Our scripture this week is Mark 2:23-28 “One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then 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.”

This section contains a controversy story, a saying of Jesus and an affirmation about Jesus. The general theme that holds these together is the Sabbath, an integral and substantial part of Judaism. This section allows us to see some of the substantial disagreement between Jesus and his critics. This is most certainly a portrait of Jesus challenging the Pharisees at the core of their religious perceptions and not at the fringes. The passage also shows us Christian reasoning about the Sabbath itself and the sort of justification that was put forward by Christians for worshipping on a new day of the week.

When was the last time you heard a sermon on Sabbath keeping? This isn’t a hot topic in today’s feel good religious environment. The various “Seventh-Day” sects and denominations within Christianity bear witness to a day when this was a major concern of the Christian community. The Puritans and their heirs were strong on Sabbath-keeping and preached about it (as well as exercised discipline over breakers.) Still, discussions of the appropriate day of worship or the appropriate behavior on the day of worship are hardly popular today. This is obviously a departure from the Old Testament emphasis on keeping the Sabbath holy and altering behavior in order to show reverence for God on that day. The creation story itself forms the foundation for the Bible’s strong emphasis on a day of worship. It is important that we understand Jesus at this point, as it shows us his own understanding of the Old Testament and his personal attitude toward the day of worship concept.

The reference to “Abiathar the high priest” seems to be inaccurate when compared with I Samuel 21:2-7 and 22:20. There is no simple way of dealing with this factual difference. Our best choices seem to be (a) this is an early copyists error, (b) Jesus is referring to a story unknown to us or (c) Jesus is making a simple error because it was virtually impossible to check a scripture reference. (A) seems to be an unwarranted assertion based on no evidence, (b) is the same and (c) troubles those who believe Jesus made no errors. I believe, however, that the doctrine of incarnation means Jesus was free from sin, not free from human limitation, which included, at times, imperfection in reasoning. Are we to believe Jesus never made an error as a carpenter? That he never missed a name or forgot where he put his shoes? This may seem absurd, but the incarnation is not perfection on this level.

The same is true for scripture itself. If inerrancy means there are no statements less than perfectly true, then our doctrine of inspiration becomes a Mormon doctrine of dictation. I would suggest the human element in the scriptures include some inaccuracies in some areas that do not bear on the truthfulness of scripture. This will distrurb some I’m sure and I will be glad to discuss what “free from error” means in another forum.

According to Deuteronomy 23:25, grain maybe plucked from a neighbor’s field. This was part of the provision for the poor in the Old Testament economic system. The Jewish oral law at the time of Jesus restricted 39 kinds of labor on the Sabbath and the activity of Jesus and his disciples was a violation of that oral law. As a rabbi and teacher, Jesus was expected to have a high regard for the Sabbath and its place it Jewish life. It separated Israel from other nations and marked Jews with he covenant law of God. Wherever they were, Jews would keep the Sabbath and thus bear witness of their creator and redeemer and lawgiver: Yahweh. In the eyes of the religious leaders, Jesus was despising a sacred trust and leading his followers away from one of the pillars of their faith.

The idea of marking the day of worship by abstinence from labor and conspicuous devotion has become unpopular today. Americans who have lived in “Bible belt” culture where Sunday was honored as a day of rest by the entire community know that such an observance, with all its possibilities for empty use and meaningless abuse, still spoke of a reverence for a “nation under God” that is now largely lacking. Christians who practice abstinence from work on their day of worship are likely to run afoul of their employers, their children’s coaches and members of the family. Even turning off the television on Sunday is considered too much. But is it really? The Pharisees may have been mired in tradition but Jesus was not attacking the keeping of the Sabbath as described in the Old Testament or the premise of a day of worship and rest. All of us who are “people of the book” should spend our day of worship honoring the Lord and abstaining from all but necessary work and ministry. Families would benefit greatly from returning to an honoring of the Lord’s day in the Spirit of true Old Testament Sabbath keeping. Even churches might consider whether they are keeping the day of worship in the spirit of the Bible when they demand hours of activity from leaders and members on the Lord’s day.

Jesus’ point is that gathering food is an act of necessity, even of mercy, to the needs of human beings. To restrict the gathering of food is to go beyond the purpose of sabbath keeping and into legalism. Jesus understood that human beings will take the commandments of God and turn them into a platform for demonstrating human righteousness rather than honor to God. Legalism of this sort becomes a competition to see who can be the most obedient and the most spiritual, when God intended simple and worshipful honoring of His commandment in a spirit of awe and love. Modern Christianity rivals the Pharisees at their worst in this regard. The command to pray becomes who can pray the most. The command to read and obey the word becomes who can own the trendiest Bible. The command to worship and sing becomes a mad competition to see which church can be the most entertaining and unusual. The command to be filled with the Spirit becomes a sad spectacle of demonstrating how spiritual we are with phoney manifestations, a bizarre manner of speaking and ridiculous displays of faked emotion. Be careful before you condemn the Pharisees.

The Sabbath principle was intended to honor God and benefit human beings. It was not an excuse for excessive sabbath-keeping, but joyful worship, quiet reflection, quality interaction with others and personal time with God. We should love the Lord’s day, and look forward to the sweet opportunities it gives us to have deeply satisfying human experiences. In this sense, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath. The law of God follows the creation of man. It is meant to relate man to God and to bless us. Obey and live was the repeated message of Deuteronomy. To the extent that we do not keep God’s law, we are separated from Him and from the blessings of knowing Him. At the heart of all that God asks and commands is His love for us and His desire for the best for us. His laws are not a punishment, a game or an obstacle course. The person whose life is shaped by the law prospers in all he does (Psalm 1).

Critics of Christianity often say we create religion to meet our own needs. Strangely, Jesus seems to be saying that “religion,” at least the external requirements, was created by God to meet our deepest needs. The joyful keeping of the law is a mark of the righteous man because its puts him in covenant with a God of lovingkindness and goodness, a God from whom all blessings and mercies flow. Doesn’t this “joyful lawkeeping” mark the heart of those who know God best?

Christians abandoned the Sabbath not as a way of abandoning the Old Testament, but as a way of moving into the fullness of what the Old Testament taught. Every day is God’s day. Every day is our day of worship. We keep the Lord’s day in the Spirit of the Sabbath, but not in a legalistic manner. On that day we pause to worship, to reflect and to relate because there are our privileges everyday. Sunday worship should be God-centered Joy that culminates a week of worship and that anticipates every day in His presence. When we know this God, we know that actions of mercy and works of necessity do not dishonor God on his day, they reflect more aspects of his goodness and compassion. Christians who do not honor the Lord’s Day are not healthy believers. An eager entering into the spirit of Jesus will find us where Jesus was on every day of worship: in the house of the Lord, with His people, proclaiming the goodness of the Lord.

