Please turn with me to Mark 2.
We saw last time that Jesus reaches out with forgiveness. Four friends literally raise the roof so their paralyzed buddy can be a drop-in guest in the packed house where Jesus is teaching.
But instead of healing the man, what does Jesus do? He says in v. 5, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” He forgives him. What a wonderful thing.
Verse 12 says, “they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw it on this fashion—We never saw anything like this!’”
But not everyone was amazed or glorifying God. The scribes are furious. This is the 1st of many clashes they have with Christ in Mark. This account of the paralytic is the last of 5 healings that started in 1:21, but it’s also the 1st of 5 conflicts that will go through 3:6.
A little boy Mason was visiting his grandparents & given his 1st slingshot. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit his target. As he came back to Grandma’s backyard, he saw her pet duck. On an impulse he took aim & let fly. The stone hit, and the duck fell dead.
Mason panicked. Desperately he hid the dead duck in the woodpile, only to look up and find his sister Isabelle watching. She had seen it all, and she had a big smile on her face.
After lunch that day, Grandma said, “Isabelle, let’s wash the dishes.” But Isabelle said, “Mason told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you, Mason?” And she whispered to him, “Remember the duck! So Mason did the dishes.
Later Grandpa asked if the kids wanted to go fishing, Grandma said, “I’m sorry, but I need Isabelle to help make supper.” Isabelle smiled and said, “That’s all taken care of. Mason wants to do it.” Again she whispered, “Remember the duck.” Mason stayed while Isabelle went fishing.
After several days of Mason doing both his chores and Isabelle’s, finally he couldn’t stand it. He confessed to Grandma that he’d killed the duck.
“I know, Mason,” she said, giving him a hug. “I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. I forgive you. I wondered how long you would let Isabelle make you her slave.
Forgiveness frees us.
This morning there are some of you who are slaves to sin, you need to be forgiven.
There are some of you who are slaves to guilt, you need to recognize your forgiveness.
In our account, we see forms of the word “forgive” in v. 5, 7, 9, 10.
Let’s see how Jesus extends forgiveness to those who exercise faith.
Jesus cleanses untouchables.
Look at v. 41: And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him,
The fact that Luke says this man was “full of leprosy” probably means he’d had it for a long time. It may have been years since he’d felt the touch of his wife, the kiss of her lips, the embrace of his children and friends.
I heard about a young man who was so lonely—he had no family, no church, no friends—that he went for a haircut every week, just to feel someone touch him.
This one reason we shake hands, in spite of the hygiene concerns. Can you imagine what it was like for this leper to feel Christ’s touch? After all this time, now Jesus takes hold of him.
No doubt the crowd was shocked. The disciples aghast.
Now by law, Jesus was considered unclean. He could become a leper.
Jesus reaches out and touches the unclean leper and there is power in His touch.
Instead of Jesus becoming unclean, the leper becomes clean.
Christ’s cleansing power overrides this man’s defilement.
This is Christ’s will—to cleanse untouchables. Look again at v. 41….
And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, “I will; be thou clean.”
Remember the only “If” in the leper’s voice, his only hesitation is not whether Jesus is able, but whether Jesus will.
When a football coach was called up from his college team to the NFL, he decided to divorce his wife of 26 years. Why? He said at the college level, he needed a wife for social functions—to look good; and show parents of recruits, that he would be a good role model to their sons.
But in pro football, a wife was unnecessary baggage and a distraction to winning. So he threw her away. He didn't need her any more.
He said winning football was his #1 priority.
In contrast, Tom Landry, who had coached that same NFL team (see I don’t dislike the Cowboys) said,
"The thrill of knowing Jesus is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. In 1958, I did something everyone who has been successful must do, I determined my priorities for my life — God, family, and then football."
Last week, we saw that after a long day and night of preaching and healing, Jesus got up early the next morning and got alone with His Father to pray.
In the same way, all of us deal with some form of pressure.
Maybe not physical pressure. We’re not at a high altitude right now.
It may be academic pressure—your parents really want you to do well in school.
I was talking to a guy Friday who lived in China for several years. He told me parents put so much pressure on their kids to do well academically, that every spring when they take their standardized tests—the suicide rates skyrocket.
Maybe you’re experiencing financial pressure—you’re getting behind on your bills. You’re afraid of emergencies. You don’t know how you’ll make ends meet.
Maybe you’re experiencing emotional pressure—at your job, at school, from a bully who’s always picking on you.
Maybe you’re experiencing family pressure. Maybe your home is full of screaming and yelling and hot tempers. Maybe even physical abuse. And you dread coming home to your family.
Maybe like the mom in this picture, you feel like you need 6 arms to do everything.
How do you cope with the pressures of life?
