Hello friends, thank you for joining me in our daily reading from God's holy word. Today we're reading Mark chapter 2. In this lesson we see Jesus first at home and then at a party and then walking in green fields and we learn that he is the merciful and gracious and forgiving and generous God. Now before we read let's pray.
Our Father in Heaven help us to see Jesus as he is for our good and his glory. Amen. Mark chapter 2. And when he returned to Capernaum after some days it was reported that he was at home and many were gathered together so that there was no more room not even at the door.
And he was preaching the word to them and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd they removed the roof above him and when they had made an opening they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, son your sins are forgiven. Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts.
Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming who can forgive sins but God alone. And immediately Jesus perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves said to him, why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven or to say rise take up your bed and walk.
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, I say to you rise pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified God saying, we never saw anything like this. He went out again beside the sea and all the crowd was coming to him and he was teaching them.
And as he passed by he saw Levi the son of Altheus sitting at the tax booth and he said to him, follow me and he rose and followed him. And as he reclined that table in his house many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors said to his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard it he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting and people came and said to him, why do John's disciples and the disciples and the Pharisees fast? But your disciples do not fast and Jesus said to them, can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast in that day. No one says a piece of unshark cloth on an old garment. If he does the patch tears away from it, the new from the old and a worst tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.
If he does the wine will burst the skins and the wine is destroyed and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins. One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?
And he said to them, have you never read what David did? When he was in need, was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God in the time of a bithar, the high priest and ate the bread of the presence which it is not lawful for any but the priest to eat and also gave it to those who were with him. And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
Amen, this is God's word. Let me invite you to consider it for a few moments. In this passage we see more of the public ministry of Jesus in his home with a paralysed man and his friends at the table of a notorious tax collector and other sinners. And then again out walking in the grain fields with his disciples.
Let's highlight those three. And in each situation Jesus shows us he is not what people expect and that he gives better than anyone deserves. In the first story, Jesus is in his home in Toperneum. He has a reputation now for healing people and some friends of a paralytic beat the crowd by digging through the roof of the home and lowering the man into the presence of Jesus.
They want him healed. And Jesus says something astounding. He says, my son, your sins are forgiven. Jesus knows the man has a bigger problem than his body is ill with paralysis.
It is that his soul is stained with sin. Forgiveness is then seen to be more important than healing because sin is more problematic than illness. And Jesus says, I have authority to forgive you. And to show you I have that authority, I'll also heal you, rise, walk, and he does.
Let us then never be afraid to ask for his mercy and to say, Lord forgive me. In the second story, Jesus goes to a party at the home of Levi the tax collector. He meets him first in public where he's doing his job of collecting taxes. His job made him the kind of person regular Jews despised.
Because he was taking the money. Second, because he was a Jew working for the Roman government. And third, because like most tax collectors, he was thought to be getting rich by taking more than was necessary. So people thought of him as a thief and as a traitor.
And Jesus does the unexpected. He shows him grace. He calls him to be one of his closest disciples. This shows us, says John Calvin, his calling of any of us depends not on the merits of our own righteousness, but on his pure kindness.
And at the feast, then Levi throws to celebrate the socially unacceptable people who are huge sinners in their community rejoice in such a great Savior because they know they need this physician. But the upstanding moral religious Pharisees are angry because they are self-righteously proud of how good they are so they don't feel they need a spiritual doctor. So then they despise Jesus. And that is a dangerous disease.
To be aware of our corruption and to know we need mercy is the first sign then of spiritual health. In the final story, Jesus is confronted by Pharisees who accuse him of breaking God's law on the Sabbath. They saw Jesus and his disciples eating from the field as they walked. They were plucking heads of grain, probably rolling it between their hands to rub off the outer shell, then probably blew away the light chaff so they could pop the kernels in their mouth.
It sounds delightful. And since they were hungry, it makes sense. But because the Pharisees were tight-fisted moralists, they were angry again. They thought there was a lot of law breaking going on.
I mean, in their view, this was harvesting, threshing, winnowing, maybe even grinding grain into the flower in the mouth. So they accused Jesus and his disciples of rebellion against God, of offending God by breaking the Sabbath command to not work. And Jesus says, you know what? You don't get it.
God cares for people's souls and their bodies. And if you're hungry, it's okay to eat. After all, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. In other words, God set apart the Sabbath day to be our servant for our blessing, not for us to be oppressed as its slave.
And I know this says Jesus because I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. I'm the God who made the Sabbath. So what do we see about us? Our sins are a bigger problem than our diseases.
Thinking we aren't syncych is what keeps us from enjoying salvation. And that kind of self-righteous attitude keeps us from appreciating God's compassion for people's needs. Now what do we see about Jesus? He is the true high priest who can truly forgive us our sins.
He is the true physician of souls who can heal our body and our soul. But he is the true prophet. He knows the good purpose of God's law is our blessing so that he is worthy of our trust. Let's trust in him.
Let's pray. Father, in heaven, thank you for this priest and physician and prophet. We ask that you would be merciful and gracious and compassionate and forgiving and generous to us through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.
Well, thank you again for listening in and I hope you'll join me next time.