The final statement in this passage is the point Mark most wants to press home: Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. Critics who want to minimize this are simply dedicated to overlooking the obvious. As Jesus breaks the Sabbath laws of the Pharisees he is expressing more than just an opinion- this is the Lord of all things showing us the heart of what it means to know him. This is the God who invites us to know that his yoke is easy and light. Jesus calls disciples who discover the meaning of everything God asks us to do in the relationship with Jesus himself. The creator of the Sabbath knows it. Jesus is a living picture of the law of God. As we confess Him as Lord and live under His Lordship, we are invited to affirm all those things Jesus treasured as God’s gifts to us. The Lord of the Sabbath is not just the master- He is the rest of God himself. He is the great intercessor who invites us to pray. He is the living Word who invites us into the scriptures. He is the High Priest that invites us to worship. There is no place in Christianity that the Lordship of Christ does not meet us, show us our need, our weakness and completely meet the very demand God makes of us, thereby making it possible for us to obey God in a new Spirit of obedience.

This is the one who said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17) Mark shows us the meaning that Jesus gives to the Sabbath: a freedom from legalism, a sense of the heart of God for human beings and a vision of the Lord Jesus who is and is above the Sabbath. May our lives be full of the reality of Jesus and free from the empty religion that separates human beings from God, others and even our best selves.

# Questions How do you keep the Lord’s Day?
# Do Christians put too little or too much emphasis on the Lord’s Day? Does it matter what day we worship on?
# The Pharisees had added 39 oral traditions to the command not to work on the sabbath. How do we do the same thing today with God’s commands?
# Michael says Christians tend to take God’s commands and use them to prove how spiritual they are. Do you agree or not? Why?
# How would you respond to someone who says Christians should worship on Saturday, not Sunday?
# How does recreation fit into keeping a day or worship?
# Other than attending public worship, how should Christians keep the day of worship?
# If you were an employer would you require employees to work on Sunday? How would you respond to one who asked to be allowed not to work on Sunday?
# Jesus seems to make a factual error in his Old Testament quotation about the high priest. Could Jesus have made factual errors and still been sinless? In what way was Jesus perfect? In what ways was he NOT perfect?
# How does Jesus fulfill the law of God? If he fulfilled it, do we still have to keep it? Should we want to keep it?
# The Pharisees thought Jesus was a troublemaker by breaking religious laws. How might Jesus similarly irritate religious people today?
# Michael says Jesus is the perfect completion of all the commands of God. If he fulfilled all the commands of God for us, how are we responsible for keeping them today?
# The sabbath was made for YOU? What does that say about what God wants FROM you and FOR you?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE: Paul L. Meir’s nice little abridgement of Josephus. Published by Kregal. Nice edition for someone who would be discouraged by the complete works. Lots of good illustrations. Makes a great introduction to this essential source. 1

Galatians 5:5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. (NLT)

My head is rattling around with about a hundred ideas related to Jesus shaped spirituality, and one of them has occupied me in various ways the past two days.

In short order, Jesus shaped spirituality is a spirituality Jesus would recognize as what he gave us; what he taught, lived and began in the experience of his followers.

Jesus shaped spirituality is about a “Big Picture” of truth (God, the world, creation, etc,) but it is especially about what Jesus means for relationships (God and others) and human life (yours and others.) If you are a follower of Jesus, your life, your relationships and your participation in this world are deeply affected by him.

The reason Jesus used phrases like “you must be born again” and “you must become like a little child” is that his way of life deeply affects and changes the way we live and relate. It is like starting life over again. Paul translated Jesus shaped spirituality as “if anyone is in Christ: New Creation!” Everything begins again in Jesus, and Jesus’ followers know this and live it out as individuals and communities.

One of the frustrating characteristics of Jesus shaped spirituality is Jesus’ choice to not resolve some very difficult either/or dilemmas, but to leave us with both/ands.

For example, whenever Jesus speaks about our relationship with God he almost always speaks in terms of God’s grace extended to us. In fact, Jesus usually goes out of his way to tell a story about someone who had absolutely nothing to contribute to a situation but their pathetic condition, lack of resources or complete failure, and they are made right completely by the grace of someone else.

Example: The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee has a great Powerpoint of his many religious and personal accomplishments, while the tax collector is mumbling between sobs about being sorry and “God have mercy.”

Jesus says that the tax collector goes home right with God, while the religious guy is still on Powerpoint #45 about his last mission trip.

This isn’t unusual and I could recall many examples.

At the same time, Jesus makes it just as clear that we are called to live as his disciples and to imitate his love, sacrifice, community, servanthood and obedience. A simple parable like the Good Samaritan would do here, but things are more obvious in the parable of the Unmerciful Servant.

21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
22“ No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
23“ Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

I have to confess I love this story because Jesus really knows how to get under our skin. Christians are famous for their exaggerated sense of right and wrong as it applies to other people. Jesus had seen this sort of thing up close with the religious people of his time (nothing really changes) and created the perfect story to illustrate the absurdity of the entire business.

Here’s a fellow who has run up his accounts into the millions, and when it’s called due, he puts on the show. Weeping and begging, pleading that his family be spared and he be given that most frequent of beggars demands, “more time.” His creditor has pity and released him, but because he’s God in this story, doesn’t give him more time to come up with a religion so he can repay, he wipes out the entire debt.

This life-changing experience doesn’t change the life of our man, however, as he immediately goes and finds someone who owes him money, demands repayment, refuses to have mercy and throws the other debtor into prison.

If you recognize this person, I hope it’s not because it’s you. OK. It’s you…and me too.

Episode three is where the other servants pass on this appalling act of religious hypocrisy to the boss, causing the boss- who stops acting like God the God of the Gospel and starts acting like that God everyone always wants to be “fair,” the God of the Law- to call in this hypocrite for a real accounting. You can see how that turns out.

In this instance, the connection between grace received in a completely helpless situation and grace lived out in relationships with others is starkly put on display. It ought to make you uncomfortable, because that sudden jump from Gospel to Law will remind all of us that none of us are very good at being nearly as forgiving as we should be consider the hilarious wipe-out of debt the Gospel has provided. If Jesus doesn’t take the beating and go to prison in my place, this story is certainly going to be me.

But my point is that Jesus simply won’t separate grace received and grace lived, no matter how much we want him to do so. There’s a Protestant view of how these things relate (Faith, THEN love/works) and a Catholic way of seeing it (Faith, love AND works, together.) It doesn’t matter much to me what denomination the good guys and bad guys are in these stories, what matters is how does this story shape me as a Jesus follower?

The simple answer: Jesus keeps these things together, and makes the life of a disciple very difficult at times. In fact, the better you understand the grace of God and the command to love and live as one who belongs to God, the more difficult it will be.

Enter my adult Bible class’s lesson on Galatians this morning.

Galatians 5:5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. (NLT)

Here’s your free sermon preachers. Hit the Paypall button or give me credit :-)

Faith waits.
Faith works.

Faith waits on God to do what God alone can do. “Righteousness” here is very much Luther’s idea of God making all things right. We wait on God to finally and completely bring the Kingdom, finish redemption, resurrect and remake a dead and broken world.

We do nothing but “eagerly” wait. “Eagerly.” I am waiting on a phone call from my agent telling me where we are on my book proposal. I am “eagerly” waiting. I can do nothing but wait.

