October 9, 2013
Mark 1:40-2:12
Miracles
- Jesus and the Leper 1:40-45
- Jesus and the Paralytic 2:1-12
Growing up, I think I was about 10, when I realized that my Granddaddy’s heart was a ticking time-bomb. And from then, until he passed away when I was 21----I never doubted, not one time that when He continued to live after, yet again, another heart attack, that it was my prayers that were being answered. As an adult, I cannot believe what a miracle it was that he survived 12 of them, But as a child, I didn’t even question it, I just trusted completely that the Lord would heal him every time.
I understood on some level, that it would only happen if it was the Lord’s will, but in my mind----- I thought that He had done it so many times, why wouldn’t He continue to do it.
And when he did pass away, I never questioned that either-----I was a nurse by that time, so I knew physiologically how broken his heart was, and I knew that he was so tired and weary, that the Lord had decided that it was time for them to meet face to face. He was 79 when he went to be with Jesus.
But about 8 years after that, I had a good friend that passed away, because of a very aggressive brain tumor-----her name was Mary Kathryn Talton. And in my characteristic fashion, I believed with all my heart that the Lord would heal her---in my mind, why would He not----she was a faithful believer, she was a young wife and mother, she was a good friend to everybody and she had so much to offer, in so many ways---- and she was only 32 years old.
And again, on some level, I knew that it would only happen if the Lord willed it------but I believed with my whole heart that He willed it.
Until the day, Mary Kathryn told me that she was going home-----she was only a few days post-up from the surgery that removed most of the tumor and a small amt. of brain tissue-----so I thought she was just speaking out of confusion, because we had just gotten her home, in the door and settled. I quickly assured her that she was home and it would all be familiar to her again soon.
And she said, “No, listen to me, I’m going home.” I tried to appease her and myself by saying, “no you’re not, you’re gonna have radiation and chemotherapy and you’re gonna do great , I promise.”
She stopped my well-meaning, but way-off-base, stream of words, by saying-----“You need to listen to me and hear what I’m saying------the Lord does not heal everybody, if He did, there would be no suffering, which helps us grow and teaches us to depend just on Him. And, if He healed everybody, no one would ever die-----and you know that dying, in this world, is a reality because of the sin that Adam and Eve brought into it, and to be absent from the body is to be present from the Lord, and that is what we should all be longing for------people pray for healing and miracles, and sometimes the Lord gives them to them , while they are still on this earth-------but very often, He gives them ultimate healing, which is taking them home-----and that is truly the most wonderful miracle of all.”
I listened to Mary Kathryn that day, but I still begged the Lord to cure her, but with a new awareness of what it means to say, “if it be your will”--------8 months later, I was at her bedside at Rex------we were alone, and it was 10:00 at night-------and I was praying for the Lord to take her home. Not just because I didn’t want her to suffer any more and not just because I knew she was tired and weary-------but because I finally understood that it was the Lord’s will (Romans 12:2 says, “ Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you is, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”)----these body’s have to be folded up somehow-----for her, cancer was the way-----but her bravery and her absolute trust in the Lord’s will and His sovereign hand, and her sweet dependence on Him, no matter what happened to her, was a testimony to so many people.
Dale’s granddaddy used to preach a sermon about why the Lord takes people home (aside from the fact, that only in eternity, will we get to live forever)----and he said that there were 4 specific reasons, or explanations, that He had surmised, biblically and experientially, in his years of ministry—and they are:
- The person has accomplished, in his or her life, what he was sent here to do.
- The Lord is sparing them from something that is going to happen in the future, that would be more than they could bear,
- The person’s lifestyle and actions are bringing dishonor and shame to the Lord’s name.
- There can be more glory and good brought to the kingdom, in the way that they die, than in the way that they live.
