Disciple 2: Hope for the Broken

Bookmarks & Needs:

B: Mark 1:40-2:17

N:

Opening

DON’T FORGET THE BUMPER!

Good morning! It is was absolutely freezing and snowing and crazy last week so we made the decision to not meet that day, but it’s good to be here together in person and online to worship our Lord and Savior this morning. While we definitely had some weather to contend with this week, the impact of those storms in the rest of the country has been severe. We need to be in prayer for the recovery of communities like those in Texas and the Carolinas who were so affected by these storms.

I wanted to let everyone know that beginning on March 3 (so not this week, but next), we will be having a weekly corporate prayer meeting at the building on Wednesday nights starting at 5:45 pm, in the choir room for now. Our primary focus for this meeting will be to come together and have a time of concentrated prayer for 30 minutes each week. The choir room is just beneath the stained glass cross behind me, and you will be able to park in the north lot and go directly into that room from the parking lot. I’m looking forward to us coming before the Lord together in prayer.

We’re on our second session of what will now be an eight session study through the Gospel of Mark that we’re calling Disciple: Hope in the Book of Mark. Our focal passage this morning is a bit longer than usual, Mark 1:40-2:17. Let’s stand together in honor of God’s Word as we read that together:

Mark 1:40–2:17 CSB

40 Then a man with leprosy came to him and, on his knees, begged him, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he told him. “Be made clean.” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 Then he sternly warned him and sent him away at once, 44 telling him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Yet he went out and began to proclaim it widely and to spread the news, with the result that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly. But he was out in deserted places, and they came to him from everywhere. 1 When he entered Capernaum again after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and he was speaking the word to them. 3 They came to him bringing a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying. 5 Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 But some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts: 7 “Why does he speak like this? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 Right away Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were thinking like this within themselves and said to them, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat, and walk’? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he told the paralytic—11 “I tell you: get up, take your mat, and go home.” 12 Immediately he got up, took the mat, and went out in front of everyone. As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” 13 Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 Then, passing by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him. 15 While he was reclining at the table in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who were following him. 16 When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

PRAYER (pray for recovery from storms for Texas and the Carolinas)

Two weeks ago, we started our look at Mark and the setting of the stage of the message of Mark’s Gospel by considering the announcement of the arrival of the Messiah by John the Baptist, and we saw that Jesus’ coming has past, present, and future ramifications: that Jesus was always in view in the OT, that the Gospels are completely focused on Him, and that His life and ministry define the focus of the church collectively, and define what it means individually to be His disciples.

Before we get to the study of our focal passage this morning, we need to pause for a moment to consider one additional thing that will help us as we continue through the rest of the series. When Jesus arrived on the scene of history, Almighty God in human flesh, the God-man, He announced the arrival of the Kingdom of God.

Mark 1:14–15 CSB

14 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: 15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

The announcement was simple: The time has come. the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the Gospel.

The Kingdom of God is the righteous rule and reign of God on the earth: both in the future when He restores all things, but also now, and especially in and through His faithful subjects, His people: Christians. The Kingdom of God is active and on the move, and everywhere we, His followers, go, we take the Kingdom with us as ambassadors, representatives. This church family, this body of believers, is an outpost, an embassy of the Kingdom, and we are called to impact the world with the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: not the “wishful thinking” kind of hope, but the confident assurance kind of hope.

While the word “hope” does not appear in Mark, and in fact, the Greek normally translated as “hope,” “hoped,” or “hoping” only appears 5 times in all of the Gospels combined, that doesn’t mean that hope is not present. Instead, we can see place after place in the Gospels where the arrival of the Kingdom of God brings hope.

One of the ways that the arrival of the Kingdom of God was made evident through Jesus was in His ministry to those who were shunned, marginalized, or outcast. He bucked religious convention and drew the ire of the religious establishment by challenging some of the ways they approached people who were sick, people who were broken, and people who were sinful. We are going to look at three such instances today.

