submitting to God the father - God in flesh.

He is the only one with the authority to forgive sins.

and the fact he is God shows us that this forgiveness is possible for all of us.

You see God can’t just forgive sins, there has to a price paid… otherwise he wouldn’t be a just and loving God.

so the forgiveness that Jesus gives here is rooted in what he came to do for all who put their trust in him.

Which shows that He not only came to deal with the leper’s and the paralysed mans ultimate problem but ours.

The compassion that we see with Jesus on display both with the leper.. the word indignant is trnaslated better as compassion and this man after seeing the faith of his freinds.

reveals the compassion he has for humanities ultimate need.

so much compassion so much love.. that the gospel is this that God in his love came down to earth, became human to pay the cost of sin for us. He lived the life we couldn’t, and he took the punishment for us when he went to the cross. He tooko on the punishment that we deserve for our rebellion.

So On the cross Jesus made forgiveness of sin accessibly for all eternity because he is eternal.

he makes our walking corpses alive. as he rose again threee days later he showed us the new life that we have in him. No longer unclean, no longer helpless trapped in our sin.

Until recently I lived in poole and you cannot miss the Big RNLI building and it reminds me as I pass it the picture it gives me… of us being like those helpless people the rnli go out to save... drowning in the depths of water… due to a mistake that we have made… and those volunteers go out to no small risk to themselves and pull those people out.

we rightly thank them for what they do, but what they do is only a shadow of what Jesus does for us… who doesn’t just risk himself but takes it all on for us.

The question really is how are we going to respond

How should we respond

In our passage we have a variety of responses.

1 reponse can be like the teachers of the Law: Ignore the obvious and come up with other conclusions

going through their response we firstly see them get something right. they work out that only God can forgive sins… which should give an them an obvious conlusion … that maybe this man is God… maybe this Jesus is in fact fullfilling scripture.

Yet they immediatly conclude that Jesus is blaspheming. They have ignored the obvious and later in Mark will show that they continue to ignore the obvious.

This is one way people respond to Jesus. They ignore the evidence presented to them and come up with other theories about who he is.

They critique and undermine the words in the bible - decalring them to be made up… even though there is so much evidence that backs up the words.

The fact that the people who wrote and shared these accounts often were killed for speaking about it.

I hope this morning instead of ignoring the evidence you examine it and be open to see the real Jesus.

another response we see here is the People: They are amazed but not much more.

They are amazed and praise God we are told… but Jesus has just done the impossible infront of them… he has declared himself God and yet none of these people are asking what they should do about it. None of them are seeing their need.

That is like many people who call themselves christians treat christ… they are amazed by him but they don’t follow him.

The reality is that is not enough… if we treat Jesus like this fairytale character who did some cool things .. never seeing beyond the surface we will rightly see no reason for him at all.

these first two reponses will never satisfy and never deal with our ultimate needs.

instead we should respond like firstly like those 4 men who brought the parylsed man to Jesus. the paralysed man and the men with leprosy

They all learnt somehting that day, they learnt that Jesus goes beyon our obvious need

We all need forgiveness and adoption into God’s family more than we need anything else or anyone else.

They all came to Jesus in humility asking for help, asking for him to do the impossible, and recieved Jesus’ overwhelming compassion.

That is what we need to do… we need to come to Jesus, recognise our ultimate need and recieve his amazing, lavish, abounding loving compassion. Put our helpless state into the hands of Jesus, to see him as the son of man, the son of God!

Once we have recieved him as our lord and saviour… the next response is also clear.

that we go and tell everyone else about him, to share this news with others.

we see this with the man with leproucy - He goes and tells everyone who will hear. He is so overwhelemed with what has happened to him that he wants to share Jesus with others.

Like with the 4 freinds our response should be bring our helpless freinds to the feet of Jesus. Invite them to come and see Jesus for themselves.

You see… a true response to Jesus is one that leads to action. one that leads to coming to his feet, recognisesing our helplessness, begging on our knees and recieveing him.

Jesus offers that for all of us.

You see God does care about the needs in the world… far more than we do and the great news is that he has done something about it… he is doing something about it and one day all of those problems will end.