The lutheransermons's Podcast

Bible Study on Mark - Part 7, Mark 3:7-35

As Mark 3:7-12 begins, Jesus had left the synagogue where He had healed a man with a withered hand and again angered the Pharisees, who now began to make plans to destroy Him.

Jesus went to the shore of the Sea of Galilee with his disciples, but they were not alone. Interest in Jesus was increasing, and a great crowd followed Him, from inside and even outside the land of Israel. People had “heard all that He was doing” - His preaching and teaching and especially His miracles of healing. Jesus had to ask his disciples to have a boat always ready to take Him off the shore, so that He would not be crushed by people pressing in all around Him, just to touch Him, in hope that they would be healed by Him. (We still hear today of people being trampled by excited crowds, out of control.) Jesus sometimes taught the crowds from the boat, too.

People possessed by unclean spirits were being healed also, and the unclean spirits would cry out to Jesus, “You are the Son of God.” As we have heard before, they were correct, but Jesus ordered them not to say who He was. It was not yet time for all the opposition that would bring His suffering and death; and He did not wanted to be connected with evil spirits. (We will soon see the wrong connections being made by some religious leaders.)

In Mark 3:13-19, Jesus went away by Himself to a mountain. Another Gospel tells us that He spent the night in prayer and then “called to Himself those whom He desired” from among those following Him. They came, and from that group Jesus “appointed the twelve” who would work most closely with Him and be His “apostles” (men sent out on a mission of His choosing). Note, as we have heard before, Jesus does the calling and choosing and appointing of the men He desires for this work. Verses 14-15 tell us that they needed to “be with Him” - to learn directly from Him and have personal contact with Him  and be taught by Him and have practical training and then be sent out on short-term mission trips in local areas, and “to preach” and even to “cast out demons” by the power He gave them.

These are the twelve who stayed closest to Jesus during His public ministry and later on would be the “apostles” (minus Judas Iscariot) sent out to tell the good new of Jesus to the whole world. A few others, like Paul, were added later on, by a personal call and contact with the risen Lord Jesus. (A key element in accepting the Scriptures of the New Testament later on was that they had to have been written by one on these apostles or someone who had direct contact with these apostles. These twelve often did not understand what Jesus was teaching them at first, and it was a process of growing in the faith for them - as for us, still today.)

Notice in verses 16-19 that the twelve sometimes had more than one name, and that Jesus sometimes gave some of them a nickname, too. Here are the twelve, with other names and identifiers:

• Simon (Peter, the “rock” man)
• James and John (brothers, and sons of Zebedee. Jesus called them “sons of  Thunder” - maybe because of their strong personalities)
• Andrew (Simon Peter’s brother)
• Philip
• Bartholomew (Nathaniel)
• Levi (Matthew)
• Thomas
• James (son of Alphaeus, sometimes called James the younger)
• Thaddeus (Judas, son of James)
• Simon (the Cananaean, a word which means “the Zealot”. This Simon may have earlier been with a group of “Zealots” - revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the Roman government. He obviously had to learn a whole different way with Jesus.)
• Judas Iscariot (who betrayed Jesus. Iscariot mean that this Judas was from Kerioth in Judea. This Judas was the only one from Judea. The others all seemed to be from Galilee.)

(As in our own day, lots of people has the same names and did not have middle and last names to help with identification. Hopefully, this helps us a little in sorting them all out.)

In Mark 3:20, Jesus went back to a home. This may have been the home of Peter and Andrew, as before. Crowds quickly gathered again. Jesus and His disciples were likely tired and hungry, but they were so busy dealing with people “that they could not even eat.” Note in 3:21 who hears about all this - Jesus’ family. They were concerned about Him - that He was not taking care of Himself. They in fact wanted to come and seize Him and take Him home and settle Him down, because they thought He was “outside of Himself” - out of His mind - had lost His mind. Likely, the family was still living in Nazareth and had about 30 miles to travel to get to where Jesus was, in Capernaum.

Before they arrived, though, another event had also taken place. Scribes, experts in the Law of the Old Testament, had come down from Jerusalem, in 3:22. (Jerusalem was one of the highest points in Israel; so leaving Jerusalem always meant that one went “down," though these scribes were headed North to Galilee, as one looked on a map.)

Already, we know, the Jewish authorities were talking and plotting against Jesus. Now, they had come up with another way to attack Him. They claimed that Jesus could cast out evil spirits, because He Himself was possessed by evil and could use evil power to cast out other evil spirits. “He is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons, he casts out the demons.” “Beelzebul” is an Old Testament name for “Exalted Baal” or “Prince Baal.” “Baal” was the name of one of the popular false gods worshipped by many people outside of Israel. Too often, even Jews went astray and worshipped “Baal,” too. Baal did not really exist, but people were worshipping evil when they followed Baal. (Sometimes, to make fun of Baal, Jews were said to have changed the name to “Beelzebub”, which meant “Lord of the Flies”. (If you ever had to read a novel by William Golding, by that same name, you saw his description of how evil and sinful human nature can taken over in a group of English boys, stranded on a deserted island.)

By the power of Satan, the prince of demons, then, Jesus was able to cast out demons, the scribes said. In 3:23, Jesus called the scribes to Himself and “spoke to them in parables”, using simple examples they should hopefully understand. What sense does it make for Satan to cast out Satan? Why would he work against himself? “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Neither can a house divided against itself.“ (You may know that Abraham Lincoln quoted this passage with regard to the United States. A nation half slave and half free can’t survive. A terrible Civil War followed, with effects that still bother us today.) Jesus said, in 3:26, that Satan had not risen up against himself. That would only bring an end to his kingdom. (Some think that the words about a “house divided” may be a kind of warning from Jesus about His own family, which was divided about Him at this point, as we shall see.

