Take Two: Mark 2, Proverbs 12

Mark 2:1-12 give the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man who was lowered from the roof. Bear in mind that He has amassed great popularity among the people and when he returned to the city, they surrounded him again. He was teaching them in a house and it was an OPEN meeting...(since there were scribes and Pharisees there). The crowd was so densely packed that the friends could not carry the paralyzed man to Jesus. So, they climbed onto the roof and began to remove the roof. Their goal was to lower their friend to Jesus.

That is a lot of work. Many would have said..."maybe next time," or "sorry dude...let's go down the street where Rabbi fluffyhead is preaching." Others would have expressed their inability to get to Jesus as simply "God's will." These friends starting taking the roof off of a man's house.

I am not sure who lived there, but he was probably inside when the roof was removed. I imagine he had to wonder who was on the roof and why they were installing a skylight! IS THIS NOT WEIRD? (Honestly, I don't know if I would take someone's roof off to get my friend to Jesus!)

Anyway, they did and Jesus gave a statement that was a veiled reference to His deity. The Scribes said that only God could forgive sins (Mark 2:7). Jesus said that so they would know that He could do it (and wasn't some weirdo), He would also heal the man physically (Mark 2:10-11).

The rest of the chapter is a succession of encounters Jesus had with people (mostly religious experts) where He redefined for them what it meant to relate to God. They did not understand why He would hang out with sinners (if He was a religious man). He said, "That's the point of my coming" (Mark 2:15-17). They wanted to know why His disciples didn't observe the "fasts" of he day. He said that there would be a time for that, but this wasn't it (Mark 2:18-20). Apparently some thought that the coming Kingdom would fit into the "shell/old wineskin" of Judaism...but Jesus said that you put new wine in new wineskin.

Let me pause here. Some today say that we (Christ-followers) should abandon our "church" practices and move toward something that is less "institutional" or "structured"...like Jesus taught. They cite verses like this. Jesus ushered in a new era of full knowledge of God's Messiah. People (prior to the cross) were saved by believing in God's coming Messiah. After the Cross, people called on the Name of God's Messiah, Jesus, who came. We still live in that era. We don't need new wineskin...because we don't have any new wine. We simply need to do with the wineskin that we have...what Jesus told us to in the first place (Acts 1.8; Mt 28:18-20, etc.).

The religious dudes wanted to know why the disciples did not observe the work restrictions on the Sabbath (by not plucking heads of grain when walking through a grainfield) (Mark 2:23-28). They thought that God was pleased in their worship when they would observe the Sabbath with this form of rigidity. Jesus told them that God was not laying these burdens on them but that they were self-imposed. The Sabbath was not give to be a burden, but so that man would be blessed in the Lord of the Sabbath.

When you summarize all of these ideas, you find a pretty common theme. The religious experts of the day had developed and (basically) adhered to a form of worship that was devoid of relationship. It could be observed without even adding people into the mix. Jesus pointed out that God cared less about their ceremony than He did their mission.

I wonder how many times people I know (even me at times) exchange the mission for some activity of busy-ness? Is our worship of God about form or substance? Are we more concerned with meeting God or with a crying baby, temperature of the room, cell phone going off, or whether the Service will be over by 12:00? One way to guarantee that everything works as predicted...ban all people from worship. Never get involved in or invested in the lives of people. If we do, everything will run like clockwork...and we can hang out with stuffy little Pharisees who care more about the form than the substance. As for me...I hope I never become satisfied with the form and always seek the substance, the reality, the Truth of who God is and why God has put me here...that I may know Him and make Him known.

Proverbs 12:11 is the takeaway today. The first part of the verse speaks of how we are called to provide for ourselves. God's provision can come in the form of "manna" from heaven; however, He is just as much the "Provider" when our provision comes from our own hands. It is not a statement of faith to sit on the sofa and wait for God to provide through some miracle. Laziness is not some virtue or statement of spirituality...it is just laziness. The second part of the verse shows that we must be intentional and diligent to focus on the important things. Someone once made the statement that it is possible for a person to "get too busy making a living to make a life." It is also possible to be too busy doing less important things...and not ever accomplish that which is very important.

Grace,