Mark 2:23-3:6 Jesus fudging the lines of “right” and “wrong”?
Here is Jesus … upsetting the religious folks, again. These Pharisees were strict students of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. They knew what God had commanded about the Sabbath (the 7th day of the week). No work, no fire-building, no traveling. (Numbers 15:32-35; Leviticus 23:1-8) Keeping the Sabbath was as vital as circumcision; it marked who was God’s and who wasn’t. Quite the line in the sand … and God drew it.
But here we have Jesus and his flunkies walking through the fields … picking grain and eating it. Breaking the law. The Pharisees interpreted that as “work”; which meant they we
ren’t of God, of course. They had busted Jesus, finally! Jesus’ responded to their Biblical condemnation with a Bible story … David once ate the food that was strictly, Biblically, only for the priests (1 Samuel 21:1-6). He silenced them.
When Jesus healed the shriveled-hand-man in the temple, it was on the Sabbath. I think Jesus waited all week to do it when it would stir up a curious crowd and then he could teach this lesson: The Sabbath is for people to get rest from a week of busting their humps … not for people to be ruled by the Sabbath. The Sabbath 
is a gift from God, not a burden.
I am compelled to think about today’s different organizations and denominations and how they interpret scripture. Some look at the Bible and say women should be completely silent in the church (1 Cor. 14). Some believe eating medium rare steaks go against the teaching in Acts 15. Some think that you should never marry (1 Corinthians 7). Or that women should wear only dresses (Deut 22) or never cut their hair (1 Cor . 11). What about that holy kiss we are supposed to slap on our brothers when we see them (Romans 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26)?
These are just minor issues in the Bible, but many organizations use these rigid interpretations to separate themselves from the “other” Christians … kinda like the Jews viewed circumcision and chillaxing on the Sabbath. Those who didn’t do it were not God’s people. Wow! How does God view this? Do any of us have it all right?
Are these accurate interpretations of scripture? What would happen if we use Jesus’ method of looking at the Sabbath … Is scripture here for us, or is it the other way around?
THINK:
- What made the Pharisees so upset with Jesus?
- What do we learn about Jesus in these 2 confrontations?
- What was God’s intent of the Sabbath? How was it mis-interpreted?
- How have you seen well-meaning religious rules or institutions hurt people? What causes that?
- Have you ever felt angry at a church or religious institution? How has that experience affected you?
Mark 2:18-22 Fasting: Facilitation of Change
For a guy with an extra 15 pounds of chub on him, the very thought of fasting is horrible. I hate it. I don’t want to deny my body it’s natural desires: chocolate filled donuts, medium rare steaks, Lucky Charms, Sandy’s Waffles. I’d rather talk about loving our neighbors or Balaam’s ass.
This passage is Jesus’ response to questions about fasting. People were asking him why his followers din’t fast and other religious people did. A few thoughts:
- The Old Testament talked a good deal about fasting. It is biblical and was commanded by God: Leviticus 16:29-31; 23:27-31. That’s why the others were doing it.
- Fasting breaks spiritual strongholds: Isaiah 58.
- In verses 19-20, Jesus uses the analogy of a marriage celebration in relation to fasting. Why would the guests celebrating the marriage of their friend fast at the wedding? It was a time of celebration. Why would Jesus’ followers fast when God is walking with them? They weren’t mournful that he was with them … but there would come a day when he would depart and they would fast.
- In verses 21-22, when Jesus appears to ramble about old cloth and new cloth and new wine and old wineskins … he has a point to make: Doing Kingdom things, without being of the Kingdom will only tear you apart. Fasting somehow is a part of this.
Also, there is a lot of change that takes place in your life when you initially begin to serve the King. He doesn’t pour precious new wine into a vessel that he knows it will burst. instead, he is going to make us into a new vessel … a new person altogether.
Denial through fasting is part of being of the kingdom. Jesus knew his disciples would be fasting soon enough, but for now he wanted to celebrate being with them. There is a time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3)
I was once doing a lot of dirt work for an old pastor friend of mine. We were renovating the landscape of the church, adding a new flower bed and sidewalk. Unintentionally I dug too deep into the ground with my tractor and pulled up the the church’s plumbing and sewer lines. What a mess! No one knew those lines were so shallow. By law they should have been much deeper, to keep this kind of thing from happening The old pastor just laughed and said, “That’s what we get for putting new wine in an old wine skin … something bursts every time.”
THINK:
How has the new wine of Jesus burst your old religious wineskins?
Mark 2:13-17 Wanted: Dirtbags for Disciples
Levi, the man chosen by Jesus to be a disciple, was an extortionist. He was a tax collector (publican), which means he made his profits by charging more money than the law required. This amount was completely at his discretion; since it was his “pay”. So Levi was a bit … unscrupulous. And this is the setting for a Jesus interaction, because Jesus loves dirty scoundrels.
A little background on how hated these tax collectors were:
1. With his collection booth next to the lake, Levi was most likely collecting taxes from the fishermen … right as they caught their fish.
2. The Jews considered a tax collector’s money to be unclean so they would never ask for change.
3. If a Jew did not have the exact amount that the collector required, he borrowed from a friend. Even enemies would loan each other money before letting change go to the tax collector.