This is by no means a scientific formula, with hard and fast rules-------but I think it’s a very comforting way of understanding life and death, especially if you trust in the sovereignty of God, the way the Leper, in our lesson did, this week,
I,) Jesus and the Leper: 1:40-45
The word leprosy was used in biblical times to designate a wide variety of skin diseases. In Leviticus, chapter 13, seven forms of this skin disease are described. And according to their ceremonial law----- a person with leprosy had to wear distinct, torn clothing, to signify that he had the disease; he had to cover his upper lip and bare his head; and he had to shout” “unclean, unclean” as he came upon, or approached other people. Lepers had to live outside of town in a leper colony or a leper house, which made them feel even more ostracized----and they could have no contact with their family and friends, except from a distance. A person with leprosy wasn’t allowed to touch others or be touched, for fear that he would defile them or make them unclean. A person with leprosy was considered to be a walking corpse. We cannot imagine the humiliation and the sadness, and the feelings of loss, and the hopelessness, of this leper’s life-----think about how we would feel, if we had to shout unclean, every time we went into the grocery store, or the mall, or just ran into a neighbor on the street----we would live with a pervasive sense of worthlessness and despair.
In Jesus’ time, the teaching of the scribes and the pharisees , with all it’s absurd strictures and rules, made the lives of lepers even worse------if a leper even stuck his head in the door of a house, the house was declared unclean-----and it was illegal to speak to a leper, or even acknowledge him. Lepers had to remain at least 100 cubits (150 ft.) away from people if they were upwind and 4 cubits (6 ft.) away if they were downwind.
But the leper that Mark describes in this passage, didn’t keep his distance from the Lord, as the law directed----he came directly to Jesus, fell on his knees, and cried out, for Jesus to make him well. It is obvious that this man was full of faith! He didn’t doubt Jesus’ ability to heal him---it is obvious that he knew that he could, or he wouldn’t have risked the wrath of the crowd and the punishment of the religious leaders by even coming out into the crowd, at all. But he seems to have understood, what it took me years to understand----Jesus could heal him, but did Jesus desire to heal him---- was that part of the plan?-----he knew that Jesus had a bigger plan which, we can’t always see ----- I don’t think that he had any great theological understanding, but I think that he believed ,that if Jesus had done it for other people, then, He could do it for him. I also fully believe, that if Jesus had told him no, then the leper would have said, “yes Lord, not my will but yours be done” and then he would have gone back to end his days in isolation. I think that;s how strong his faith was, even though he didn’t understand it all.
But the Lord was willing------the scripture says that He was filled with compassion----now I don’t know about you, but knowing that the lord’s heart is filled with compassion for me, whether my prayer is answered the way I think I want it to be, or not-----somehow makes whatever happens, be ok-----because we can rest in the knowledge that the Lord is about His Father’s business and He has everything under control. The compassion that Jesus felt for the leper, is the same compassion that took Him to the cross for us all!
Sweet Jesus expressed his compassion for the man, by leaning forward to touch him. Most people would have healed the man first, and then touched him----but not Jesus. He knew that if the man was the advanced stage of leprosy, that he hadn’t felt somebody touch him in a long time, so He reached out and touched him first. ( I have a friend who lost her husband about 6 years ago-----and she surprised me by bursting into tears one day, when I casually rubbed her shoulder as I walked by her-----she said that what she missed the most was having someone just touch her for no reason, except affection.) By touching him, Jesus was declaring a new world order and was letting the religious leaders know exactly how he felt about the rules that they had created to control the people with-----He wanted them to understand that He placed love and compassion and the cleansing of people’s hearts, above ritual and regulation and ceremony. (We will never have any real and lasting affect on others, if we don’t reach out and touch the people who need help. Sometimes we have to show that we care, by touching people where they are, before we can tell them about Jesus-----and we shouldn’t be afraid to do this------Jesus never was-----the real value of a person is inside, not outside. Although a person’s body may be diseased or deformed, or their lifestyle may be-----they are no less valuable to God-------no person or their behavior is too disgusting for God’s touch------we are all people with leprosy because we’ve all been deformed by the ugliness of sin------but when God sent Jesus, He touched us, giving us the opportunity to be healed-------we need to remember this the next time, we are repulsed by someone and their behavior and do what Jesus would do, and reach our hand out with compassion, not with judgment)
And, as far as God’s law was concerned, Jesus did understand it---- He knew that He didn’t come to break that, He came to fulfill it-----so He sent the man away to go to the priests, so that they could attest to the fact, that he had been healed, and could go back to the land of the living. He gave the man a strong warning, just as He had with the demon-possessed man---Like we talked about last week,------He didn’t want to gain the reputation of just being a miracle worker----because it would hinder His ability to preach the Gospel and to spread the good news that the Messiah had come, offering forgiveness of sins and a pathway back to God, through acceptance of that forgiveness.