In those words “eagerly wait” is the entirety of a grace-filled, Jesus bought, God-gifted spirituality.

But faith does something while it waits. (Isn’t this amazing.)

Faith works- “expresses itself (NLT)”- through love. All the different nuances of love in the Bible come into play here, but that’s another post. We are loved by an incredible God who has given us new life in the Gospel. As our faith waits on God in hope, our faith expresses itself in love.

That’s what you aren’t reading in the parable of the unmerciful servant.

It’s what you aren’t seeing in the lives of many Jesus believers.

It’s what you should see in the community that follows Jesus and lives out his way in the world.

Jesus shaped spirituality waits on God in hope and expresses love while it waits. God is love, has loved and goes on loving. We are reconciled and made new in grace. The law can’t produce love, but the Gospel, by the work of the Spirit, always expresses itself in love.

This is what Jesus gives us: grace and love. Faith and works. The Gospel and discipleship. Believing and living. We can talk about these things separately, but we must live them together.

Jesus did that perfectly. Jesus teaches us to do so, even if imperfectly. What matters is if we embrace all that God has for us and all that God calls us to be in Jesus.

Our scripture this week is Mark 2:18-22 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”

This selection of scripture actually combines two that are usually dealt with separately; however, it seems to me that Mark is placing these together thematically and linking both to the previous (and following) sections. The theme is the profound break that Jesus’ Kingdom message makes with the religious status quo, particularly with that of the Pharisees and their strong orientation towards tradition. This theme is first sounded in the banquet (party!) Jesus enjoys with Matthew and other religious non-persons; an obvious joyous celebration of a new appreciation of what God is doing in His Kingdom. And, of course, the sick person who is healed experiences both joy and newness.

Fasting is an aspect of many religions. Judaism required only one fast day, the day of Atonement (Lev. 16:31-34.) Fasts were sometimes called for by leaders and prophets in response to particular events, such as times of national danger, repentance or humility. (2 Chron 20:3, Ezra 8:21-23, Neh 1:4-11, Jer 36:9, Joel 1:8-2:17) Fasts also were observed privately for various reasons. (2 Sam 12:15-23, I Kings 21:27, Psalms 69:1-15, 35:13-14, 109:4-21). Jesus never repudiated fasting, and fasted during his time of testing in the wilderness (Matthew 4:2), but we do not find any extensive advice for his disciples to regularly fast though apparently the early Jewish Christians did continue to fast on some occasions.

During the time of Jesus, stricter Jews “fasted” two days per week from sunup to sundown. Some of their practices in fasting prompted Jesus’ strong words in Matthew 6: 16-18 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Clearly, some of the Pharisees were guilty of fasting practices that were a public performance. Barclay suggests they may have whitened their faces to appear pallid. Jesus’ attitude towards public religion was quite severe. He frequently warned against the hypocritical tendencies that accompany public fasting, prayer, giving and worship. (What would he say about today’s contemporary Christian music scene!?) Like the prophets before him, he discerned that human beings are easily motivated to believe that impressing the audience is impressing God. Jesus bluntly says that “they have their reward.”

One time that fasting was forbidden was during a wedding celebration. For as long as two weeks the bride and bridegroom were surrounded by feasting and friends, known as the “children” of the bridegroom. For many people, this wedding celebration was the biggest “party” of their life and was an occasion of joy by the entire community. Sorrow was banished and fasting would have been ridiculous and insulting. Jesus first century audience would have laughed at such an idea. Jesus is comparing himself to the bridegroom. The bride may have waited for years for his arrival to bring her into his family, just as the Jewish people had waited for the promised one. This time when Jesus is present and bringing the joy and freshness of the Kingdom is no time to fast, but a time to soak in the joy and gladness of such an event.

The illustrations of the “patched” garment and the “new wine/old wineskins” contrast the old and the new. Jesus is not breaking with Judaism, but with the “old” orientation of the strict religionists who teach the keeping of tradition over the mercy of God. The Pharisee’s gripe with Jesus and his disciples is plainer in other passages, but we can already see that those who sneered at Jesus’ fellowship with tax collectors and sinners were threatened by a “new” teaching that presented a God who is not confined behind traditions, but reaches out to include sinners in surprising ways. It was not the laws of Judaism or the God of Judaism or the heart of the serious Jew that Jesus spoke about; it was the loyalty to a kind of religion that did not move with God into the future and hope, but moved backward into tradition and, as a result, bound people to their old sins.

Jesus did not come to patch up such a system. He did not come to pour the new wine into the old wineskins. Traditional religion will always tear away under the dynamic pressure of the Holy Spirit at work in the Kingdom. God is active in His Kingdom, breaking down walls, setting people free, healing the hurting and including the outcast. This can’t be fit into a system that says God is a cosmic bookkeeper, counting our acts of loyalty to tradition. Some have felt these sayings reflect the early Christian movement justifying a break with Judaism and the creation of a new religion. More likely is that, from the outset, Jesus was confronting all who knew him with fundamental choices as to what relationship with God was all about and what God himself was like.

With Jesus comes joy and celebration. The time is foreshadowed when the bridegroom will be taken, but that is not the time Jesus is speaking. And it is not our time, when the resurrected Christ is alive in His people through the Holy Spirit in a way even the disciples during Jesus’ ministry could not appreciate. With Jesus comes a new dynamic. Not new, in the sense that Jesus proclaims and embodies the same God who delivered slaves from Egypt by His mighty hand, but new in contrast to all those human systems of religion that are predictable, stale and moribund.

Now some application and observations. First, there are two fundamental characteristics of true Biblical religion: Fear of God and Joy in God. These are not strictly “Old testament/New testament” opposites, but their general character is strongly affirmed in each testament. Without the fear of the Lord, i.e. the genuine appreciation of the character and reality of God revealed in scripture, our faith becomes shallow, trivial, filled with vanity and entertainment, man-centered and trendy. These are the curses of modern Christianity, so full of a diet of candy-flavored preaching and entertainment-oriented worship that the fear of the Lord is not even desired, but considered bizarre. In this kind of environment grows a church with no appreciation for moral standards, no reverence in worship, cheap grace and a low view of scripture. However, without Joy in God, other symptoms develop. We look to material pleasures and human relationships for our deepest satisfactions. We place God “up there” and do not desire his manifest presence. We un-empower the Gospel and are afraid to pray for the miraculous or the supernatural. We become legalists and moralists, suspicious of those who are intimate with God. Both these emphasis are needed in healthy religion.

Secondly, outward actions hold a dangerous potential of seducing our pride. No matter what it is we do, if it becomes a performance evaluated on what people thought rather than an offering given to the Lord, we are hypocritical. At this point, human pride is its most seductive and dangerous. How easy to pray for human ears, to view our giving as our support of the church, to preach for applause, to sing for fame and to witness for the adulation of others. The Christian life is lived Coram Deo, before the face of God. Beware when all men speak well of you.