1: Jesus touched the untouchable

I’m a hand-shaker and a hugger. Always have been since being taught the importance of a good handshake when I was younger, and I’ve probably been a hugger since high school. I have always appreciated the connection that both bring. So let me say that this is one additional place that COVID has been a frustration to me. Anyone here with me on this?

Touch is one of the biggest communicators of care and comfort. God designed us to need human touch. Even a gentle comforting touch from a stranger can help reduce stress, make us feel less isolated, and bring down our blood pressure and heart rate. Touch is vital for babies as they develop and grow. There is actually a condition called touch starvation, which can make us feel anxious, depressed, stressed, or even cause us to have trouble sleeping. I wonder how many of us have had to deal with this during the last year, as we’ve worked from home, had meetings on Zoom, watched everything online, and avoided contact with others? This has been a hard time for many for this very reason.

Imagine then if you were a leper in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry:

Mark 1:40 CSB

40 Then a man with leprosy came to him and, on his knees, begged him, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

The term “leprosy” was used generically for many skin maladies at the time. These were taken exceedingly seriously because of the possibility of spread, as well as the difficulty in curing them. There were special rules for those found to have leprosy, according to Leviticus 13:

Leviticus 13:45–46 CSB

45 “The person who has a case of serious skin disease is to have his clothes torn and his hair hanging loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ 46 He will remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.

A leper had to make himself look as bad as he could look: torn clothes, loose strangly hair, covering his face and declaring himself to be unclean to anyone who might draw near. Lepers were to keep a distance of 50 paces from anyone who approached. They weren’t allowed to live within the city walls until they were cleansed… and leprosy is only ever referred to in Scripture as being “cleansed,” not “cured,” or “healed.” If you touched a leper, then you were considered to be ceremonially unclean yourself.

Leprosy was more than just an illness. It was a sentence. People found to have leprosy lost their health, sure… but it was more than that: they also lost their comfort, their homes, their jobs, their families, and their fellowship in the worshiping community. They lost all physical connection to other people.

So the leper in our passage had a serious problem. He was completely and totally alone because of this disease. So he was desperate. He boldly approached Jesus directly, knowing that Jesus could make Him clean, if only He was willing to.

And Jesus’ action with the leper was scandalous for the time:

Mark 1:41–45 CSB

41 Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he told him. “Be made clean.” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 Then he sternly warned him and sent him away at once, 44 telling him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Yet he went out and began to proclaim it widely and to spread the news, with the result that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly. But he was out in deserted places, and they came to him from everywhere.

He touches him. We don’t know how long it had been since this leper had experienced human touch. But Jesus touches him, giving him not only the cleansing that he so desperately desired, but the comfort that he desperately needed as well.

This isn’t the only time that Jesus touched the untouchable. He touched sick people, blind people, deaf people, people who couldn’t speak, fearful people… He even touched a coffin and raised a dead boy to life. Jesus often touched the untouchable, and it changed their lives.

Then Jesus tells him to go and fulfill the requirements of the law for his cleansing as a testimony to those who would see it, and not to tell anyone about what Jesus had done (which of course the man doesn’t obey). So ironically, in a way Jesus actually trades places with the leper. Before he met Jesus, the leper couldn’t enter towns because of all the people. Afterwards, he could enter the towns, but Jesus couldn’t because of all of the people, and then it was Jesus who spent His time in “deserted” or “lonely” places.

Jesus displays a profound level of compassion here for someone who has lived a hopeless existence. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be like Him. We are also to touch the untouchable in order to bring comfort and healing. This is a task that has been made more difficult in the last year. But we can still bring comfort and hope as representatives of the Kingdom.

We can be there for people who are in pain. We can visit with them, call them, text them, just check on them. We can be available for those who are sick or hurting. We can be present with the lonely. We can help people to remember that they are not alone: that there are people who care about them and are willing to connect with them. I confess that I don’t always live this out, and I’m greatly convicted by the choice that Jesus made with this leper.

