Mark 2:1-17 - Caring for the Discarded

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are continuing our study in the Gospel of Mark. And this gospel is one that's written to the Roman people.

These are the go-getters. These are the action people. They want to get right into, all right, and then what was done?

What were the incredible things that happened? And Mark has been going kind of play by play through that with us. Jesus is baptized, and then Jesus is tempted by Satan.

Then Jesus calls his disciples. Then Jesus heals the sick. He casts out the demons.

He heals the lepers. He gets fame and accolades and praises from all sorts of people, but he's not content to just be praised. He wants to reach and care for those that have not heard his message yet.

And so he's not pursuing, he's not just enjoying the praises of people. Instead, he's going to try and find those that need help, that need healing, that need him, that need the Lord. So we are in Mark 2 today.

And kind of one of Jesus' home bases, if you will, was the city of Capernaum. And it's where most of his ministry is recorded as having taken place there.

And he has some trips that he takes to various places at different times, but Capernaum was kind of his home base. And that's where we find ourselves in Mark 2 and verse 1.

When he entered Capernaum again after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many people gathered together. There was, sorry, so many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway.

And he was speaking the word to them. Man, what a packed house it was here. You have a standing room only mega church with Jesus as the pastor, as many mega churches as meet in a single home.

Verse number three, it says, they came to him bringing a paralytic carried by four of them. So here's a person, he can't do anything for himself. He's paralyzed, he's been carried by four of his friends.

Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they weren't even able to get near him, they removed the roof above him. And after digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying.

Okay, so good thing to note for architecture during this time period, your roofs were flat. So you would normally be able to like sit on the roof, eat a meal, have a conversation, like all those things could happen on a roof of a building.

And there were normally like stairs or something that would go up to that or a ladder. As in this instance, it was probably stairs up to the roof. And they care about this friend so much.

They believe so much that Jesus can and will help their friend that they don't care about, in one sense, they don't even necessarily care about the home owner, if you will, as much as they care about helping out this friend.

I'm sure there was a thought in their mind that went, okay, this roof was put together once, we can help re-whatever it, but we don't know how long this teacher, this healer is going to be around.

And this might be the only chance that our friend has. And so we're gonna get him to Jesus no matter what. Verse number five, seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven.

Wow, Jesus here, it doesn't say like because of their faith that this paralytic's sins were forgiven.

It might've been that the paralytic was the one that had convinced or told these people like, hey, I've heard about this Jesus and I believe that he can heal me. And it might've been that his faith spurned on their faith, spurred on their faith.

But Jesus, seeing how much they have done to care for this person, seeing this person who has been scorned, who would have had really nothing in this world that he could look forward to, a hopeless person, Jesus tells him, your sins are forgiven.

Okay, that wasn't really the reason why the friends brought this paralytic to Jesus. They didn't come so that the paralyzed would have his sins forgiven. So this seems like kind of an oddity.

Okay, well, why does Jesus say that? Well, Jesus proclaims this forgiveness of sins, and then verse number six, some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does he speak like this? He's blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone? They go, hey, he can't do that. Like, sins are only forgiven by God through the way that God set up with the sacrifices and all of that.

Verse number eight, right away, Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were thinking like this within themselves, and he said to them, why are you thinking these things in your hearts?

Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up, take your mat and walk?

So Jesus goes, okay, if I tell him to be healed, to walk again, or if I tell him your sins are forgiven, which one of those is like an easier statement to say?

Verse number 10, he says, but so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he told the paralytic, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home.

Wow, so Jesus here makes very clear to the scribes, the ones that knew the Word of God, he calls himself the Son of Man.

Here taking that Messianic title from the Book of Daniel where the Son of Man comes, he defeats this world's kingdoms and he is set up forever in glory beside Yahweh, beside the Father.

So he tells him exactly who he is, I am the Messiah, I am the Son of Man, and I have authority on earth to forgive sins. Wow, Jesus has the authority to forgive your sins and mine. We do not have the authority to forgive our own sins.