In 3:27, then, Jesus described what was really going on. Satan was like a strong man, with all his evil forces. Jesus had come for the very purpose of battling against Satan, not in support of him. Jesus came to tie up Satan, to bind him, to defeat his power. Jesus did so by battling and casting out evil and evil spirits all through His ministry and finally by dying on the cross, when it looked like Satan had defeated Him. He would win the victory by His mighty resurrection and giving His believers strength to continue to resist Satan and finally overcome in eternal life in heaven.

Some think that Jesus was alluding to the prophecy of Isaiah 49:24-26, where God Himself said, “Can the prey be taken from the mighty; or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? For this says the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.... Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” Jesus is the very Son of God Who came to set us free from the greatest enemies, sin and death and Satan himself.

In 3:28-30, Jesus gave a very solemn warning to the Scribes. He started with a phrase used fairly often for emphasis. “Truly, I say to you.” Literally, it is “Amen, I say to you.” We think of “Amen” at the end of a prayer or to affirm that a statement is most certainly true. Jesus used “Amen” at the beginning of a sentence or statement, often. Pay attention. This is really true, He was saying.

Jesus had come to forgive sins, as we have already heard. “All sins will be forgiven the children of man, even blasphemy,” as the Holy Spirit brings people to repentance and faith through the Word of God and the gift of baptism. Jesus, too, worked by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. But if people reject and keep on rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit, calling the Holy Spirit evil, they are rejecting the only means by which they can be saved. They cannot save themselves; and there is no other way to salvation than through Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit. “For they were saying of Jesus, He has an unclean spirt” (3:30).

Jesus is not saying that these scribes have committed this eternal, unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit; but they were in danger of doing so. There can be a point  when people get so far away from God, in resisting the Holy Spirit’s work, that they will never come to faith. Jesus demonstrated, as we go on in Mark, that we should always assume that people can still be brought to faith and trust in the Good News of Jesus, though. Jesus kept on preaching and teaching and sharing the Word of God, through which the Holy Spirit works, wherever He went. We are called to do the same and never give up on people.

These words of Jesus may have come also because of what comes next in Mark 3:31-35. The mother of Jesus, Mary, and some of His brothers finally arrived where Jesus was. It was very crowded again, and they could not get to Jesus. They sent in a message, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” It seems again that they wanted to take Jesus home and settle Him down - in effect, to shut down His ministry. We are bluntly told in John 7:5 that at least at some point in His ministry, “Not even His brothers believed in Him.” We don’t know what Mary, Jesus’ mother, was thinking, but she came along; and there is no clear Scripture that says that she was without sin. She may have had weak, struggling faith at this time; and even she, earlier, had said, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46). She too needed a Savior - and Jesus came for that very purpose, for all, including her (and us).

In 3:33-35, Jesus does not respond to His family. Instead, He looked around at the people gathered around Him to hear the Word of God and said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?... Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus was teaching that there can be closer ties than simply family ties, especially when family is resisting God’s will and leading us away from that will. The family of faith might be closer and more helpful at times. And what is “the will of God” most of all? Jesus put it very simply in John 6:28-29. “They said to Jesus, ‘What must we do to be doing the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.’”

Believing in Jesus is the key. At this point, though, the family of Jesus is not so sure about that or that Jesus is doing what He should be doing. Jesus does not abandon His family, though. Family ties are very important, in both the Old and New Testaments. “Honor your father and mother,” the Commandment says (Exodus 20:12). We will see Jesus quoting that Commandment later in Mark 10:19, too. Jesus made sure His mother was taken care of (John 19:26-27). He surely kept reaching out to His own family with the Word; and they knew of His death and resurrection and ascension, too.

After the Ascension, we read that the 11 disciples and others gathered. We also read in Acts 1:14, “these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and His brothers” (Acts 1:14). Jesus’ family was a family of faith, also, at this time! Later on, a brother of Jesus, James, wrote the New Testament Scripture we know of as the Letter of James, also. May we never give up on our own family and friends, either. Everyone needs the faith and hope that come alone through Jesus, by the power and Word and Sacraments of the Holy Spirit.

Sermon for the 5th Sunday in Lent - March 21, 2021

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, based on:

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Hebrews 5:1-10

Mark 10:32-45

 

Sermon originally delivered March 25, 2012

Sermon for Midweek Lent V - March 17, 2021

Sermon for Midweek Lent V - "Lies of Satan vs. The Truth of Jesus"

 

Sermon originally delivered March 14, 2012

Bible Study on Mark - Part 6, Mark 2:18-3:6

Last week we heard of two conflicts Jesus had with the scribes and Pharisees, Jewish religious leaders of His day, about His authority to forgive sins and his willingness to associate with sinners.

In today’s readings we hear of three more conflicts. The first is over "fasting.” Fasting simply means abstaining from eating food or certain foods for a period of time. In Mark 2:18, people came and asked why Jesus’ disciples did not fast, while many others did.

John the Baptist’s disciples may have followed John’s very strict lifestyle and ways, and now that he had been thrown into prison, they may have combined prayer with fasting for his release from prison. The Pharisees had added many ritual requirements and new laws, including more fasting, for one to be really good and acceptable to God. See what the Pharisee says about himself in Luke 18:11-12.