Third, God is moving forward into hope and true faith pursues His heart. The sound of Christianity that should be heard in the world is Joy. Christian people should be holy and happy. Worship ought to lift us up to God. There are a hundred ways to apply this truth, and many more ways to miss it. This is not a suggestion that church should be entertainment. Far from it. But it is saying that if, after all our insistence that we are worshiping and experiencing and proclaim Jesus, we are dusty and dead, something is wrong. Christian Joy is not the manipulation of emotion, but the response of the whole person- spirit, mind, will, body and emotions- to the presence and the truth of God.

I am no great fan of the phenomenon of holy laughter or the entire current fascination with bizarre manifestations. I am highly skeptical of much of it. BUT….those of us who have worshiped for years in joyless, dry, boring, sleepy, unmoved lethargy have no place to criticize those who occasionally seem to affirm the observation that Christians have been into the new wine. May God visit us and bring the joy of the bridegroom! May the joy of the resurrection and the joy of Pentecost fill us! May the joy of David’s worship and the blind man’s healing and Mary’s surrender engulf all of us! May we desire all of God and may we be thirsty for more and more of His presence and power in our experience, as well as in our doctrine.

Finally, we should realize that the “bursting, ripping” power of the Gospel is a continual application. Anywhere that the old, i.e. the human and fallen, dominates, the Gospel brings dynamic life and new life. This is part of our commission to go into the world as leaven, as a new colony, as pilgrims and aliens, as lights in the darkness. And once in the world,, we represent not the old, but the new, Christ and His Kingdom. This being true, why are Christians so often sided with and loyal to the old? Why do we so often fight that which brings liberation, freedom, life and joy to the world? Why have Christians been found among racists, among communists, among those who bomb clinics and among those who oppress women? The new is one new race in Christ. The new is God’s Kingdom over human utopias. The new is radical love not violence. The new is an identity in Christ that affirms gender and transforms relationships. I do not want to be judged progressive by the so called progressive liberals of this age, but I do want to be found doing exactly what Jesus would do if he were here.

# Questions How can we relate this weeks passage with last week’s (the calling of Matthew and the words to those who disapproved)?
# Do Christians put too little emphasis on fasting? What is the principle in fasting that we always need to strongly affirm?
# What sorts of behaviors today equate Jesus’ observations about the hypocrites public show of fasting?
# How does pride work its way into almost everything we do?
# Why should Christians be joyous when the “bridegroom” is in heaven?
# How would you answer someone who says heaven will be boring?
# How do you think Jesus saw God differently than his religious critics?
# What reasons do religious people find for criticizing joyous people?
# When Christians and Jews relate, Christians often come off as arrogant. Why is this wrong and how should we relate to those who are sincere Jews?
# Can you develop a presentation of the Gospel that launches from Jesus’ words in 2:21-22?
# Jesus was criticized for being a partyer and a consorter with partyers. Is this embarrassing for modern Christians? Should we imitate Jesus?
# React to Michael’s observation that true Biblical religion needs both the fear of the Lord and Joy in the Lord. How does the presence of God relate to both of these? How can we have both in worship? In our lives?
# How is it helpful to offer all our actions to God rather than people? How does this defeat pride? How does it help us recover from failure?
# What is the cause of joyless Christianity? What has the absence of joy done to our image of Jesus? What are the results of Joyless Christianity as we relate to other people, particularly lost people? Can Christians just have a good time without feeling guilty? (Is Michael getting hyper on this one????)
# What is your opinion of Holy Laughter and similar phenomenon? How do you evaluate it biblically? What would Jesus think of it?
# How do Christians often side with the “old”? What sort of “newness” would God like to bring into your world: family, work, personal life, etc.
# Should we pray for joy or simply rejoice? What stops us? When we pray, why so many more prayer requests than praise the Lord’s?

1. We should start with affirming the perspective we’ve gained. The Kingdom of God, which Jesus embodied, proclaimed, taught and practiced is only possible because Jesus is a mediator-King; a King who makes things right through death and resurrection, not through miracles and exorcisms. Hold these things together. See these two tracks in scripture: the establishment of God’s Kingdom and the victory of God’s messiah over evil, sin and death. Jesus death secures our place in his Kingdom, and his Kingdom insures his victory in the world.

2. Discipleship is a process (or processes), not a program. No matter what methodologies are used, the fact is that the entire life of grace and growth is discipleship. What processes are there for us to see in the ministry of Jesus? Mentoring. Community life. Ministry to others. Being a student. Healing. Spiritual warfare. Prayer. Missions. Evangelism. Communication. It’s a life more active than contemplative, at least as I read it, but it is a life where a lot of attention is paid to “seeing” the realities of the Kingdom. It is a full course and even with a sense of gifts and callings, there is much to be undertaken for Christ.

3. Jesus taught the Kingdom through almost every available means. It was a large subject, with different levels of implementation. Our lives and communities point to the Kingdom, even though we are never to mistake anything we do for the final Kingdom itself. At no point is the Christian life more of a stretch, than when we work toward the Kingdom of God and live in the Kingdom of God, yet all around us the Kingdom is as much “not yet” as it is “already.” Christian teaching and mentoring should have a constant focus on the values, practices, ethics and characteristics of the Kingdom of God. We will not finally or completely bring it, but our lives point to it and its reality will be found all around us and within us.

4. The healing ministries of Jesus remind us that we should be constantly about the work of healing. For us, this is compassionate concern, binding up wounds and reconciliation. It is bridging differences and being willing to suffer consequences. it is taking risks in order to show God’s care and compassion. It is standing with the work of healing by the love and Spirit of God. We should not mistake this for a political stance, though it has political implications, especially in some cultures.

5. The exorcisms of Jesus remind us that we are to be involved in Biblically sound spiritual warfare and always to seek the defeat of evil by the power of Christ. Neither the healings nor the exorcisms of Jesus are requiring us to imitate Jesus miracles and exorcisms, but to ask what they tell us about Jesus and about his Kingdom in the present. I do not believe we are given these portions of the Gospels in order to go and do the same things in the same way, but neither do I believe the Holy Spirit no longer equips the church with gifts of all kinds of healing and gifts focused on the defeat of particular kinds of evil. Both of these areas are subject to much abuse. Stay close to the scriptures, but don’t quench the spirit.

6. Jesus was constantly traveling to do what we would call missionally compassionate evangelism. At no point are we given a clearer example. Disciples should be busy doing good in the name of Jesus. They should network with other ministries and churches. They should use their resources to do all the good they can in Jesus’ name. In all of this, they should seek the evangelistic goal of the Great Commission. A disciple without a missional and ministering focus has strayed far from what is most important to a disciple’s mission: going as He commanded. This, by the way, is not an invitation to churches to engage in dozens of programs, but it is an invitation of churches to develop, train and equip as many disciples as possible doing as many ministries as possible. A community of Christian disciples should be light and love in the places God has put them.