We don't even have the authority to forgive the sins of others in the sense that Jesus did. But here Jesus says it takes someone who has the right to do this thing.

And he says, I want to be very clear, God alone has the right to forgive sins and I am forgiving sins. He makes it as clear as possible. This is who I am.

But then he says, but so that you will know that what I'm saying is the truth, that his sins really are forgiven. He says, I'm gonna tell him to be healed, to get up, take his mat and go home.

Immediately, verse 12, 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. Man, when Jesus works, it goes to the glory of God.

And that's exactly what happened here in this passage. Verse number 13, Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd was coming to him and he was teaching them.

Then passing by, he saw Levi, the son of Alpheus sitting at the toll booth. And he said to him, follow me. And he got up and followed him.

Okay, nowadays, we don't understand this. Not in the way that they did back then.

So the tax collectors, the publicans, were those that they were Jewish people and they had, if you will, betrayed their country and their fellow Israelites by aligning themselves with Rome to collect taxes.

So Rome would say, hey, we want this much in taxes. And the tax collectors would get that, but they would also tell the people, hey, you owe, like let's say Rome said, okay, we want three shekels.

While the tax collector would go to the people and say, hey, you need to give five shekels. And so they would get a cut off the top, whatever they wanted.

And you couldn't really say no because then the tax collector, the publicans, would tell the Roman soldiers, all right, this person doesn't want to pay his taxes to Caesar.

And so there was just a lot of very bad blood between the tax collectors, the publicans, and the people of Israel.

And so as Jesus is going through here, he's had some fishermen that he's called his disciples, but now he's calling a publican, a tax collector, someone that, yeah, he might be good with money.

You can't see it, but I'm doing air quotes here, audio podcast listeners. He's good with money, but he's a dishonest person. He's a traitor to his country.

He's a traitor to God. He's aligned with Rome. And yet, Jesus says, follow me, and it says, and he got up and followed him.

Wow. Abandoning prestige amongst Rome. Abandoning the safety of always having Roman guards or soldiers with him so that people wouldn't get after him.

Verse 15, so Levi is now going with Jesus. We would know him by the name he's given later. I don't think it's mentioned here in this passage, is Matthew, who wrote the Gospel of Matthew.

So it says, while Jesus was reclining at the table in Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who were following him.

Here, people that used to be extortioners, people that used to have their whole lives wrapped up, like their character description is that they were sinners, and yet they were now following Jesus.

I've heard sometimes some oddities phrased with Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, and I want to be clear on a couple of points.

So people have sometimes used it to say, hey, I can have close friends and relationships with anyone, regardless of whether or not they follow Jesus, because Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners.

The Bible also says that the one that walks with wise men will be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed. The apostle Paul would write evil communications, evil relationships, corrupt good character.

And so there's one sense in which we ought to watch who we make our closest friends and make sure that we place a priority on those that follow Jesus. There's a point there.

There's another line of thought that says the only reason that Jesus was with these people was because he was preaching against them, and that is not in the passage.

Jesus had called them to follow him, to repent and believe, and these people were doing so.

But it didn't mean that maybe they were no longer a tax collector, or it didn't mean even as there's this characterization of who they are, there's somewhat common thought that this would have even included those that were immoral physically,

possibly prostitutes or people that were now hearing about the Jesus way, and they were growing, they were learning in their following of him. If you are not friends with, if you don't know anyone that's unsaved, we're not really following the Jesus

way. Like, let's pursue those that are viewed as outsiders.

Let's pursue those that maybe don't know Jesus, and maybe because, you know, growing up, it was like, oh, you know, if a person's got a ton of tattoos, man, that might be a dangerous person to be around.

Like, put aside all of the cultural things that would say, okay, you can write this person off. Pursue people. Love them.

Like, let them know who Jesus is.

Invite them to follow Jesus, and realize that the work of both justification of becoming a Christian and sanctification of behaving like a Christian, that that's the work of the Holy Spirit in people's lives that might take some time.