In the Old Testament, the only required day for fasting according to Mosaic law was on the Day of Atonement, when God’s people were to confess their sins and receive forgiveness through animal sacrifices and other priestly activity (predicting what Jesus would finally do for us Himself on the cross). See Leviticus 16:29 and 23:27-31. The words “afflict yourselves” are literally “afflict your souls,” which included doing fasting. See Psalm 35:13-14, where David says he “afflicted himself with fasting” along with other outward signs of sorrow and concern when people were sick.

Later in the Old Testament, leaders fasted and called upon others to fast during times of national disaster or trouble. See Nehemiah 1:2-4, Joel 2:12-13, and Ezra 8:21-23 as examples. However, fasting often was not done rightly, when people were not really repentant or wanting to go the right ways in their lives as they fasted. See Isaiah 58:3-7 and Zechariah 7:4-5 and 8:16-19, where the Lord encourages seasons of joy and gladness in Him and seeking to do right things instead of times of fasting.

In the New Testament, Jesus fasted when He was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness (Matthew 4:2), and as a good Jew, he surely fasted on the Day of Atonement, as clear Old Testament law required. In the sermon on the mount, He taught people not to fast to impress others, but to fast privately, in relationship with the heavenly Father (Matthew 6:16-18). Otherwise, Jesus never mentioned fasting, other than in what we will hear in this passage in Mark. In the rest of the New Testament, we never hear again of fasting, except in Acts 13:2-3, when early Christians prayed and fasted as they sent out Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:2-3) and in a passing reference to “the Fast” (the Day of Atonement fast) in Acts 27:9, to identify the time of year when voyages on the Mediterranean Sea were more dangerous.

Fasting, then, is certainly OK to do and even helpful if it helps us focus on the Lord, and as an outward sign of genuine repentance and sorrow for our sins; but it is not required under the New Covenant Jesus brings. Fasting does not make one holier or better by itself. (Neither is fasting or giving up something for Lent or avoiding certain foods during Lent required or commanded. We can do these if we choose, though.)

Going back to Mark 2:19-22, Jesus responded to the question about fasting by telling three very simple parables. (A parable is just a story from everyday life to make a special point.) In verse 19, Jesus asks whether people would stop during a wedding celebration to fast. For the Jews, weddings were very happy, joyous times that could last for a week. It would not be normal to stop and fast during such a happy occasion, since fasting is associated with sorrow and repentance. Jesus is describing Himself as the Bridegroom, coming for His bride, His church, the believers. This image is used in other parables and in the Book of Revelation and in Old Testament passages like Isaiah 62:5, where we hear, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” (This is the correct reference for this verse, rather than the one I gave in the podcast!)

The coming of the Savior is a time for rejoicing, not fasting, Jesus says. At the same time, in Mark 2 verses 19-20, He gives His first indication of His death, His being “taken away” from His followers. That would be a proper time for fasting and sorrow, He says. That time of sorrow would not last long, though. Jesu died on Good Friday and rose from the dead on Sunday, with the joy of Easter. For 40 days, Jesus then spent time with His disciples and appeared alive to many more people, and even with His ascension into heaven promised, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). The overwhelming focus now will be upon Jesus and the joy of what He does for us, rather than upon us and rules we are told to follow, that are not even clearly commanded in Scripture - like the demands for fasting.

Jesus goes on in Mark 2:21-22 to give two more parables to say that what He comes to bring will not always fit with the old form of Judaism being presented in His day. The first image, in verse 21, is of trying to patch old clothes with a piece of new cloth that has not yet been washed and shrunk. New cloth, as it shrinks, could make things worse rather than better and tear old cloth more. (I use the example of my three lively grandsons, who always seem to have holes in their jeans. The clothes can be patched and passed on for a while,  but there comes a time for some new jeans, too.)

One commentator, Lenski, says that all the rules and practices of the Pharisees, with their false human righteousness, cannot be combined, even in part, with the grace and faith and new life that come through Jesus. “Discard the old robe of human works and receive the new robe of Christ’s righteousness,” Lenski says.

Mark 2:22 makes almost the same point. “No one puts new wine in old wineskins.” In Jesus’ day, wine was stored in goatskins. When new, those skins would stretch quite a bit. When old, they became stiff and more brittle and could burst under pressure, ruining the skin and the wine. So “new wine is for fresh wineskins,” as new wine still needs to ferment and will cause pressure on the goatskins. In effect, Jesus is saying that He is bringing in some new ways. One cannot just go with the old and the new combined. Throw away the old Pharisaism with its law-centered ways, and receive the new way of grace and life in Him, Jesus is saying.

That means that we need to read the Old Testament now in light of the new way, the New Testament, the New Covenant, and Jesus as the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) and all that he reveals to us through the whole New Testament. The Old Testament is still God’s Word, and the Old Testament leads us to the new Testament and helps us understand it better. Jesus agrees with the Pharisees on some issues, where they are right, in contrast with some other groups like the Sadducees, as we shall see. But there are also real changes that Jesus brings, too. We will see that in the next two sections of Mark’s Gospel, especially about the Sabbath Day.