Joseph Pulitzer, the 19th-century newspaper baron and founder of the Pulitzer prize, believed in the power of the news. Not only was he convinced that a newspaper should be one of the most powerful institutions on earth, he believed its influence should extend even further.
You say, “What does that mean?” Pulitzer wanted to erect a sign so large it would be visible on the planet Mars. He wanted to advertise his newspaper across the universe.
I don’t think he would have found too many news readers on Mars.
Though sometimes I wonder how many news writers are from Mars.
But Pulitzer was right that Good News can have a global and even universal impact.
That’s what we see in Mark’s Gospel—the Good News of Jesus Christ the Son of God (v. 1) is breaking out, and everything in Christ’s path is being changed.
· At His baptism, Heaven is opened.
· At his temptation, wild beasts are tamed and angels minister to Him.
· At the synagogue, His teaching is powerful & authoritative.
· And a demon flees from a possessed man.
· At Peters’ house, fever leaves his mother-in-law faster than the demon.
When Jesus comes, the Gospel transforms lives.
As fathers, we carry the burden of providing for our families. And the bigger the families, the more needs we have to meet.
Wouldn’t it be great this Father’s Day if I could introduce you to Someone who had the power to meet all your deepest needs?
If I passed out 3x5 cards this morning and told you to write down the needs that are on your heart. Personal needs, family needs, financial needs? Physical, spiritual, emotional needs. Some of you would say, “I need another card.”
This Father’s Day we’re going to see that Jesus reaches out to meet our needs.
A few years ago, the Trapholt Art Museum in Denmark drew notoriety when an artist displayed an exhibit of 10 blenders with goldfish in them sitting on an open display. Visitors were invited to “interact” with the art.
As you can imagine, it didn’t take long before a couple of blenders became orange fish soup—someone had interacted.
Well animal rights groups sued the museum for animal cruelty. But the judge said the goldfish were killed instantly & humanely. So the exhibit was left up, but the blenders were unplugged.
In Mark’s Gospel, we see that life is a lot like those blenders—we can be going through life swimmingly, and all of sudden verse 26 says “the unclean spirit had torn him.” It ripped through the poor man.
And that’s often the way life feels in this fallen world. Like you’re living in a blender. Just when you think you’re doing fine, watch out— you’re about to be pureed.
But Mark also shows us that Jesus willingly enters—into this blender, this sin-cursed world of danger & demons & disease, of fever & leprosy, of paralysis & withered hands, of blasphemy & deadly storms, of demon-possessed men & bleeding women & dead daughters.
And that’s just the first five chapters.
Mark shows us we need Someone with power to come into this blender of life, where we’re as vulnerable & helpless as a goldfish.
Someone with power—to cast out, to heal, to pick up the pieces of our lives, and make us whole again.
Because of Christ's power, you can go through life with vigilant confidence.
Christ's teaching is authoritative, amazing, and alive (Mark 1:21-26). When we teach manmade traditions like the scribes we lose any authority and power.
This morning we celebrated baptisms, the Lord's Supper, and saw how we should be reaching out through fishing.
In Mark 20, we see the story of a mother who is unnamed, but we know by comparing the parallel passage in Mark, that this her name is Salome or Salomé—not to be confused with what my mom used to put in my sack lunch. And not to be confused with the daughter of Herodias who danced for the head of John the Baptist.
This Salome is not the dancing daughter. She’s the devoted mother.
Salome loves her children. She wants the best for her boys.
She married a successful small business owner, a well-to-do fisherman named Zebedee. But Salome wants even more for her boys. She wants her boys to be great. We see that…
1. Many mothers want their sons to be treated like a king. (Matt. 20:20-23a)
20 Then came to Him (Jesus) the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons , worshipping [she kneels before] him and desiring a certain thing of him.
21 And He said unto her, “What wilt thou?” She saith unto Him, “Grant that these, my two sons, may sit— the one on Thy right hand, and the other on the left, in Thy kingdom.”
This is a mother who wants her boys to be great—who wants them to literally be treated like kings.
The person on a king’s right hand was 2nd in command of the kingdom. The one to his left was 3rd in command. The top spots in the kingdom.
Apparently James & John had told their mother about Jesus’ promise in 19:28.
28 And Jesus said unto them, “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration [the new world] when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.”
Salome knew Jesus had made this promise. And she knew that her boys were especially close to Jesus. Wouldn’t you be proud if your sons were 2/3rds of Christ’s inner circle? Wouldn’t you be proud if you son was best friends with Jesus, like her son, John?
So let’s not be too quick to judge Salome. She wasn’t a bad mother.
She must have been a godly mother who’d raised these godly sons—the men who were closest to Jesus in the whole world.