We are called to touch the untouchable, even if we can only do so without physically touching them.

2: Jesus forgave the unforgivable.

I said last week that Jesus was always in view in the past. This is because mankind’s oldest and most critical problem isn’t emotional or political or economic. In fact, it’s not even physical or visible. It’s sin—an eternally fatal condition that infects each of us. According to Scripture, each of us fails to live up to the standard that God has set to deserve eternal life: absolute moral perfection, both in thought and action, for our entire lives. This is the standard because this is who God is: completely perfect in every way. And it’s also why every sin is first and foremost a sin against Him, because He is the standard.

So in our focal passage, consider what happened between the paralytic and Jesus:

Mark 2:3–4 CSB

3 They came to him bringing a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying.

This paralytic had great friends. They would stop at nothing to bring their friend to Jesus, because they all (the paralytic included) believed that Jesus could heal him of his paralysis. When they couldn’t get in because of the crowd, they climbed up to the roof. Roofs in ancient Israel were kind of like a deck for us today—a deck overlaid with dirt. They were accessible by an exterior staircase or ladder, and they were made of beams or poles covered by smaller cross beams, sticks, and thatch, and then covered in mud. People would use the outside of their roofs to dry clothes or vegetation, or to just catch a breeze on a hot day. These guys literally dug through the roof. Dirt must have been falling on the heads of those inside (which ordinarily would have been an insult). But they didn’t care. They were focused on their goal: get their paralyzed friend to Jesus so that he could be made well.

They thought they understood what his greatest problem was. They were wrong.

Mark 2:5 CSB

5 Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Instead of healing this man of his paralysis, Jesus sees his faith (as well as the faith of his friends), and declares not that his paralysis is healed, but that his sins are forgiven.

Scholars debate whether Jesus did this because this man’s sin had actually caused his paralysis in a very direct way. I don’t think we can know for sure, but I’m not sure it matters. What we can know for sure is that Jesus knew that this man’s sinfulness was a much greater problem than the fact that his legs didn’t work. So here, Jesus dealt with the greater issue. And the religious leaders looking on (interestingly enough, so crowded into the house that the paralytic couldn’t come in the door), are incensed over it.

Mark 2:6–7 CSB

6 But some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts: 7 “Why does he speak like this? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

And they’re right. There isn’t a means in the Jewish faith that allows a rabbi to declare sins to be forgiven. So this man is not only paralyzed, but unforgivable. Only God can forgive sins. Which is exactly what has just happened. Jesus knows what’s going on in their hearts though, and addresses it directly:

Mark 2:8–11 CSB

8 Right away Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were thinking like this within themselves and said to them, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat, and walk’? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he told the paralytic—11 “I tell you: get up, take your mat, and go home.”

Obviously, it would be easier to just tell the man that his sins are forgiven. No one can prove that, and there’s no externally verifiable evidence that it has taken place. So Jesus does one better: He says that the proof of the fact He has authority to forgive sins will be shown in His authority over the man’s useless legs. He commands him to get up, take the mat that he was lying on, and go home.

Mark 2:12 CSB

12 Immediately he got up, took the mat, and went out in front of everyone. As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

The healing of this man’s physical needs was secondary to the healing of his spiritual infirmity. He was in sin, which separated him from God. He needed the Lord’s forgiveness first and foremost. Before coming to Jesus, he had very little physical hope because of his paralysis, but he had zero spiritual hope because of his sinfulness. Without Jesus, he would have stayed in that hopeless state.

And without Jesus, so do we. Our sin separates us from God as well. Just like the paralytic, we need the forgiveness that only comes through Christ. Jesus took our place, bearing our spiritual sickness, our brokenness, our rebellion, and our shame. He paid the price for all of it so that we could have peace with God.

Isaiah 53:4–5 CSB

4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.