Old Testament Law said that no work should be done on the Sabbath Day, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. But what was work? What could and could not be done? In Mark 2:23-24, the disciples of Jesus were passing through grain fields and picking some grain for themselves. This was allowed under Old Testament Law. See Deuteronomy 23:24-25. They could take just a little. The Pharisees considered picking anything on the Sabbath Day to be work and therefore wrong. They had complex rules about 39 kinds of generic activity that were forbidden on the Sabbath: to plow, to sow, to reap, to bind sheaves, to thresh, to winnow, to grind, to pound to powder, to cut up vegetables, to pick even a bit on grain (for that was “reaping”), and on and on. The Pharisees were blaming Jesus for not correcting his disciples with their own interpretations of the law - earlier about not fasting and now about doing evil work.

In Mark 2:25-26, Jesus answered with a story from the Old Testament in 1 Samuel 21. See Leviticus 24:5-9 to hear about a special bread made for each Sabbath Day, the Bread of the Presence, which was presented to the Lord each Sabbath day. After the Sabbath, the bread was reserved for the priests to eat. In the 1 Samuel passage, David and some of his friends were in danger and on the run, threatened by King Saul. They were hungry, and David went to the priests to see if they had any food to give them. All they had was some of the leftover Bread of the Presence, meant for the priests. An exception to the general rule was made, and David was given some of that bread, because of the need that was there and because David and the others were not ritually unclean. In the same way, the disciples of Jesus had not broken clear Old Testament law. This was only the opinion of the Pharisees. There was some clear need there for hungry people.

Jesus goes even farther in Mark 2:27. He said, “The Sabbath was made for man (for us human beings) not man for the Sabbath.” The Sabbath day was intended to be a blessing for us, for our physical rest, and more important, for time to attend to our spiritual needs, too. The Pharisees were inverting this, For them, it was as if people were created for the purpose of obeying the Sabbath laws - and exactly as the Pharisees gave them and interpreted them, whether they had Biblical basis or not.

Jesus went even farther yet, in what he said in Mark 2:28, with His claim that “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” The religious leaders often acted as if they were lords of the Sabbath and of the other people. Jesus, as the promised Messiah, the Son of Man, and as the very Son of God, really was Lord of the Sabbath. He could change things, and changes were coming. Jesus would “fulfill all righteousness”
(Matthew 3:15) and keep the Sabbath, and every other part of God’s will perfectly, as it was really intended, in our place, for our benefit. Jesus would pay for all sins, once for all, by His sacrifice on the cross, His one great atonement for us all so that there would no longer be any need for the yearly Day of Atonement and its rites. (See Hebrews 9:24-26.) There would soon not be a need for many of the old ceremonies and ways, and eventually all the animal sacrifices and even the Temple itself in Jerusalem would disappear (Matthew 24:1-2, John 4:21-24). The Sabbath would still be remembered, but in a different way and form.

This new way is emphasized even more in Mark 3:1-6. Jesus again was in a synagogue on the Sabbath Day. A man with a withered hand was also there - or some think “planted" there so that the Pharisees could watch and see if Jesus healed him and then they could accuse Him of doing evil, doing work on the Sabbath. Jesus knew what was going on, and He took charge, as Lord of the Sabbath. He asked the man with the withered hand to come to Him (Mark 6:3). Then He asked the Pharisees, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” If the Sabbath was for the benefit of people, then to do good and to save would be the better, the right thing to do.

There is total silence from the Pharisees, though. They knew they would be in trouble, no matter what they said. They couldn’t say that doing harm or killing would be lawful, for it was not. Doing good or saving life had to be good, any day. Why would it not be good even on the Sabbath? Jewish authorities did allow for animals in danger to be rescued in some circumstances. Why could people not be helped? In fact, in some ways, to neglect to do good when you can is a kind of evil itself (James 2:15-16).

There was no answer from the Pharisees, and Jesus was angry, with a righteous anger, because of “their hardness of heart” - another term for sinful hearts. Jesus also was grieved. He had come to be the help and Savior of all people, including His fellow Jews. Some of them, though, who should have known better, were already turning to evil against Him.

Jesus went ahead and did the right thing. He helped and healed the man with the withered hand. But notice how He did it. Jesus took no action that people could see and call work. He simply asked the man to stretch out his hand. The man did the action, the work, if one would call it that. The man stretched out his hand, and he was healed. Yet it was clear to all who it was who had done the healing, without a word or visible action. Jesus had healed the man, and what a good and helpful sabbath day that was for the man physically, and hopefully also spiritually.

Mark 2:6 tells us that the Pharisees soon left and immediately began to make plans to destroy Jesus. They would not say that it was lawful to harm or kill on the Sabbath, but they began to do those very thing on that Sabbath day, with regard to Jesus. Note also that they began to plot with the Herodians to get rid of Jesus. The Herodians were a smaller but still influential Jewish political group. They supported the rulership of the Herods in the land, who served with the approval of and under the control of the Roman Emperor. Herodians were generally considered unpatriotic Jews, because they benefited from the Roman control and did not want the Jews to become a totally free and independent people again. The Pharisees usually hated the Herodian,; but here they were willing to work with them, just to do away with Jesus.

One last thought. This conflict we see in Mark 2 and 3 shows the beginning of even greater conflict to come, between Jews and those who followed Jesus - and with Judaizers, people who liked Jesus but also insisted  on people keeping all the Old Testament ways and rules, as well. This is still a problem today with groups who call themselves Christians, but still insist that their people must worship on Saturday and cannot work on Saturday and must still follow Old Testament  festivals and rituals, and have other unique teachings. The Seventh Day Adventists and the United Church of God (used to be Herbert W. Armstrong’s group, with British Israelism) and other groups fall into this category. Watch out for these issues, still today.

