Sick, Separated, and Sinnful

Intro

James Webb Space Telescope

Two Images.

1. MIRI (mid-infrared) = can see through things that block our vision

2. Red shift = distance

Can see the beginning from the end.

Today, we’ll look at a section of scripture that shows Jesus seeing what’s hidden, and of being able to see the end from the beginning

Pray

Mark 2:1–17 NLT

1 When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. 2 Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, 3 four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. 4 They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. 5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.” 6 But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, 7 “What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!” 8 Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 9 Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, 11 “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” 12 And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!” 13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him. 15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) 16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” 17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

The Obvious Problem Is…

What a scene! Jesus teaching, large crowds. A loud commotion on the roof. The hole - dirt, debris, sky threw the new hole. It would have taken a decent amount of time. They would have had everyones attention!

What are they doing? The paralyzed man would have been laying on the roof out of sight of Jesus and the crowd. Finally enough room to lower the man down.

Ah ha! Now I see what is happening. NOW I know what’s going to happen. Jesus is going to...

FORGIVE HIS SINS?!?!?

Everybody was certain to be caught of guard by that! The paralyzed man - Wait, thanks, I think. But I was hoping for something more.

The Friends - We did all that for forgiveness of sins? That’s important, but was all this necessary for that?

The Crowds - Those guys got roof all over my clean tunic!

The Disciples - Following this Jesus is more unpredictable than a Galilean storm!

The Scribes - “What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”

A break from expectation is an important ingredient in comedy, and in driving home a point. This is both!

I hope you see the humor. But what is the point?

Jesus was drawing a connection between sin and sickness. But not the connection that was all too common. That sickness - even congenital conditions - was a result of individual sin. It can be…

Jesus’ parallel is that sin is the sickness of the soul. Mal-formed, non-functioning, diseased, paralyzed, infectious, contagious, terminal!

Much worse that his legs not working was the sin that was death to his soul. For Jesus, that was the clear greater issue of the guilt of sin. “I can clearly see what the problem is”, Jesus’ actions tell us, “his sins need to be forgiven.”

The healing of his legs become the background and illustration. “As I have forgiven sins removing the road block to God’s presence, now stand up, be healed physically and go home!”

FILL IN??

The physical healing was like baptism. An outward expression of what Jesus had already done inwardly.

And that was the forgiveness of sin. By His eventual death on the cross to pay for the penalty of sin for this particular paralyzed man. Through faith, not only his faith but that of his friends.

Jesus saw through the clouds and saw the real problem - sin. And He made sure that was the issue addressed.

This addresses the forgiveness of sin. But Jesus’ next encounter address the cleansing from sin.

Levi And The Merry Rascals

Jesus continues calling and setting apart disciples. The most deserving, well qualified, smartest guys - he passes them up. He finds those on the edges of society.

And it wasn’t as if it was just those who were poor or not from well connected families. They were on the edge of religious society. This passage calls the crowd around Levi disreputable sinners. This was the tree Levi was picked from.

It seems likely, but not certain that Levi and Matthew are one and the same. The bible never states that plainly as in in Simon Peter. But comparing gospels and backgrounds, it’s likely. In Mark 3:18 we have a list of disciples and we find not Matthew but James as the son of Alphaeus. Maybe two Alphaeus’? Maybe Levi/Matthew and James are brothers?

That this is left as an odd and difficult explanation is telling. If this account were not true and there wasn’t a plane explanation for it at the time, why would you leave it like this? It’s fingerprints like this that lend to the truth claims of the Bible.

Back at the table. Jesus is eating with a whole house full of people he shouldn’t. Tax collectors and… rascals. There is an exchange with the religious establishment folks who probably weren’t invited, but heard the gossip.

They ask , “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” A fair question. Especially if they realized the actual nature of Jesus! The scribes and pharisees knew all too well the current state of disrepute Jesus’ companions displayed. Yet the perfect son of God had no problem dinning with them.

Why?

Because while the pharisees saw the now, Jesus sees the end. He understood the redeemed state. He could see the end from the beginning.

This was Jesus’ response. He came to heal. It wasn’t hard to look at the law and see how condemned someone was. God didn’t need to send His Son to do that!

He came to heal and restore.

John 10:10 ESV

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

The Physicians Remedy

It’s that new and abundant life God calls us to. We are called out of sickness into healing.

We all encounter Jesus sick, separated, and sinful. But Jesus is our physician.

He calls us, as He called the paralyzed man, to be healed that we might stand right now in the presence of God

He called us, as He called Levi, to be healed by the ongoing presence of the Himself as our physician.

These are discipleship.

Discipleship is both the state and the process of remedying our ailments.

When we accept Christ’s offer of salvation, we are counted clean and clear. We are home. Our state is saved. Our names sealed in the Book of Life.

But from the perspective of now, we’re still quite rotten. So the process of time with the physician begins. The chorus of the hymn In The Garden says:

And he walks with me and he talks with me And he tells me I am his own And the joy we share as we tarry there None other has ever known

This is the personal, progressive work of Jesus the physician in our lives. He finds us at the beginning, but can see our complete state, like the sculptor sees the figure in the rough stone.

Take courage then, when we see and feel our roughness. When we echo Pauls refrain “Oh wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of sin and death?” He begs the question. The answer is clear. Our wonderful savior saves us IN this body of death. And He saves us from it.

So what is Jesus’ remedy for us? Time. Time with Jesus in prayer, in reading the bible. Time with Jesus is prescription that transforms us, transports us from the world of darkness, sin, and death into His Kingdom of marvelous light.

So that is His call for us through this passage today. Will you follow Jesus, sit with Him, and take the balm He offers?

Pray