Jesus intended for the man to go straight to the priests, because he knew that they would know, that only God, could cure leprosy. And that if having leprosy was like being a walking corpse, then the cleansing of the leprosy would be equivalent to raising people from the dead------so this would be a sign to the priests and the religious authorities and to the people, who already were believing in huge numbers, that the Messiah had come. (they should have been able to see that Jesus was truly the Son of God).
The leper was too excited though, he couldn’t keep his wonderful healing to himself----he must have shouted it all the way down the street----telling everybody he came in contact with-----but in spite of his excitement, we have to see that he was disobedient, and that disobedience always brings a consequence with it----and the disobedience of the leper cost Jesus His freedom----He couldn’t enter into a town openly any more and He couldn’t preach in the synagogues either----so He had to resort to preaching outside and in out of the way places, but it didn’t stop the people----the people found Him wherever He was---and the blessing to us in this is that He will always make a way for us to find Him, no matter what is going on around us-----scripture says that when we seek God with all our hearts that He will be found. (Deuteronomy 4:29, Jeremiah 29:13)
The Lord encourages us to seek Him with all our hearts and all our souls. If we do pursue Him with everything in us, then He promises us, we will find Him. It reminds me of playing Hide and Seek---as a child, and then as an adult with our children-----children love to play this game----you know how to play-----the person who is It, turns toward the wall with their eyes closed and counts to ten------in the meantime-----everybody else scampers off to hide----when It gets to ten, they shriek it in delight, as loud as they can and begin their quest to find the hiders----The anticipation builds as they open every closet door and look under every bed or behind every tree and every bush----While the searching part is always fun----it’s the finding part ,that is always the climax and brings the most joy! Everybody tries to hide as best they can, but not so well , that they can’t be found----(I would even make sounds when my children were little so they would know exactly where I was), the simultaneous shouts of “I found you” and “you found me” bring hilarious laughter and a sprint toward home base.
The game wouldn’t have been fun, if our intention was to hide so we couldn’t be found----the fun is in being found-----I think it’s the same way with our relationship with the Lord-----when He calls for us to search for Him----He never hides Himself so that He can’t be found----He’s never far away and He’s always overjoyed for us to find Him.
- Jesus and the Paralytic 2:1-12
Some days had passed and Jesus had worked His way back to Capernaum, His in base of operations in Galilee----He was preaching, either in Simon Peter’s home, or a home that He was renting for His mother Mary and Himself, to be there home while they were away from Nazareth.
Can’t you just imagine how hard it would have been to try and carry a grown man on a stretcher into a crush of people who didn’t want to give up their spots. It would have been like being at a concert that you had paid good money for, that was standing room only, and trying to stand your ground as people surge to get closer and closer to the action----there would have been a whole lot of shoving, and toe-stepping on, and ugly words being muttered----so the men decided to take an unorthodox approach, to get to Jesus. The paralytic man was probably being carried around on a small pallet bed or couch, with a friend holding up each corner.
Mark is the master of understatement in these verses----what those friends accomplished was hard!!!!! While Palestinian homes would have been accessible to someone wanting to get on the roof----it was by no means an everyday occurrence. The houses were built square and low, usually with an outside staircase leading to the roof. The roofs were built with parallel beams stuffed with mud and straw, some kind of tile to form a ceiling, and thatch over it all. The 4 friends had to drag the cot up the stairs, tear through the thatch, dig out the mud and debris and break apart the tiles to make a hole big enough to lower the man down through. Add to that, the annoyance of the people who were standing in the room underneath. The roof was literally falling apart on their heads as they were trying to hear what Jesus was saying-----and a further complication would have been the damage to someone else’s property-----presuming that it was Simon Peter’s or the person Jesus had rented it from----they would have been in the audience----I can imagine that they weren’t quiet about how they felt about what they saw happening----as their property was being destroyed.