Sermon for the 4th Sunday in Lent - March 14, 2021

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, based on:

Numbers 21:4-9

Ephesians 2:1-10

John 3:14-21

 

Sermon originally delivered March 18, 2012

Sermon for Midweek Lent IV - March 10, 2021

Sermon for Midweek Lent IV - "Lies of Satan vs. The Truth of Jesus"

 

Sermon originally delivered March 14, 2012

Bible Study on Mark - Part 5, Mark 2:1-17

As Mark, Chapter 2 begins, we hear of the first of five conflicts Jesus has with Jewish religious leaders in Galilee. These stories of conflict go on through Mark 3:6, and they involve Pharisees and scribes, who were around and watching Jesus closely.

There were three main religious and political groups during the time that Jesus was among the Jews. One of those groups was the Pharisees. (We will talk about the other groups as we meet them, a little later in Mark.) The word “Pharisee” means “separated." The Pharisees believed that by keeping the Law, people could of themselves earn God’s favor. They stressed not only keeping God’s Law from the Old Testament, but also the “oral law” handed down by some Jews from generation to generation. These laws especially involved ritual washings, tithing, fasting, and rules about properly keeping the Sabbath day, etc. Many of these rules cannot be found in the Scriptures, but only in Jewish traditions. Pharisees also tried hard to avoid contact with non-Pharisees.

Some of the Pharisees were also scribes. Scribes were people who copied records and book by hand before there were printing presses and copiers. After the Babylonian exile, which we heard about in Daniel, scribes especially made copies of the Old Testament Scriptures for future generations of Jews and, in the process, often became experts in the Law and interpretations of it and ideas of how it could be applied to the daily lives of people.

Jesus came “home” to Capernaum, probably to the house of Peter, where he had been in Chapter 1, “after some days” (which could mean weeks or even some months) after he had preached all over Galilee (Mark 1:45-2:1). People in Capernaum had not forgotten what Jesus had done in the synagogue there, speaking with great authority and casting an unclean spirit out of a man (Mark 1:21-28). The home was soon packed with people, so that no one else could get inside; and again Jesus was preaching the Word of God to them, His primary task at this time (v. 2).

Then four men showed up carrying a paralyzed man on a mat of some kind. They seemed sure that Jesus could cure the man, but they couldn’t get close to Jesus. They didn’t give up. They were determined to get this man to Jesus, no matter what. They even took a part of the roof apart and lowered the man into the room where Jesus was (v.3-4). (If only more of us had such determination to get people to Jesus!)

“Jesus saw their faith” (their confidence in Jesus, that He would help), and He intended to teach them (and us) what was the most important help He could give. They were hoping for a physical healing, but Jesus first said to the the paralyzed man, “Son, (literally, child) your sins are forgiven” (v.5). The word “child” suggested that this gift was to be received by simple, child-like faith and trust in Jesus.

Jesus knew that the biggest problem this man had (and that we all have) is sin and evil in our hearts which separates us from God and which we cannot overcome on our own. That man needed God’s forgiveness and help (and so do we). First and foremost, Jesus offered that forgiveness to that man. Think about it. If this man had only been healed physically, he would have been better off for this life, but that wouldn’t solve his broken relationship with God, and his eternal future would still have been in danger. But if the man had been only healed spiritually, with the love and forgiveness of Jesus, he still would have had his physical problem for some years, but he would have strength and help from God and His love to deal with his problems, and he would have certainty of an eternal future of peace and joy and perfect healing in heaven.

So, Jesus said to the man first, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” That is the best news we can hear in this life, too. We all have sin and weaknesses and failures in our own lives - some from the past that still trouble and come back to haunt us - and current problems and weaknesses and temptations to sin that we struggle with still. Even believers have these struggles. How good it is to know that we do not have to carry these sins and problems by ourselves. Jesus came to forgive all our sins and give us new life and hope as we trust Him and His Word of promise with child-like faith.

We hear, though, in Mark 2:6-7 that some of the scribes, Jewish religious leaders, were also sitting in that house, probably to keep an eye on Jesus, and they were really upset with Him, questioning in their hearts. “Why is this man speaking like this?”

Remember, the view of most Jewish religious leaders of that time was that God only accepts people who are really good and especially those who keep the laws the Jewish leaders required, whether those laws were in the Old Testament Jewish Scriptures or not. They must have wondered, "How does this man Jesus know if this paralyzed man was good or not?" Besides that, many Jews thought that if someone had a serious physical problem like paralysis, that person probably had done something really wrong and was being punished for it - and certainly shouldn’t be offered forgiveness.

Finally, these scribes were thinking in their hearts, “This Jesus is actually blaspheming (speaking against God), because only God can forgive sins.” That was the Old Testament message. See words of David and another psalmist in Psalm 25:18, Psalm 32:5, and Psalm 130:3-4, and what God Himself says in Isaiah 43:25: “I, I am He, Who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” Was Jesus, in offering forgiveness, claiming to be God, also? If so, that would be blasphemy in their view.

(From what I have read, most Jews did not think that even the promised Messiah, the Christ, would be able to forgive sins. He would be only a great man, who had more of a political job, in their view. To put it into contemporary terms, the Messiah’s job was to make the nation of Israel great again - like it was in the days of David and Solomon - and to overthrow the hated Roman oppressors.)

Mark 2:8 tells us, though, that Jesus knew exactly what the scribes were thinking, because He was God - God the Son Who became man to forgive sins and make people right with God. Because He was the Son of God, He knew what was in peoples’ hearts. (See also John 2:23-25 and related passages like Jeremiah 17:7-10.)