So don't condone sin. Don't say it doesn't matter if I follow Jesus or in my actions and words and behavior with this crowd. Don't have that attitude.

But also realize you can interact with people in more ways than just you're going to hell.

There's a middle ground there of going through life, of sharing meals with people that are, in one sense, they're not yet who they will one day be with the Lord. That maybe they're not great model Christians yet, but that you would invite them to be.

And how will they know what it looks like to be a Christian, to follow Christ if you're not interacting with them? And more so than just, hey, you need to do this, this, and this, and then you can hang out with me.

Then you can be my friend once you shape up in these areas. Here Jesus is going to people that they're identifying markers. They are disloyal extortioners, and they are sinners.

And Jesus here, he spends time with them, he eats with them. And verse 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?

Verse 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 to repentance.

Here, Jesus says, I'm not going to spend my time around those that think that they are just A-OK with God. The scribes wanted Jesus to spend all this time with the scribes, with the Pharisees, with the religious.

And Jesus says, that's not who I'm here for. Like, yes, I have, you know, obviously they're around Jesus enough that they can see who he's eating with. So he says, you have proximity to me.

He says, but I'm also going to spend my time caring for those that realize that their lives are in shambles, that they need something different than what they currently have, and I'm going to care for them.

And the church has been described as it's not supposed to be like a museum of the best and the righteous. It's supposed to be a hospital.

And in the sense that we care for those that need Christ, that need his Holy Spirit, that need to be brought to new life in Christ, that is absolutely true.

It doesn't mean that we don't have any focus on teaching or doctrine, but it does mean that we have a primary focus, like Jesus did, on I'm preaching the good news, I'm preaching the gospel, and it doesn't matter if it's to a scribe, it doesn't

matter if it's to a tax collector, I'm inviting everyone into God's new kingdom. Gonna close with verses 18 through, actually, no, I'm gonna leave that for next episode, because it goes right in hand, verses 18 through chapter 3 and verse number 6,

all goes together, so I'm gonna leave that alone for today. Okay, what did we learn from today?

Number one, you can play a part in bringing people to Jesus, like these four men, that it didn't matter if they had to dig through the roof of the building, they were making sure that this guy was getting to Jesus.

Have some faith that as you bring people to Jesus, that he will save them, that as you invite them to church, hey, it might not be every person, it might only be one in every 10 people you invite, one in every 20 people you invite, but know that

Jesus is powerful enough to save, and have that faith that then Jesus will forgive the sins of those that you love and those that you know. Have a realization that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins.

So when Satan tells you to despair and tells you about all the things you're doing wrong and how you are failing, remember that your sins are forgiven and let that motivate you to follow Jesus.

Call out to him, ask him like, Lord, hope me defeat this sin. He will hear and he will answer.

It might not be right away, it might be over time, but realize that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins and he is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Realize that even if you are hated and despised by people, maybe because of things you've done, like here Matthew the tax collector, realize that God can still have a purpose and a plan for your life.

Realize who Jesus is, he is God and he is the one that we are to turn to. And then here as the Pharisees, they're judging Jesus for who he will allow into God's kingdom. Here they are judging Jesus for caring about people that are not perfect yet.

Let's make an intentional point of befriending and loving and caring for and sharing the gospel with and sharing meals with and spending time with those that do not yet know Christ, that aren't following the Lord yet. Why would we do that?

Because Jesus did it. And may we be his disciples, may we be his followers, caring for people knowing that God can turn extortioners and Rome lovers. Jesus can turn those people into those that write the gospel of Matthew.

And God can do wonderful things as we follow him, obey him, believe in him. I'm going to include in this episode some couple of songs that are wonderful from this portion of scripture. And it's Tear Off The Roof by Brandon Lake.

And My Name Is Lazarus by the group Greater Vision. Both are excellent songs that will make you think about this story. Thanks for tuning in.

And we'll finish out Chapter 2 and go into Chapter 3 tomorrow. Thank you for watching.