Easy?
NL Year 2 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Today I want to talk about everyone’s favorite topic: sin. Now hear me out before you tune out because you don’t want to hear about sin. Because I believe this entire text, minus the last section on fasting, is a conversation and discussion on the topic of sin. The reason why this is so important for us, is because it is at the heart of what Jesus is doing in his ministry. In fact, there is a really good chance that the majority of the people who followed Jesus were formers sinners and people who had been healed, which before they were healed, were probably seen as sinners. I say that because it was believed that it was either a person’s sin or the sin of their ancestors that caused certain diseases and ailments.
We see that very question asked by Jesus’ disciples in John’s gospel and Jesus responds that it was neither group but that so God’s work might be done through him. I think this is an important passage to point out because we actually see this very understanding played out in the opening of our reading today from Mark. Mark very deliberately separates the conversation of sin from the conversation of him healing the man. It is commonly missed or perhaps misread, but when this man is lowered down into the house I am sure his friends were intending for Jesus to heal him from being a paralytic. Jesus doesn’t heal the man at first Jesus simply forgives the man of his sins. The end. Except it’s not the end because the legal experts get grumpy that Jesus would forgive sins.
They are right though, God is the only one who forgives sins. There are many examples of the priests in the temple and some prophets petitioning God to forgive sins, especially for something like a sin offering presented on behalf of a person or a group of people, but attribution was always given to God. Here Jesus just boldly tells the man his sins are forgiven. Who does this guy think he is just offering forgiveness when God alone can forgive? So right off the bat Jesus is doing something only God should be doing, and secondly he is therefore in a way declaring something about himself that I don’t think anyone is picking up on yet, but Jesus will actually get to it in verse 10. But we’re not ready to talk about that yet because we now have to get to the healing.
As I pointed out, Jesus now switches from the forgiveness of sins to healing the man. In this instance, Jesus makes these two very distinct events. The man has already been forgiven of his sins (even though the legal experts don’t believe it) and now Jesus with a rhetorical question then commands the man too get up, take his mat, and go home. Honestly in the eyes of everyone, the answer to Jesus’ rhetorical question would be that healing the man and making him walk would be the easier to believe and accept. Unless, this idea of sin that we talked about from John’s gospel was what these people believed about sin. Of course they could rationalize that Jesus was a prophet that healed this man from his sin but that the sin that caused the paralysis remained. After all, we all do a great job of rationalizing how one thing probably isn’t related to another in order to explain away what may be happening that goes against or challenges our views of our faith or the world around us.
Jesus then tackles this idea though by declaring that the Human One or as we commonly know it, the Son of Man, does actually have the authority in this earth to forgive sins and that is the moment that he commands the man to get up and then extends his hand and pulls him to standing. Jesus wants people to know that whether he declares forgiveness or heals someone he actually has the authority from God to do either or both. Jesus really tackles this idea of sin by both forgiving it as well as directly interacting with someone who people probably felt was a sinner.
Which connects us to the next part of the story also about sinners and tax collectors at the newly called disciple Levi’s house. The reason for this connection between tax collectors and sinners was that tax collectors were seen as no better than murders, brothel owners, robbers or the like. There is even an ancient writer named Lucian who says that it’s not acceptable to ask someone to share the table with people like these. Yet here is Jesus having dinner at Levi’s, the tax collectors, house with other tax collectors and sinners. Simply by association and proximity Jesus would likely be declared unclean until he performed the right rituals to cleanse himself from being in contact with sinners and people declared unclean. Again we have these legal experts who are perhaps keeping track of Jesus and his activities now see him doing the very thing they know is not right and want to know why.
Jesus uses this imagery of a physician healing the sick, but what we see is Jesus living out God’s calling to care for the orphan the widow and the outcast. It is also the calling to bring people back into right relationship with God. What Jesus is doing here is twofold: first he is declaring that these legal experts are perfectly fine. They are healthy for what they are doing and believe. Second he is sharing that we don’t need to keep catering to those who already know and live in right relationship with God. If you think about it, if Jesus hung out with the Pharisees and Sadducees then what might have changed? Probably not as much as did change. Jesus wasn’t brought into the world to give an awards ceremony to those who were already living in a loving relationship with God, Jesus was brought into the world to show everyone who had gone astray what it would look like to live in the light and the love of God.
So as I said a few weeks ago, this text seems to leave us with a blessing and a challenge. The challenge is more of a living out our calling to follow the way of Jesus. If Jesus spent his time with tax collectors and sinners then who are we called to spend time with today? Who are the ones that we might say today that aren’t acceptable people to sit down to dinner with because of what society says? Who are the ones that maybe know a bit about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, but for some reason feel that their sin or unworthiness is a barrier to come and worship with us? How do we share with them that God loves them and that we want them to come and sit at the table of our God to share in a meal that declares that we are forgiven people of God? That is what we are both challenged and called to do through Christ’s example.
The blessing is that we have been called just like the tax collectors and the sinners to live a life in the embrace of our loving God, to be forgiven of our sins and to take up our mats and walk. To know that it is God who makes us right and ultimately brings us into a healthy relationship with God. That we are able to come and celebrate at this table that welcomes everyone, no matter who they are or where they are in this crazy thing we call life. That in the midst of our brokenness we can come to the celebration of the table and declare we are forgiven, redeemed, and loved. May you never forget that this grace is here for you, now and always. Amen.