Jesus died for us. But He also rose again, defeating death for us. And He lives forever, because death no longer has any power over Him.

The hope, the confident assurance that comes from the Gospel is mankind’s greatest need. Without it, we’re lost and headed for eternity without God, separated from His loving presence for all eternity. But if we trust in Jesus to save us, surrendering our lives to Him by faith, then we are forgiven and made right with God. Our relationship to Him is restored. We also will defeat death by rising from the grave just like Jesus, and we will live forever in the presence of God because of what He has done for us. This is the message of the Gospel. This is the hope of the disciple of Jesus.

Have you surrendered your life to Christ? Do you belong to Him? Are you following Him? Give up your life to Him, and live forever with Him.

One more point of application here: if you are a believer, a disciple of Jesus, one who believes that Jesus saves by forgiving the unforgivable (because you were an unforgivable once), then we have a mandate, a mission from the One we follow to be like Him, sharing the message of the hope found in the Gospel to those who need it. We are to be like the four men, bringing our broken friends to the foot of Jesus in desperation because we know that only Jesus can heal them. Do we have that kind of passion, that kind of drive, to help our friends know forgiveness, healing, and eternal life? We should, brothers and sisters.

So Jesus touched the untouchable, He forgave the unforgivable, and He also befriended the unfriendable.

3: Jesus befriended the unfriendable.

I wasn’t sure if “unfriendable” was a word, but it kind of is… it’s really a young word. But you get what I’m saying, right?

We saw in chapter 1 that Jesus touched the leper and cleansed Him. He showed Him great compassion and took a societal risk in doing so. However, the last encounter that we look at this morning was perhaps actually worse from a cultural perspective. Jesus invited, visited, and ate with the worst of the worst, and his worst of the worst friends.

Mark 2:13–16 CSB

13 Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 Then, passing by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him. 15 While he was reclining at the table in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who were following him. 16 When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Levi, who also had another name—Matthew—was a Hebrew man who served the Roman government as a tax collector. The Israelites would have seen him as a traitor for a couple of reasons: 1) he worked for the government that was occupying their sovereign lands; and 2) tax collecting was all about greed—the government didn’t keep close tabs on how MUCH a tax collector collected from people, so long as he met the quota for his district. So he could, and they often did, collect more than was actually due so that he could line his pockets with the difference. It was government-sponsored theft. Or maybe extortion.

So Hebrew tax collectors were a special brand of sinner. They didn’t even get to be lumped into the term “sinners.” And no doubt Levi’s parents had had high hopes for his life: they named him after the patriarch of the priestly tribe. Levi was likely a disgrace to his family and hated by his society. He was hopeless. So when this itinerant rabbi Jesus comes along, and invites Levi to follow Him, Levi forsakes His tax collecting booth and follows. Jesus has befriended the unfriendable.

Levi invites Jesus over to his house, likely for his “goodbye” party, since he is leaving to follow Jesus. He invites all of his friends, a bunch of other unfriendables, over and they have dinner with Jesus. The language really makes it seem as if it’s actually Jesus who is hosting the party, instead of Levi. Jesus was at the very least the guest of honor, even though it was Levi’s goodbye party.

And again the religious leaders have a problem. He’s eating with sinners… and tax collectors. Eating together was considered one of the most intimate expressions of friendship, and here Jesus was reclining at the table of a tax collector with other tax collectors. This is no way for a religious man to act. Why is He doing that? Jesus answers simply: because they need Him.

Mark 2:17 CSB

17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

As backwards as it would seem for a doctor to only ever see people who are well, so it would be for Jesus to only spend His time with perfect people. Jesus said that He’s having dinner with those people because they truly need Him: it’s why He came, in fact—to call sinners.

Interestingly, it appears that the sinners and tax collectors were closer to Jesus than the religious elite were, because the religious elite must have been outside looking in, because being where those sinners were would have been unacceptable to them.