7. Jesus models a deep devotional experience. This is not optional for disciples. We need to, with sensitivity to our varying contexts, personalities and backgrounds, constantly be seeking to teach the life of prayer and devotional reading, especially of scripture. We should oppose the imbalanced life of the mind we often see on the internet, with a constant business and shallowness leaving little time or need for prayer, and a fan-club concern for books rather than an openness to what many different authors can teach. Teaching the devotional life should be an ongoing work in discipling/mentoring relationships.

8. Jesus uses preaching, teaching and conversation to communicate the gospel. Discipleship should develop the ability to listen, study AND communicate, especially in conversation and teaching. All are not teachers, but in the individual relationships disciples will encounter, all will “preach” to someone in simple conversation.

9. Disciples are learners and students. This may be obvious, but it is easily lost with a bit of pride and arrogance. Be teachable and find good teachers.

In the final consideration, discipleship is an accumulation of experiences that should be build into the lives of individuals, but should be the great concern of Christian communities and their leaders.

The current belief that disciples will be developed via sentimentalism, advanced theology, worship music and trendy routes of relevance will prove to be ineffective. We can see what Jesus is doing. We can understand what he is saying. We can say “yes,” and we can, with the help of a community of other disciples, follow him.

In my next and final post, I’ll say a bit about the kind of communities that develop disciples, and those that do not.

In 1982, I returned to seminary and took a job as youth minister at a church near the seminary. Because of some of my studies in seminary that semester, and because of something I heard Dr. John Piper say in a sermon, I determined to make the Gospel According to St. Mark a major life’s project.

At the time, 27 years ago, it seemed like many other resolutions that I made but probably wouldn’t keep. Surprisingly, I have kept that resolution, much to the chagrin of all those around me who have come to hear far more sermons, lessons and talks from Mark than any other Gospel, and especially to the regret of my Bible students, who have come to view my annual trek through Mark as the great mountain to be climbed in my Bible survey class.

This began with seeds planted by Dr. G.R. Beasley-Murray’s introduction to the New Testament, and Dr. David Garland’s class on the Gospels. It continued in my own studies of the New Testament and building an extensive library on Jesus studies, particularly regarding the literary aspects of the Gospel of Mark.

In my ministry, this turned into something I love to do: cover the entire Gospel of Mark in the setting of a retreat or 3 sessions. A large part of this is asking everyone to read Mark and then, working with a group, graphically present the Gospel of Mark.

I’ve now led studies of the Gospel of Mark dozens and dozens of times. I go through the book 3-4 times a year with my students, and have done so for 15 years. I’ve concentrated on Mark in my preaching and teaching. I can be annoying about my interest in Mark, but I hope it’s been helpful to my students and congregations.

It is immediately apparent that almost no one has any idea that the Gospels have structure, and that this structure is a major part of the author’s way of telling the story. A few hours of time with Mark under the guidance of anyone who knows the terrain will reveal the following facts.

a) The Gospel has two halves.

b) Most of the miracles, healings, Kingdom teaching, parables, exorcisms and initial discipleship material is in the first half of the book.

c) This first half has only the slightest of foreshadowed interest in the coming passion of Jesus.

d) The first half occurs in the Galilean context, which is both Jewish and multi-cultural.

e) This first half is dominated by the question “Who is Jesus?” This is asked in the context of Messianic expectation.

f) This question is asked and answered multiple times and ways. It is unmistakable.

g) Jesus’ response to clear identifications of him in the first half of the Gospel are downplayed, including the “Mark’s Secret” material, where Jesus discourages actions that would reveal him to be a miracle-working messiah.

h) The first half of Mark abruptly comes to a conclusion in the middle of chapter 8, as the disciples correctly identify Jesus and he begins repeatedly and plainly speaking of his upcoming passion.

It is obvious that the author of Mark has arranged the material in the Gospel so that a correct identification of Jesus in the context of his works is the critical aspect of the first half of the Gospel, but that this identification is not “true” until the passion/cross/resurrection is experienced.

While Matthew and Luke have more material and a more complex arrangement, this basic outline (minus Mark’s secret) holds true for both of those Gospels as well. The material in the Gospel of John is quite different, but also holds to the idea that Jesus himself revealed his full purpose in stages, leading directly to the cross, resurrection, Pentecost and beyond.

Without an appreciation of this structure, Christians typically see the first half of the ministry of Jesus as a collection of stories and teaching with no real relationship to one another. Preachers have, for centuries, used these miracles, parables, exorcisms, etc. as their playground, hanging onto these texts whatever they wanted the texts to say or mean.

The lesson here is that the first part of Jesus ministry was purposeful. It’s purpose was to “connect” Jesus to those who heard and followed him. Jesus is “on display” in the first part of his ministry in a different way than in his passion, but in a way that is crucial for Christians today to understand, imitate and include as they present the full, Biblical message about Jesus and the Gospel.

In the next post, I will discuss Matthew and Luke, and the discipleship material that precedes the passion accounts in all three.

This will build for us the following picture of the three primary purposes of the ministry of Jesus:

1) Miracles, exorcisms and signs that reveal the presence of the Kingdom by way of the presence of God the Son in history.

2) Kingdom teaching on the nature of the presence of God in history and the role played by Jesus in that Kingdom.

3) Preparation and formation of faithful disciples of Jesus who serve the King in the Kingdom and in history.

Nothing has impressed me more in my last few years of writing, reading and discussion than the disconnect the average Christian believer feels from the ministry of Jesus, specifically his miracles, exorcisms, teachings, training of disciples and encounters with individuals as described in the first half of the Gospels.

For many Christians, their view of Jesus is much like the movie Passion of the Christ. The story of Jesus begins with the suffering of Jesus, with the ministry of Jesus fading anonymously into the background, appearing occasionally in a few moralistic or sentimentally devotional flashbacks.

This disconnect leaves me with the feeling that many Jesus-followers are almost cynical regarding the relevance of the ministry of Jesus for anything other than preaching “lessons” from the example of Jesus. The actual significance of this major portion of scripture seems to be confusing to many Christians.

The disconnection from the ministry of Jesus takes several different forms.

1. At times, it is a stated preference for Jesus as presented in the Pauline epistles. This preference can be modest, defensive or hostile. In its more extreme forms, the person wanting to serious consider the place of the ministry of Jesus in an overall approach to Christianity may be accused of denying the Gospel, or of replacing a Gospel of justification with a Gospel of “the Kingdom.”

2. The disconnect may be a belief that the ministry of Jesus actually is an inspiration to liberal, socialistic misunderstandings and abuses of the Gospel.

3. The disconnect may grow out of a belief that the church Jesus founded and its current ministry in the world is the goal toward which all of Jesus’ words and actions pointed. To take Jesus’ ministry seriously is to wrongly emphasize the “seed” stage over the more mature “plant” or “tree.”

4. Others who are disconnected from the ministry of Jesus simply do not know what to do with the example, teachings and significance of Jesus’ ministry today. They are frequently quick to state that we don’t follow Jesus’ teaching literally and have no real need to do so.

5. Most evangelicals are operating off an outline of the Gospel that gives no real significance to the ministry of Jesus. Jesus death and resurrection have significance in personal evangelism, but the ministry of Jesus does not, so this part of the Biblical presentation of Jesus is easy to disconnect.