And so, Jesus asks the scribes a question in Mark 2:9. “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk?'" In a certain sense, it would be easier to say the words, “Your sins are forgiven” - because how could you really tell if the man was forgiven or not? On the other hand, if one said, “Get up and walk,” the paralyzed man would either do it or not. The evidence would be there.

Jesus did not even wait for an answer. As the Son of Man (an Old Testament term for the Son of God, as we have heard earlier), He could both forgive sins and heal the man. So, Jesus said, (v. 10-12), “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins... I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”  We then hear that in response, the man "rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all.”

It was a miracle, as clear as could be. Jesus simply said, “I say to you” and it happened immediately. People crowded all around the man had to move so that the man, now healed, could get up and leave the house, carrying the mat he had been carried in on not long before. Jesus healed the paralyzed man because He cared about people and helped them, including this man; but he also healed the man to prove by this miracle that He really could give the greatest of gifts, the forgiveness of sins, to this man, to us, and to the whole world. He said, “The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” and He clearly had that authority, too.

As verse 12 concludes, the people clearly see that this is a miracle of God and they praise God. They aren’t yet necessarily admitting that Jesus was God, but they are amazed at Him. They did know, “We never saw anything like this.”

In verse 13 of Mark 2, though, we hear that Jesus did not bask in the glory of this miracle. He left the house and went out to the Sea of Galilee, and the whole crowd of people followed Him. Then we simply hear: “He was teaching them.” He never stopped, He never gave up His primary work, sharing the Word of God with people. He was also gathering more people to be His disciples and in Mark 2:14, a rather surprising person, Levi, a tax collector.

The land of Israel, often called Palestine at that time, had become a province of the Roman Empire in 67 BC. The Romans were good at many things, including gathering taxes to support their growing empire. An important trade route from east to west ran from Damascus, Syria, south to Capernaum and around the Sea of Galilee and on to the Mediterranean Sea and south to Egypt and beyond. As we have toll roads, where people have to stop and pay a toll every so often, the Romans had set up tax booths along this road, since many caravans of traders passed this way. They had to stop and pay a tax for every animal they brought along the road; and the tax collectors could look through their goods and charge them an extra tax, too.

People hated this process and hated the tax collectors who worked for and cooperated with the Roman oppressors to collect these taxes. Tax collectors (in some translations of the Bible they are called “publicans”) also had a reputation of being dishonest and cheats, charging more than they should have and keeping some of the money for themselves. For this reason, many text collectors were banned from being part of Jewish synagogues. They were considered notorious sinners.

Jesus had now called one of these tax collectors to be one of His disciples. Levi (or as he was called later, Matthew) may have met Jesus and heard Him preach before. Or maybe, just by the powerful Word and authority of Jesus saying “Follow Me,” Matthew just got up and left his work and followed Jesus. (The name “Matthew” means “gift of God, gift of Yahweh” and Mathew certainly became that, in his work and as the author of the Gospel of Matthew later on.)

In verse 15, Matthew invited Jesus and His other disciples to his home, along with some of his friends. Since the tax collectors were “outcasts” of their society, their friends were also likely “outcasts,” despised and rejected by the “better” people of the society. They were called “sinners” -  people of bad reputation. But, Jesus still went and talked and even ate with them. (People did literally recline as they ate at more formal dinners in those days. To eat with someone also suggested a close connection with and caring for the people they were having a fellowship meal with.) Still today, there are saying like: “You are known by the company you keep”- who your friends are - and this was a bad group, in the eyes of most respectable Jewish people.

We hear the reaction, then, of the scribes, who were also often Pharisees (separatists) when they saw what Jesus had done. They do not ask Jesus, but ask His disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (v.16) Remember again that scribes and Pharisees thought they were better than others and separated themselves from bad people. They even had the idea that if they just bumped into one of these people, they would be spiritually unclean and would have to go through a cleansing ritual. Remember also that many of these practices of the scribes and Pharisees were not clear Biblical ideas, but their own humanly made rules to make themselves seem better than others. All this, they thought, made them more acceptable and favorable to God. What they did was what everyone, including Jesus, ought to be doing, in their view.

The answer of Jesus was simple. He was not approving of sin and of behavior that was actually wrong. But Jesus was like a physician - a doctor. There would be something wrong with a doctor who refused to see anyone who was sick. Doctors are certainly to do what we call today “wellness visits” - to help people stay healthy; but most of what doctors do is to help sick people deal with their illnesses and problems and help them get better, if possible. We really need a doctor when we are sick in some way.

In a spiritual sense, then, Jesus said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” If people were truly righteous (without sin and always did the right things), they would need no forgiveness and no Savior. They would have no need for what Jesus especially came to bring. In reality, though, everyone is a sinner and needs Jesus and His forgiving love, as we will see, again and again, as we read on in Mark’s Gospel.

That is why Jesus calls a person like Levi (Matthew) to be His disciple and associates with him and his friends, even with all their faults. He came for sinners.

That is why Jesus kept on talking with the scribes and Pharisees, who really thought they were so good and looked down on everyone else, and challenged and criticized Jesus. They too needed to recognize their own sins and their need for Jesus. He came for sinners.

That is also why Jesus kept going from town to town and kept sharing with everyone He could His primary message:

• REPENT: Realize that you, too, sin, and have spiritual needs.
• BELIEVE  IN THE GOOD NEWS: Believe in Jesus (Mark 1:1,15). He can help and forgive, for He came for every person, every sinner.