4. Jews despised the publicans because they were agents of the hated Roman Empire and the puppet Jewish king.
5. Tax collectors were not allowed to testify in court, and the priests forbid them from tithing their money to the temple.
6. A good Jew would not even be seen associating with publicans.
What’s so great about Levi’s badness, is that Jesus doesn’t seem to care. Jesus just looks at Levi, inhales the stench of extortion into his nostrils, and exhales saying, “Come on buddy, follow me.” I added the “buddy” part.
Remember who Jesus is? He’s God … in a human body … showing and telling us how to live. So by this action, it’s obvious that God does not need us to clean up our life before he calls us. Really! We don’t have to get better before we go to God.
I think the main idea here is that it is Jesus who called Levi, not Levi making himself useful or beneficial to Jesus. It is Jesus who is calling you … and you are most likely a dirtbag too! But Jesus knows it and is still calling you to follow him. He sees something in you that the rest of us don’t.
Later in this story, the Pharisees and the Bible teachers are causing Jesus trouble again … complaining that Jesus is mixing with the wrong crowd. Just how did tax collectors party?
Isn’t it ironic that while Levi is busy sharing Jesus (literally) with his dirtbag friends, the religious leaders are filled with their own feelings of self-righteousness about the matter. It is easy to criticize them but we each should consider — what people do we consider too sinful for us to associate with?
Levi was not the only one called to share his faith. We are all called. But some of us are so busy being “good Christians” that we never seem to have time. It seems we are waiting for the right opportunity or the right time to reach out. Hurting people are all around. Invite some of them over for dinner and let them experience Jesus.
On a related note: In the 11th century, King Henry III of Bavaria was tiring of the pressures of court life and felt God calling him to a more meaningful life in the monastery. He visited the local monastery and expressed his desire to the monk there. The man asked him, “Do you understand the pledge here is one of obedience? It might be very hard for you since you have been a king.”
But Henry was determined, and he replied, “I understand. The rest of my life I will be obedient to you as Christ leads you.” He was ready to follow Jesus wherever it lead. Little did he expect where it would lead.
The monk looked at the king and told him, “Then I will tell you what to do. Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you.”
The king obediently returned to his throne with a new sense of mission and ministry. He had learned what it meant for him to follow Jesus in a more meaningful way.
THINK:
1. The fisherman disciples may have paid inflated taxes to Levi for years. How would you have felt if you were them, watching Jesus call him? Why did he do so?
2. Do you feel unworthy? Do you feel God can’t love you because of the sin in your life? How could the call of Levi reveal God’s call to you?
3. How can you reach out to those that other people consider “unacceptable”? Can you do this without becoming unacceptable yourself?
4. Has there ever been a time in your life when you felt like you were at odds with the religious establishment? What was the cause?
Mark 2:1-12 God works outside what we call Truth?
Word travels fast when the supernatural stuff starts happening. Deep down inside us, we’re curious and interested. At that point of real desperation we’re all up for an unexplainable, but undeniable miracle in our life. That’s what’s happening in this story of the helpless paralytic and his hopeful friends.
Consider this … though it is outside what many of us believe.
Jesus may have healed the paralytic because of his buddies’ faith, not just his. Doesn’t this go against much of what we understand about faith and Jesus? We read in vs. 5 that Jesus saw their faith and acted. Plural … they? There are 2 ways to see this:
1.It could be that Jesus may have only noticed the 4 friends’ faith; the guys who were peeking in from the open ceiling after they dropped their buddy in. The paralyzed guy’s faith may have been as useless as his limbs, and his buddies decided enough was enough … “Jesus is going to heal you and we’ll make sure of it”. And Jesus healed him because of their faith, not his.
2.Their faith could have also included all 5 of them. We don’t know the circumstances, but we know Jesus was moved to act by their faith. His healing, and ultimately his forgiveness was because of their faith in Jesus. His buddies became part of the ingredients for the miracle.
And Jesus saw their faith. Cutting a hole in somebody else roof just to get to lower your buddy down to Jesus … this is ridiculous faith. They could have waited until the crowd thinned. They could have asked people to move away from the door. But they didn’t. They wanted to seize the moment, and they did. It wasn’t logical, but it worked because it was raw faith. Jesus seemed to like it.
Also, it confused the Bible teachers in the room when Jesus forgave the poor guy’s sins. According to the Bible they knew so well, only God forgives sins … so what’s Jesus implying? The Bible teachers were ticked. They relied more on their opinions of the Bible than the actual truths of the Bible. And since Jesus knows how to read minds, he cut the chitchat to help them figure out who he really was: “I have authority on earth to forgive and heal.” If they knew their BIble, and were sensitive to the Spirit of its author, they would have known who sat in front of them: God incarnate.
THINK:
- In this story, do you identify more with the paralytic, the 4 friends, or the teachers? Why?
- How would you feel if you were helpless and your friends decided to “drop you in on Jesus” in front of everyone? Has this ever happened to you?
- Does anyone notice your faith; are you actively and physically pursuing Jesus? Are you willing to blow past the hinderances between you and Jesus?
- Is it possible to have studied the Bible for years and know a lot about God, only to miss what God is doing right in front of you? Know anyone like this? Ever feel this way?