There may be other reasons for this disconnect from the ministry of Jesus, but these seem to me to be the primary responses that I hear, read and observe.

In the following days, I will be addressing “The Jesus Disconnect” by responding to these questions:

First, how do we view the ministry of Jesus in an overall consideration of Jesus?

Second, how does the ministry of Jesus participate in the Gospel and all that the Gospel does?

Third, how can we access the ministry of Jesus in a Jesus shaped Christian life?

Finally, what are the implications for evangelicals of recovering the entirety of Jesus as presented in the scripture?

Our passage today is Mark 2:13-17. Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (NIV)

How did Jesus treat people? If Christianity is correct in its confession that Jesus is the incarnation of the eternal, creator God, then Jesus’ treatment of individuals is perhaps the most important part of the Gospel message. Why? Because this indicates how God feels about me! It is the most personal aspect of what the Gospels have to say to any of us. The scholarly pursuit of the Gospels as literature of a religious movement is important, but even the most objective and skeptical scholar must be impressed with what we see in Jesus treatment of individuals. Only the most crude person could say there is nothing here that is worth imitating.

This passage contains two stories that have been grouped together by Mark because of their similar theme. The first is a brief recollection about the calling of Levi as a disciple. The second is a controversy story preserving a memorable saying. But below and more basic is to the text is the clear teaching that Jesus’ treatment of people broke the religious rules of the time in a way that spoke deeply about the Kingdom of God and the purpose of Jesus. Here was the heart of Jesus as he related to people and the essence of why the “Good News” in Jesus differed from the message of status quo religion.

Mark has informed us that Jesus assertively called disciples, as opposed to most of the religious leaders of his culture who allowed potential disciples to approach them and apply for acceptance as a student. Jesus has sought out disciples in Capernaum among Fisherman and we can safely assume this was his practice, though he certainly may have also accepted the “applicant.” It is interesting that when the Gospels record someone approaching Jesus to ask to become a follower, he is usually somewhat discouraging. (Matthew 8:19-22). Mark tells us that Jesus was being followed by large crowds and eventually selected the twelve from a larger group. (Mark 3:13-19) Luke records that Jesus sent out 72 (Luke 10:1ff) disciples on a “2 X 2″ mission. So apparently Jesus had a large group of disciples that either were invited to follow him or simply chose to do so on his own. And it is equally clear that Jesus disciples were not from the religiously educated or the usual pious groups, but from ordinary- even undesirable- people.

Tax Collectors are not popular in any culture. But in first century Palestine, tax collectors were especially despised. This was for a number of reasons. The Romans sold tax collecting franchises to the highest bidder. Once the collector paid his quota to the Romans, he could keep everything else. For this reason, tax collectors were notoriously dishonest and sometimes collected double (or more) what was owed. Also, tax collectors were collaborating with an occupying force. The ordinary Jew may not have been a zealot, but was certainly patriotic and easily hated someone who turned his back on his own people and worked for the Romans. Being in contact with the Romans made the tax collector ritually unclean and tax collectors were numbered with the “unreligious” outcasts or society. It is no surprise that tax collectors are associated with prostitutes and “sinners.” Their social circle was limited to other religious and social outcasts.

The text offers us no clue as to why Jesus calls Levi. The story of Zacheus in Luke 19:1-9 seems to indicate that he was repentant about his dishonesty and earnestly desired forgiveness and restoration. But we have no such information about Matthew. We simply know that Jesus called him on the spot and later was eating at Levi’s home. It is not wild speculation to conclude, however, that such characters were spiritually and morally hungry and heard something in the message of Jesus that was attractive. What was it? It was the good news that God did not despise sinners but loved them and invited them into table fellowship with him, an amazing offer.

It is difficult in our culture to understand the significance of table fellowship. Sharing a meal was the deepest sign of hospitality and acceptance. It was an invitation into friendship and fellowship, going far beyond simply sharing food. Many of the current scholars reinterpreting Jesus believe this action on the part of Jesus was more than just something observed about him; they believe it was an intentional action, done in a public way to proclaim a radically different message about the Kingdom of God and the God of the Kingdom. While I don’t believe Jesus was staging events, I do believe the calling of Matthew and the subsequent eating with “sinners” was quite intentional and repeated for the purpose of including sinners and annoying the religious status quo.

The image of the fellowship meal also touches on the theme of the great banquet at the end of time, an image occurring frequently in the Bible and certainly picked up in the rest of the New Testament as a powerful image of the Kingdom. Jesus spoke of it often, for instance in Matthew 22:2ff. The Pharisees and religious people of Jesus’ time believed that the unrighteous would be excluded from this banquet, but Jesus made it a point to say there would be a great surprise when God invites and includes the outcasts and sinners, and even excludes the usual guests. Such an upside-down turn of this banquet image was part of what Jesus taught in his total approach to the Kingdom of God. It is one of those parts of the teaching of Jesus that is not appreciated by modern Christians, as is evidenced by our treatment of those Jesus would surely include.

Jesus’ saying about who needs the Gospel is basic: sinners need God. God is actively seeking them out and inviting them into His family. Those who consider themselves good are in danger of missing the Kingdom altogether. If we see our total need of grace and help, God is for us. If we believe we have arrived at a level where we are not a “real” sinner we have missed God’s Kingdom. (I recently played Steve Taylor’s song “Jesus is for Losers” for my students. One very religious young man was offended at the song title. I gently reminded him that if we could not see ourselves as losers before God, we would never believe a message that says Jesus lost everything for us.) The best example of this overall message is Jesus parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector told in Luke 18:9-14, a passage that is essential to read with this study. Jesus ends that parable with the question “who went home justified” i.e. right with God- the man who thanked God that he didn’t need help or the man who believed he didn’t deserve it, but still begged for it?

The implications of all this are stunning. Christianity is not a religion that allows us to make ourselves acceptable to God. If we believe we have become acceptable to him, we have missed him. Instead, Christianity is a relationship with a God whose heart is drawn towards the sinful, the broken, the outcast and the excluded. God sides with sinners and eats with them, warning those of us who are religious that we stand in danger- by declaring ourselves well- of not hearing the voice of our creator calling us to himself. This perspective does not dissolve the need of Christianity to articulate God’s holiness and judgement on sin. This is also basic to the Bible. But if we say that we see God as he has revealed himself in Jesus, then we see a God whose mercy seeks out the very sinners who have offended His holiness and personally bears the price of their rescue. This is what the cross is all about, and why Paul says that the cross is foolishness to the world, but beautiful to those who are being saved.