That is also why Mark’s Gospel was preserved and copied and is still available for us to read today. It is the same message for us, too. “None is righteous, no, not one.” (See Psalm 14:1-3, also quoted in Romans 3:9-12). But Jesus came to rescue us sinners and bring us to trust in Him. He came to call sinners.

Next week, we will see three more examples of conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders of His day and how He points to a new way of hope, as He brings in the New Testament, the “new covenant” with people.

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday in Lent - March 7, 2021

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent, based on:

Exodus 20:1-17

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

John 2:13-25

 

Sermon originally delivered March 11, 2012

Sermon for Midweek Lent III - March 3, 2021

Sermon for Midweek Lent III - "Lies of Satan vs. The Truth of Jesus"

 

Sermon originally delivered March 7, 2012

Bible Study on Mark - Part 4, Mark 1:21-45

After our opening prayer, we quickly reviewed Mark 1:21-22, where Jesus came on the Sabbath to the synagogue in Capernaum and was teaching in an amazing way, with authority. (See last week’s study for details about these verses and what a synagogue was.)

A man with an “unclean spirit” quickly interrupted Jesus, to disrupt what He was saying. An “unclean spirit” means an evil spirit, one who is opposed to God and His will. We know from Genesis, Chapters 1-3, that God had created a perfect universe, with everything good, including the first people (Genesis 1:26-27,31). Sadly, by Genesis 3, these people had sinned and rebelled against God, and humans have been infected with sin ever since.

Other Scriptures tell us that there had been another rebellion, too. God had created angels, also - spirit beings who were intended to serve God and be of help to human beings. See Hebrews 1:13-14. Sadly, at some point before the fall of human beings into sin, some of these angels had rebelled against God and had fallen into sin and evil and wanted only to create more evil (Revelation 12:7-9). Their leader is identified as “that ancient serpent” who tempted Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and is also called “the devil and Satan.”

Though angels are “spirits” without bodies, they can appear in various forms to communicate with people, for good or evil. Satan wanted to be in control and “the deceiver of the world," and many angels followed him into evil and still want to create and spread more evil everywhere, in opposition to God. (See Deuteronomy 18:9-12 for a strong warning that we should not try to contact the dead or try to use any seemingly supernatural forces, other than praying to the one true Triune God, revealed in Scripture. Otherwise, we might actually be contacting some of these evil angels.)

These evil angels are the unclean spirits, the evil spirits, the demons spoken of in the Scriptures. They want to tempt everyone to do evil - even Jesus, as we heard  in a previous lesson - though they were not able to get Him to do evil. They are not equal to God, but are only fallen angels. Neither are evil spirits human beings, as some think, whose spirits come back after the people have died and cause trouble, unless we or their relatives honor them and keep them happy. Neither do human beings become angels when they die, as is popularly said by many. Even believing Christians only become like the angels in certain respects, as glorified beings in heaven, when they die, as Jesus says in Luke 20:34-36. There are also, of course, many good angels who remain faithful to God and serve Him and guard and help people, including Jesus, as we heard in Mark 1:13. (See also the good angel’s work in the Book of Daniel, in a previous study series.)

In Mark 1:23-25, though, we do not see ordinary temptation but a special work of Satan and his evil spirits. It is the possessing of people where an evil spirit or spirits get physical control of someone and can speak through him and cause the person to act in bizarre or unusual ways. Jesus deals with people who are possessed quite a number of times in the Gospel of Mark, as we will see. This kind of possession seems very rare today, though we don’t know why. It seems to happen more when people are very open to clear, direct evil, in certain periods and cultures. Some think that Satan knows that in our supposedly sophisticated, scientific society of today, he is more successful in convincing people that he does not even exist, by not showing himself so clearly and directly. He can then tempt people more easily and pull them away from what is good and true, when they are not so aware that real and genuine evil is all around them.

In Mark 1:23-25, the evil spirit spoke through the man he possessed and cried out and questioned Jesus and even identified who Jesus is: “I know who you are,  - the Holy One of God.” The evil spirit (or spirits, since the word “us” is used twice), is exactly right. Jesus is the Son of God, and the term, “Holy One of God” is used of God in Isaiah 12:6 and 41:16 and by Peter, in describing Jesus in John 6:66-69. An angel also predicted that the child to be born of Mary would be called holy - the Son of God - in Luke 1:35.

In fact, see what is said in James 2:19: “You believe that God is one; you do well” - for that is true. There is only one real true God who exists, the God of the Bible; but, James says, “Even the demons believe - and shudder.” The devil and the evil angels probably know more facts about God than we do; but that knowledge, that belief, makes them “shudder,” shake with fear, for they do not say “Yes” to God or trust Him, but oppose Him. He is their enemy, and the evil spirit cried out to Jesus in Mark 1:24, “Have you come to destroy us?” That also was true. Jesus had come to overpower and defeat Satan and His forces.

We have here a very important message about belief and faith. Most people in the US still say, “I believe in God” - but they simply mean they think He exists. Even the demons believe that, as we have just heard. God wants to bring us farther, to true knowledge of Him, so that we assent to Him, say “Yes” to Him, and trust in Him, with confidence in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and what He has done to rescue us sinful people, from sin and Satan and evil. That is the gift of faith God wants to give to us, as we shall see.

