Resetting the Boundary Markers

3rd Sunday of Epiphany   January 21, 2024

3rd in the Gospel of Mark series:  Mark 2:1-3:35

As we enter Chapters 2 and 3, we already know that Jesus is linked to the prophets and particularly to John the Baptist; that Jesus can heal all kind is diseases, even leprosy and that he can command and expel demons; that those he calls promptly follow.

Now we see Jesus addressing a new sphere--one that challenges core beliefs and social norms. 

His reputation for healing goes unabated and in Chapter 2 Mark tells of a group of concerned friends who bring a man paralyzed. Jesus is teaching within a house and there are so many people they can’t gain entry. So they take to the roof. The houses in those days had flat roofs that served as a terrace and was gained by an outer stone staircase. 

These men carry their pallet-bound friend up to the roof. They assess where they think Jesus is and begin removing the roof tiles, creating a hole big enough accommodate the pallet. They lower the pallet to Jesus. Think about this scene. People are intent on hearing Jesus, some of whom are standing outside pressing near the door and windows. Some are disrupted as the men with the paralytic friend try to move by them to get into the house. They resist. Soon the crowd hears scuffling and clanking above and start to see a cavity open up in the ceiling. I envision Jesus continuing without interruption as people start to watch what’s unfolding above their heads. There are probably a few tense moments as the friends maneuver the pallet through the hole and level it. It descends. At some point Jesus stops talking and Mark tells us that seeing their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” 

Two things to note: First is the pronoun; it’s plural. Jesus sees their faith. Now it’s a bit ambiguous whether he’s including the paralytic or if Jesus is referring only to the friends who have undertaken this enterprise. If it’s just the friends, then this says something about faith (or prayer). That the faith of others can be efficacious for someone else. That’s why we believe in intercessory prayer. There’s no reason to think the paralytic isn’t included except for what it is Jesus says to him. Seeing their faith, he says to the paralytic, “Child your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus immediately senses a reaction within the crowd. Some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” It is at this juncture that Mark introduces us to a new company of people: Scribes. Those who study the Torah, who interpret the Torah and debate among themselves what this or that verse means. They are teachers. They don’t just expound in the synagogue on Sabbath but they hold classes for male children and youth. They are the experts regarding the Scripture and its instructions on how to live in keeping with God’s Law.

So in their minds, Jesus has said something they define as blasphemous. To their way of thinking Jesus has elevated himself as equal to God. The One whose true name cannot be spoken. No one can forgive sin except the High and Holy One. 

It’s important here that we remember the view held in that day that infirmity was an indication of sin in the sufferer’s life. Remember in the Gospel of John where the disciples ask Jesus “who sinned that this man was born blind.”  So Jesus takes this mistaken belief head on by asking those scribes what’s easier, to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’?  

Now remember, so far the paralytic, though forgiven, is still paralyzed. Jesus reveals that he does indeed have the authority to forgive sins by now saying to the man, “I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.” The man stands up and immediately takes up his own mat and walks out. Visualize the shuffling that takes place as people make way for him. Feel the electricity in that crowd. See the astonished faces of those scribes. They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Theology and conventional thinking turned on their heads.

Jesus now turns to calling more disciples and he begins with a man called Levi. Now unlike

Peter, James and John, who were peasants but of good reputation. Levi, not so much.

He was considered a collaborator with the despised Roman empire because he collected Roman taxes. It was also common knowledge that some collectors cheated the people by charging more than necessary and pocketing the excess. 

Why on earth would Jesus pick him!  But not only does he pick him. He accepts a dinner invitation to his house where he sits a table with other such betrayers -- sinners -- social and religious outcasts. The religious leaders remark that no holy person would do such a thing. 

Jesus answers their criticism with the question: Would not a physician spend time with the sick?  The implication here is that Jesus, who has already demonstrated he has the authority to forgive sins, can attend to those who are deemed sinful. A physician heals.

Jesus heals and so demonstrates that God’s salvation is inclusive. All are worthy.

Theology and conventional thinking turned on their heads.

The next controversy that arises is about fasting and sabbath observance.

Jesus is traveling with his disciples now and folks observe that his disciples don’t fast like the disciples of John the Baptist did. Why don’t they fast? they ask.