But Jesus was calm, because Jesus knew that it was a momentous occasion-----He could see the faith of the 4 friends, the faith of the man and the lack of faith of the religious leaders who were there on a scouting mission----they were trying to figure out who Jesus was----they were just waiting for Him to trip Himself up-----and Jesus did not disappoint them----or anybody---He made it clear who He was----and He even told them that He was the Son of Man-----which they would have recognized as another name for their Messiah. Their fear and pride kept them from acknowledging and receiving Him, though.
The 4 friends did not lack courage nor resourcefulness-----and their determination and resolve, is an example to us all, of true friendship------the best friend we can be and the best thing we can do for a friend, is take them to Jesus-----nothing else matters, in the end. And the paralyzed man--------it took a lot of courage and trust in His friends and belief, in their belief in Jesus’ ability and desire for Him to heal, much less, his own belief in Jesus power, to let them haul, him down the street and up those stairs and down that hole-----and we have no idea if there was any pain involved------so anyway you look at it----it required a lot of faith in Jesus. (It isn’t always easy to let people help us, in fact it is very difficult----we don’t like to admit that we need something, or are vulnerable, in some way-----but that’s just pride----the truth is, when we don’t let somebody help us we are robbing them of their joy and we’re missing out on the blessing of true friendship that the Lord desires for us to have with each other----He intends for us to help shoulder each other’s burdens------we can handle anything when we have somebody to lean on.)
Jesus claimed a special relationship with the paralytic man----in my Bible it says Son, but in the Greek---the word is child------to say ‘my child” signified a relationship of love and care----.Jesus also immediately claimed, that He had the authority and the ability to forgive the man’s sins. Whether it was the man’s individual sin, or it was the sin of all mankind----whether the man’s sin had caused his paralysis-----or he was paralyzed because of the sin that has cursed the world with disease and heartache---Jesus claimed the authority to forgive it ,and whichever it was, Jesus looked beyond the physical disability, and saw the man’s deeper need. Jesus was claiming the authority to forgive as well as heal. Jesus was establishing His identity as God. (I think sometimes we think that Jesus never told anybody, who He was, until His trial-----but we can clearly see that He said it all the time-----people just couldn’t understand. Or they didn’t want to understand-----plus ignoring who He said He was, was part of the plan, that God used, on the pathway to the cross.)
Without the authority to forgive----the miracles of healing and exorcisms wouldn’t have meant anything----they were designed to be, signs of proof to the people, that Jesus was the Messiah.----prophets had from time to time, been given the ability to heal, but all the people knew that only God could forgive them of their sins.
Of the religious leaders, the scribes were the interpreters of the law----they were in charge of the oral tradition of what was right and what was wrong in the Jewish world------so they would have recognized the importance of Jesus’ words----they would have understood exactly what Jesus was saying-----and they were right in what they were thinking----by claiming to forgive sins----Jesus was claiming His equality with God------and unless He was speaking the truth----the scribes were right----He was speaking blasphemy. But we know He was speaking the truth, and deep in their hearts, the scribes knew it too…
Jesus knew what the scribes were thinking----the scripture doesn’t say whether He knew, through His omniscience or through human reasoning and spiritual discernment-----but whichever it was----He knew, and He called them out on it.
The question He posed to them about “which was easier”-----to say that sins were forgiven or to heal somebody----was a difficult one for the scribes to answer----because just saying something and then doing something, was 2 different things-----one you could see, but the other one was hidden, was only in the heart of a person. And to further complicate the question was the authority that Jesus claimed-----if He could perform the miracle on the man’s body----He was claiming that He could perform the spiritual one too----And if He could do one, then He could certainly, do the other, which would leave the scribes no other option, but to believe that He was God and that He was to be worshiped.