So, even though the unclean spirit was saying true things about Jesus, Jesus silenced him and cast him out of the man, in verses 25 and 26. Literally, Jesus “muzzled” him, closed, shut his mouth. Jesus did not want it to seem as if evil forces were connected to Him and supporting Him, even when they were saying true things about Him. They were saying the right words, but they did not believe them. Jesus had more power than the evil spirit, and though the spirit could shake and convulse the man, he had to leave him; and the man was free of demon possession. In verses 27 and 28, then, the people in the synagogue are even more amazed. Jesus had “a new teaching with authority” and “even the unclean spirits obey Him.” As a result, the fame of Jesus spread throughout that region of Galilee, because of the power and authority of what He said and did.

Jesus was still in the town of Capernaum when immediately, that same Sabbath day, Jesus went to the house of Simon and Andrew with the other disciples He had called (Mark 1:29-31). Simon’s mother-in-law was there, but ill with a fever. The fact that Peter has a mother-in-law indicates that he was married. Corinthians 9:5 affirms that Peter and most of the original disciples were married. This comes a surprise to some today, because the Roman Catholic church says that Simon, also called Peter, was the first Pope of the Catholic church. That is hard to prove, Biblically or historically, but clearly, the early Christian pastors and other leaders were allowed to be married. The idea that priests must be unmarried was not a Biblical command, but came much later in the history of the Roman Catholic church, from the church, not from the Bible.

Today, we have lots of jokes about mothers-in-law and in-laws. To Jesus, though, every person is important and every human life matters. When Jesus was told about the illness, He took the mother-in-law by the hand and lifted her up and healed her. The fever was a symptom of some illness, and it was now gone. Jesus was not afraid to touch the woman, even though sick people were often also considered to be spiritually unclean by the Jews and could make others unclean by any contact with them. In addition, when we have a fever, even with our modern medicines, it takes a while to feel better and stronger. The mother-in-law immediately started serving her guests. Her actions show her complete healing and her gratefulness to Jesus.

This was still the Sabbath, and Jewish law of the time said that no work was to be done by Jews on that day. Yet the mother-in-law was working and serving. Jewish leaders even said that there should be no healing or helping others on the Sabbath; but Jesus had healed the woman. We will soon see that Jesus gets in trouble for doing such acts of mercy on the Sabbath. He is already beginning to change the old ways and laws into new ways of love and service to others.

In Mark 1:32-34, it was now evening and the Sabbath day was over. (See how a day is counted and described in Genesis 1:5, and among the Jews still today.) After sundown, Jews were now free to do some work, and they brought many people to Jesus for His help and healing, including some others possessed by demons. “They” brought people. Who were “they”? Just ordinary people, like you or me, who cared for others and wanted to assist them. This is a reminder that we could, still today, help bring people to Jesus by our prayers and our words about our Savior and deeds that show that Christians care to others. The whole city was stirred up and Jesus healed many with various diseases and cast out some demons, too. Again, He did not allow the demons to speak, “because they knew Him.” His battle against Satan and evil continued.

Jesus was surely very tired after such a long, busy day. He was the Son of God, but also a real human being who could get just as tired as we do. Yet we read in Mark 1:35 that Jesus got up very early in the morning, before sunrise, and went out to a desolate place to pray. He sets the example for us. We need to take the time to talk with God in prayer and to listen to Him speaking in His Word. Some would say, “The busier your day, the more you need to spend some time with your Lord.” The time of day or the exact amount of time does not matter - just the pattern of prayer and some time with God and His Word, at some point. It will help us, too.

In verses 36-37, the disciples finally got up and went looking for Jesus to tell Him, “Everyone is looking for you.” They likely were thinking: “You are so popular here, Jesus. This would be a great place to stay and build up your fame even more. Come see the people and enjoy this time.” Jesus had another plan - His heavenly Father’s plan (Mark 1:38-39). He needed to go to the next towns to preach there also. “That is why I came out,” He said. We don’t have specifics of what He said and did; but He surely preached with authority, and His deeds of mercy in helping people supported His message. He battled and cast out more demons and kept preaching throughout Galilee, the message of Mark 1:14-15.

Mark 1:40-44 tells of another encounter Jesus had while He was traveling. A leper came to Him, which lepers were not to do. (They were to isolate themselves and warn people to stay away, because their disease was considered very contagious and dangerous and there was no cure for it. It sounds something like the Covid problems we have had in our own day.) The man knelt before Jesus to show his respect and honor for Jesus. He showed faith, too, for he said to Jesus, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Jesus had deep compassion for the man and reached out and touched the man and said just a few words: “I will; be clean.” The man was immediately healed. Even though lepers were also considered spiritually unclean people, Jesus was not afraid to touch and help them.

Jesus also spoke sternly to this man and told him to say nothing to anyone, but to go to a priest and show that he was healed and offer a proper sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. You could read more about what was expected in Leviticus 13-14, and what lepers were supposed to do. Do note that the term “leprosy” could also refer to other skin diseases, as well, that still could make a person “unclean.” See also the warning about touching unclean things in Leviticus 5:2. Jesus was beginning to change these rules, but He still upheld and supported the basic Jewish law, at this point, and called others to do the same.

The man in Mark 1:45, however, seemed so excited about being cured that he went and told everyone about Jesus and what has happened. That was good, in a sense, but it also contradicted what Jesus asked for at that time, and meant that Jesus could no longer go freely from town to town. He had to stay in more isolated places, and yet people kept searching for and finding him. Next week, we will hear another important message of Jesus, as he finally is able to go back to Capernaum. Spiritual healing is more important than physical healing.