On a practical level, we should be unafraid to look at the tough implications of this passage for our own churches and ministries. I work at a Christian school that accepts mostly lost students, many with legal problems and school expulsions in their background. Every year a certain number of our Christian faculty leave our ministry because they do not see what we do as “Christian” enough! This is typical for how many of us are taught to think; we act as if Jesus would be more likely found in the church than at a bar; that his friends would be preachers not prostitutes; that he sends us to help people find a church rather sending us to find sinners and love them. Our reworking of Jesus into one who would never call Matthew or eat with sinners is sad. Jackson Browne recorded a song on a Chieftains Christmas album and called the song The Rebel Jesus. The song, written from the perspective of a non-Christian, says that the rebel Jesus of the New Testament is far more attractive than the tamed Jesus of church-ianity.

We especially need to treasure this message because at some point, every one of us will be the excluded sinner. We may be the adulterer, the AIDS patient, the prison inmate, the drug addict or the runaway teenager. At that point, when life has fallen apart, when churches do not welcome us, when people talk about us in past tense, when there are no easy answers- where is God then? How do we tell a father who has abused his family or a young girl who has aborted her child or a convicted criminal that Jesus Christ offers hope if we have forgotten that Jesus, from the very beginning, has been the savior of the sick, not of the healthy who need no help? As individual followers of Jesus, we need to faithfully and stubbornly hold to the Christ who preached and practiced “the upside down Kingdom.”

Next week we move on to Fasting and New Wine.

Questions

1. Why is it important that we carefully note how Jesus treated people?
2. Why do you suppose Jesus often discouraged those who proclaimed themselves disciples?
3. What is involved in the command “Follow Me?”
4. How would you relate salvation and discipleship?
5. Who, in our culture, is viewed as “tax collectors and sinners”?
6. Someone has said that the problem today is not that people do not know how to be saved, but that no one considers themselves lost. What do you think?
7. Michael says that Matthew was spiritually hungry. Why do we often assume that lost people are not spiritually hungry but religious people are? Is there any evidence that the opposite is sometimes true?
8. Jesus obviously ate with sinners in places where it would become the “talk of the town,” such as Matthew’s home? Should we imitate Jesus in this? What would happen if we did?
9. What is the significance of eating with sinners? Why does God use this image so often in scripture, such as in Revelation 3:20?
10. How do you react to the idea “Jesus is for losers?” What part of us does this message most offend?
11. How could you rewrite the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican for today?
12. Do most of today’s outcasts believe Jesus is more in their corner than in the church corner? Why?
13. Who are today’s outcasts and sinners? Which is the hardest for you to accept?
14. Is anyone willing to share when they were the outcast? How did it feel?
15. If Jesus were on earth today, where might we find him that would offend religious people? Would you be willing to go there?

This line from Paul has stayed with me for two days. It comes from a section of the Galatian letter when Paul has shifted from teaching to recounting his personal relationship with the Galatians and the love he has for them. The metaphors here are especially insightful.

Paul isn’t in labor pains for the Galatians to come to faith as new believers. That’s already a reality. No, Paul is in “labor” as the Galatians are struggling in their journey toward Christ being “fully formed” in their lives. In other words, Paul is watching the struggle of real disciples, in the growth process, and his heart is the heart of a mother in labor and a father who longs to see a healthy child.

The Galatians aren’t the Corinthians, but they are in a mess. Flatterers have taken them down the road of a false Gospel. What was a solid church plant is at real risk, but Paul is not just concerned about doctrinal correctness. He is concerned over what will be the result of moving away from Jesus and the work of the Spirit, instead encouraging a dependence on flesh and the works righteousness of the old covenant. He sees dark results ahead if the Galatians lose this battle.

Paul’s view of the Galatians’ struggle spills over into his closing exhortations. He wants them to be a Jesus shaped community, and that means accepting the reality of struggle and helping one another. Here he is in chapter 6.

1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

Paul’s investment in the Galatians is a great example. They struggle to be fully formed disciples. He agonizes with them. The Galatians are going to need encouragement and help as they struggle, fail and need a hand up. Paul tells them to gently and humbly enter into the struggles of others.

I read all this with an overwhelming sense that many evangelicals have no idea what it is to “gently and humbly” be part of a community of struggling disciples in the growth process. Their orientation, approach and words reveal a different model of discipleship: Why aren’t you acting like a “fully formed” disciple of Jesus now? Why don’t you get it right the first time.

Let me be the first one at the altar here. I’m so infested with the revivalistic theology of my upbringing that I have plenty of this attitude in my own thoughts and words. I regret it, and I hope I can repent and act more like Jesus and Paul. Too many strugglers have seen me nod is supposed sympathy, but my thoughts and actions were nothing like what Paul writes here or what Jesus demonstrates repeatedly in his mission.

Struggle is annoying to the person who externalizes it and pushes away. It would be a lot more convenient, many say, if everyone in the body of Christ could do the right thing the first time and keep doing it. After all, we are Christians, right?

Of course, real Christians can’t live up to that standard, so we have to decide whether to embrace the role of encouraging imperfect people who have a messy set of problems in their journey toward Christlikeness, or are we going to remove ourselves from the potential problem with a few words of judgment?

What’s been your experience?

One of the things that changed my view of these matters was my own struggles with Denise’s journey to Catholicism. I was struggling and failing. Everyone could see it. I made the same errors over and over. I confessed them to some of my brothers. I thank God for the people who came along side of me and helped me struggle to better place. It was hard for them to see me, a leader and pastor, stuck in a ditch of bitterness and despair.

Their ministry to me was especially valuable because other believers made the other choice: they wanted no part of my struggle and found ways- personally and at a distance- to let me know that my struggle wasn’t welcome. They were shocked that I wasn’t walking in victory, whatever that means. I never felt so excluded from my fellow Jesus follower as when I was struggling with what God was doing in my family and marriage.

It was a painful lesson. I learned that the struggles of growing Christians expose the spiritual condition of the Christians around them. Something as simple as a prayer request can become an indicator of whether someone loves you and is willing to struggle, pray and invest time with you, or instead chooses to pronounce you a loser who is an embarrassment to other Christians, especially them.

Scot Mcknight astutely points out that we have a lot of people taking the church very seriously these days, but ironically, many of them can’t find the church they need. Not because of a lack of entertaining programs and preaching, but because they are looking for a community where they can faithfully struggle alongside other strugglers in the discipleship journey.

Many of us feel that absence. We are parts of community, but we are afraid to confess our struggles. We’ve seen how others are written off, and we don’t want to risk the same kind of rejection. We want to be the kinds of persons who can pray for others as fellow pilgrims. We want to move past being the judges of those who are simply like us: broken people who need a hand.

Scripture has the Jesus shaped community in mind. We find it too risky. We want Christians to get it right the first time and keep on getting it right. When they fail, we don’t want the mess to intrude into our so-called “walk with Christ.” If we embrace a community where strugglers of every kind can find a home and help, we may be overwhelmed at what God is able to do.

When I became a Christian in 1974, I was immediately taught to define myself three ways.

First, did I believe that I was a sinner and that Jesus died for my sins so I could go to heaven?

Second, was I doing the the things my church taught me to do: attend worship, pray, read the Bible, tithe, “witness”, come to Sunday School, be a good Baptist?

Third, was I not doing the things my church taught me were sinful: drink, dance, use drugs, watch R-rated movies, listen to rock music, have sex outside of marriage, use profanity, work on Sundays, marry a Catholic?