Jesus answers the question of fasting by asking what guests of a bridegroom do? Would they fast at his wedding? Doing so would be considered a great insult. No. They would relish the banquet in celebration of the bridegroom. Folks witnessing this conversation would have harkened to John the Baptist’s call to Make Way for the Anointed One….prepare to celebrate the arrival of the Messiah. Fasting would not be a proper response.

Now again Jesus’ disciples are criticized for picking grain on the Sabbath. Jesus answers this thinking about Sabbath by reminding the people that the revered King David took not grain on a Sabbath, but holy, consecrated food from the temple to satisfy his and his men’s hunger. Jesus explains that the Sabbath isn’t about the observance of legalistic dos and don’ts, rather it’s a gift from God for the wellbeing of humankind.  

Now Jesus isn’t giving permission to ignore Sabbath observance (sadly, today, all too many believers abandon gathering together in joint praise and worship of God). Right after Jesus says the Sabbath was made for humankind, he says So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. By referencing the title Son of Man, Jesus links himself to the Coming of the Lord: the Lord of the Sabbath bringing the day of salvation: the time of healing, forgiveness, the making right our relationship with God. The biblical scholar Pheme Perkins puts it this way: Those who never consider corporate worship an important part of faith should reconsider whether Jesus is Lord for them. (NIB vol vii, p557)

Theology and conventional thinking turned on its head.

Now we come to the response to these controversial encounters. 

Jesus’ extended family--his kin--if you will are worried about and probably for him so they come to take him back home, thinking him of unsound mind.  At the same time, the religious teachers accuse him of being possessed by Beelzebub (the prince of the demons). Jesus counters this in two ways: first he reveals the fallacy of their logic: why would such a prince war against his followers? Makes no sense. Second, he raises the bar by answering them, not with the reference to Beelzebub but to the Adversary (Satan) : the one who opposes God and all who follow God. The two entities are not the same. To their way of thinking Beelzebub reigned over a confined realm the evidence of which were behaviors we today would consider mental illness or epilepsy. Jesus refers to the great Adversary who seeks to counter the Almighty God and all who are in right relationship with God. Now who might that include in these stories?

We conclude now with the arrival of Mary and Jesus’ brothers and sisters--his immediate family. They relay a message to Jesus inside the house asking him to come out to them.

Jesus may have gone out to them. The text doesn’t say, but before he does anything, he says: Here are my mother, my brothers, my sisters. Whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, my mother.  Jesus thus names his family -- his kin -- as those who do the will of God. He is also highlighting that attachments to family, village, and traditional ties and thinking can keep a person from doing the will of God.

There’s a lot to absorb from these stories and their implications for us. Let me highlight a couple of take-ways. 

The story of the paralytic reveals that God does not approve of the divisions we humans create between those we think are righteous and those we think are sinners. In other words, the conclusions we draw about the state of a person’s relationship with God based on our list of what we name as sin are not ours to make. We say a gay couple are sinners. We say a doctor who performs an abortion is a sinner. We say a person who is alcoholic is a sinner; our list goes on and no two lists are the same, are they? Jesus is saying that all are worthy of God’s mercy. And only God knows who among us are “seeking to do the will of God.”  So when some Christian says someone else or some collection of folks are sinners. We should vocally and robustly refute them.

This story also tells us that forgiveness and healing are linked. Feeling forgiven, accepting forgiveness heals us. Individuals plagued by a cloud of guilt or self-hatred, not able to accept the mercy and compassion of God rob themselves of the making-whole work of God’s salvation.  And what does it say when we are unable to confer forgiveness for another?  This story calls us to inventory ourselves for grievances unforgiven.

These stories as a collection speak to the reality that Truth upsets people. When God shows up -- when people who are sincerely and devotedly doing the will of God show up -- the hypocrisy of our askew-ness is brought to light and we recoil. We don’t want our theological, sociological, cultural framework challenged, do we? We don’t like it when the wrongness of any one of these things is highlighted because it would mean we have to change our way of thinking, our way of doing, our way of being. We would do well to ask ourselves now in our day, why so many of us are so reticent to admit that we hold, unwittingly and unknowingly though they be, embedded biases against people of color? or that our society is rife with systemic bias against people of color? 

Those are big applications, not to be ignored, but what about how we sometimes react when music we’re not use to is introduced into Sunday service? or when someone suggests a different style of worship or an entirely different way of being the church is put forward?

Do we see what Mark is trying to teach us about Jesus? about what matters to God? and what doesn’t?   Things to ponder, yes?

L Quanstrom