And the scribes hated that idea----they were in no way prepared to call Him God, and worship Him.
Then Jesus, proved the truth of His words and proved that he cared about the paralytic man, spiritually and physically, and He proved that He had already forgiven him, by speaking the words of healing to him, then telling him to pick up his mat and go home,
The man verified, that Jesus did have the authority to forgive sins, by walking out of the crowd, his mat in his hand! Jesus’ God-given authority stood out in direct contrast to the scribe’s self-appointed authority-----Mark says that the people were amazed and the praised God.
(What a moment that must have been-----I would have loved to have been there----the paralytic illuminated by the dusty shafts of moonlight and starlight that were peeping through the hole in the roof-----he must have been leaping and dancing and shouting for joy!!!!! His 4 friends must have been laughing and yahooing through the opening, almost pushing each other through, in their excitement-----the crowd was amazed and must have been talking in escalating whispers about what they had just seen----and the scribes and Pharisees must have been frowning with outrage, which would have been a thin cover for their fear. (Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “I think I see him! He sets one foot down to God’s glory, he plants the other to the same note, he walks to God’s glory…--he carries his bed to God’s glory, he moves his whole body to the glory of God, he speaks, he shouts, he sings, he leaps to the glory of God.”)
What a time it must have been! For all we know, the paralytic and his four friends danced down the street, while the crowd looked on laughing, singing, clapping their hands and praising their Almighty God--------And as that paralytic man went home he was carrying something far more important than his bed-----he was carrying a clean heart, the greatest miracle of all----no guilt, no bitterness, no tensions------sins forgiven. Someday, his newly restored limbs would wither and become old and useless------but he wouldn’t have to worry----because his sins was forgiven for all eternity-----
The Lord can do whatever He wants to-----He can heal any disease that He pleases---and there are times that He does and times that He doesn’t-------but the greatest miracle, the only one that really matters, the only one that is eternal, is that He can forgive our sins and that He has forgiven them.
The power of the Lord was present to heal the sick that night-----John MacArthur says that, “that power was unleashed by the love and the faith, of a helpless paralytic’s, 4 friends------they believed that the Lord Jesus was the only one who could heal the paralyzed------and that’s how it is unleashed today, in the same way, to a world paralyzed by sin. We have to love the world----- and it begins by our loving our family members, and our friends and our neighbors-----the people in our circle of influence-----and then we can extend that love to the people that we don’t know or we can’t see--------but we have to begin first, right where we are-----we have to take people to Jesus.”
Little Chad was a shy, quiet young boy. One day he came home and told his mother, that he’d like to make a valentine for everyone in his class. Her heart sank. She thought, “I wish he wouldn’t do that!” because she had watched the children when the walked home from school. Chad always seem to be lagging behind all the rest of them. They hung on to each other and talked and teased laughed the whole way. But she had never seen Chad included. But, because it meant so much to him, she decided to help him, so she purchased the paper, the glue and the crayons. It took him 3 whole weeks, night after night to painstakingly make 35 valentines.
Valentine’s Day dawned and Chad was beside himself with excitement! He carefully stacked them up, put them in a bag, and bolted out the door. His mom decided to bake him his favorite cookies, and have them ready, nice and warm with some cold milk, when he got home from school. She knew, in her heart, that he was going to be disappointed: and maybe she could ease the pain a little bit. It hurt her to think that he wouldn’t get many valentines-----maybe none at all.
That afternoon, she had the cookies and milk out on the table. When she heard the children outside, she looked out the window. Sure enough, here they came, laughing and running and having the best time. And, like always, there was Chad, bringing up the rear, but he was walking a little faster than usual. She fully expected him to burst into tears the minute he got inside the door. His arms were empty, she noticed, and when the door opened she had to choke back her tears, as she welcomed him and pointed out the cookies and milk.. But he didn’t even pay any attention to her words----he just marched right by her, his face aglow and all he could say was-----not one… not a single one.
Her heart broke------
And then she heard him say----I didn’t forget one, not a single one.”
That’s the kind of love that unleashes the power of God.
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