Notice that Jesus didn’t demand that everyone fix their lives before they came in the door. Instead, He called Levi, who called his friends together, and they came to Jesus just as they were—warts and all. When Jesus said He didn’t come to call the righteous, He was meaning the self-righteous—those who thought they were already perfect. Certainly none of the people in that house saw themselves that way. They were all hated by their people. They were the sick ones. The sinful ones.

Last week, I heard all of Matthew West’s most recent song “Truth Be Told” for the first time. The second verse says this:

There’s a sign on the door, says, “Come as you are,” but I doubt it.

‘Cause if we lived like it was true, every Sunday morning pew would be crowded.

But didn’t You say the church should look more like a hospital:

A safe place for the sick, the sinner, and the scarred, and the prodigals?

Is Eastern Hills a safe place to not be perfect—a place where people can come and hear the message of the Gospel, where they can find love and care from a group of believers who are living out what it means to follow Jesus? A place where they can find hope? Is it a place where we love each other and pray for each other and encourage each other, and where we correct each other because of our love of each other and for Jesus? That’s my desire, and I pray it’s yours as well.

I watch my social media feeds and they are often so filled with us clamoring to say what we are against. And there’s a place and a time for that, certainly. But the thing that bothers me about it all isn’t that we stand against what we oppose, but how poorly we do at declaring boldly what we are actually for: that we actually belong to Jesus, and it doesn’t matter what someone’s skin color is, or what their past is, or what their political affiliation is, or what their stance on this or that issue is, or what their job is—we’re going to love you anyway, because Jesus loved people that were living in ways that He disagreed with, so that they could find hope in Him.

He certainly didn’t condone extortion, or theft, or whatever other sins the “sinners” at the table with Him had committed. Of course not. But He knew that sinners who came to Him were going to be sinful. And His goal was to save sinners. If He refused to be in relationship with sinners, how would they every be saved? In fact, all of us were them at one point.

Ephesians 2:1–5 CSB

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

If we’re going to live as disciples of Jesus, then we are called to be a people who spread His love, who spread His grace, who spread His hope, who spread His peace, so that others would know that God loves them, and that He proved that love by giving His Son so that they might have eternal life through faith in Him. We are to speak the truth in love, and to love others in truth.

Closing

Are we like Jesus? Do we reach out and touch the untouchable? Come alongside those who are hurting to bring comfort and peace? Do we befriend those on the fringes, or those with whom we disagree, so that we can serve them in the name of Christ? Are we like the paralytic’s friends, who would stop at nothing to get their friend who needed Jesus to Him?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I believe that repentance is in order for us. We are called to love as Jesus loved, and we so often refuse or fail to do so. I know that I do. During our reflection time in just a moment, spend time with the Father, confessing your rejection of the example of Jesus.

Those who are hearing this who have never surrendered their lives to Christ in faith, who are not followers of Jesus—God loves you and wants to be in a relationship with you. He wants you to know Him personally, and that only comes through faith in Jesus. Give up going your own way, and trust in Christ. I would love to talk with you about that, and as people leave this morning, please stay in your seats so that I can find you. If you’re online and you would like to talk more about following Jesus, or if you’ve surrendered to Christ this morning, send me an email and let me know.

If you believe that Eastern Hills is a church family where you can learn and grow and serve, and you want to talk about formal membership, please stay in your seats as we dismiss this morning. Or send me an email if you’re online and you live in the Albuquerque area.

You can also use our reflection time to give online as the Lord leads you. If you want to give in person, you can use the plates by the doors on your way out.

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

NMEC starts tomorrow at Hoffmantown. Monday night, all day Tuesday. Pre-registration is closed, but you can still just show up. Doors and registration start at 4:30. The singing group Selah is leading in worship starting at 6 pm.

Started reading the Gospel of Mark last week as our church-wide reading, and today we should be reading Mark 8 if you’re following along.

Instructions

Benediction:

1 John 4:20–21 CSB

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.