That was the menu. Simple. Comprehensive. Understandable.

Jesus wasn’t absent. He was the door in. But then he seemed to vanish into the background.

God had other plans for me, however. One of my school friends introduced me to books. Christian books. He was reading C.S. Lewis. I didn’t get what that was all about.

Then he gave me a copy of J.I. Packer’s Knowing God. It’s a weighty book now, and it certainly was then. I read what I could, and that wasn’t much, but it was enough to reorient my understanding of the Christian life if two ways.

First, Packer impressed upon me that the Christian life was a relationship with God- “Knowing God.” I’d never heard this before. There was some “knowing” in my faith, but it was primarily about doing. Coming to me at a time when I was starting to awaken intellectually and grow personally, I was drawn to this new way of thinking about the Christian life.

Secondly, Packer’s book demonstrated that being a Christian was a much bigger project than I ever suspected. God touched on everything, not just in the sense of “being a witness,” but in the sense that everything was a way to worship God, serve God or experience God. Suddenly, all of life, not just witnessing or listening to sermons, became part of the experience of knowing God.

I took the book to my youth director and asked him if he’d ever heard of it. He looked at it, and read the title. He told me that being a Christian was about how many people you could get to go to heaven, not about knowing God. The book, he said, sounded off track and I should avoid it.

For the first time in my life, I realized I was being led in the wrong direction by one of my spiritual leaders. It was an uncomfortable place, and I was, for a moment, torn about what to do.

I’d gone a long way down the road of identifying with my church’s way of being a Christian. I won’t recite some of what I did to try and be a good witness, but it was between comedy and the sort of travesty that is exceedingly painful to watch.

My church specialized in certainty. They were certain that the Bible absolutely would lead anyone reading it to become exactly what we were, and anyone paying attention to the Bible would do exactly what we did exactly the way we did it.

Now here I was, a teenager, still in high school, a relatively new Christian, holding a book by some Anglican guy I’d never heard of, feeling drawn by the Holy Spirit toward a new direction in understanding God. Somehow being drawn, in a way I could never explain, toward Jesus; a Jesus to whom I felt like a stranger.

Here I was feeling that maybe it wasn’t about door-knocking confrontations, dress codes, sin lists and repeated trips down the aisle to finally surrender “all.” God was reaching out to me, and showing me more of himself. To know him, I would come to know Jesus.

It was the beginning of a journey. It would take me to the Catholic charismatic movement where I learned that Jesus was much more generous and amazing than I ever had been told in my church. It was a journey that took me on to a Methodist revival team called the “New Disciples for Christ,” where I learned about calling people to follow Jesus.

It took me to college where I gave up on the rapture, and into the first suspicions that I may not have ever truly known the Father heart of God. A longing for Jesus began in me; a longing amplified when my fiancee dumped me and I began to see myself as a man.

There have been times in my life that I did not move forward with God, but camped where I was, convinced I was finally surrounded by the “real” Christians with the “final” answers. Always, God moved me on, toward a deeper fellowship with Him. Always, moving me toward Jesus.

That journey wasn’t constant. In my years on church staff, I forgot about Jesus and focused on the church. I wanted to be successful. Jesus would always be there, creating his special kind of tension with the normal expectations of ministry in a large church. Under the influence of Tony Campolo, I began taking students to eastern Kentucky and into the inner cities of Chicago and Boston. In those experiences, I began to see and sense Jesus again. I began to grow past the approved, safe Jesus of the suburban church, and to understand that Jesus was a trouble-maker; a revolutionary turning the world upside down.

In 2006, God told me to leave a church situation I’d been part of for 12 years. The result, 3 years later, was my wife going to the Roman Catholic Church and my journey with God going into the evangelical wilderness, where the same God is beckoning me on. This wasn’t where I expected to find Jesus, but I should know better. It’s always him, making me his disciple, surprising me, taking me out of the safe places and putting me where he emerges more wonderful than ever.

It is, always, the same God I heard calling me in the pages of Knowing God. I haven’t chased every wind of doctrine. With the exception of a foray into Calvinism for too long, I’ve always been much the same Baptist believer I was when I started this journey. Jesus has shown me that he isn’t a franchised product of some denomination or the spokesman for some program or cause. Jesus is the source, the head, of his body. He’s present in all the places Christians seek him, but he’s present in some many more places and in so many more ways that we ever suspect.

The constant is that God isn’t through with me, and the older I get, the more excited I am about Jesus. The more I come to see glimmers of what it really means to know him and be known by him. I now have few doubts that God is at work in my life for his glory and my benefit, but the journey won’t be a standstill. It will be new discoveries and new adventures.

In the midst of knowing God through his Son, I’m discovering that I am a member of the human race, deeply connected to all other persons in my humanity and my sinfulness. I’m discovering I don’t need to make a demonstration of what I know about anyone else’s life or how God works. I simply need to learn humility and understand that God is surprising us constantly in Jesus. I need to be open to Jesus and not turn him into the sum total of my idea of what it means to be a Christian.

Every so often, things I’ve learned, but not connected, will powerfully come together, as they did today in finishing Andrew Marin’s book, and I’ll see the presence and power of Jesus and the Gospel in ways I haven’t before. I’ll discover that all my experiences with Jesus are preparing me for an epiphany. There is no controlling or predicting where or when or how Jesus will show up in my life. I only know that now, after 37 years, I am starting to see Jesus in magnificent new detail.

I’ve come to understand my journey in new terms.

The church is about Jesus. The Bible is about Jesus. Christians are about Jesus. The creeds are about Jesus. A lot of great ministries, preachers and teachers are about Jesus.

But none of us- NONE of us- nowhere, no way have Jesus captured and commodified. He is, by the power of his Spirit, more than all of this and leading us to himself.

Everything we have that brings Jesus to us is ultimately used by Jesus to bring us to himself. We are always moving forward; always experiencing the Spirit remaking and revealing, empowering and epiphanizing…Jesus.

I have discovered that the maps, as important as they are, will run their course. The wise men are not as wise in the wilderness as they are in the safety of their sanctuaries. The way is lonelier, the companions more precious, the views and vistas more breath-taking.

Onward and upward, to Jesus. Into his Kingdom, and to greater glory and treasure. Always, no matter how much we know, discovering that we are only children, invited to trust more than understand.

Today, as I closed Love Is An Orientation, Jesus appeared again, out in front of me, familiar yet strange. Always beckoning me on. I know less and less what is before me, but I am ever more certain he is the way, the truth and the life.

So I beg your pardon friends. It’s time to travel again.

Our passage today is Mark 2:-12 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat 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 tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” (NIV)

Liberal critics often assert that the closer we get to the original sources of Christianity, the further we will be from any sense that Jesus is a divine figure. The Jesus of primitive Christianity, these critics assume, was a teacher and political figure who would be completely surprised at discovering he is worshiped, invoked as divine or equated with God. These same critics often say that the Gospel of Mark is largely free from any evidence that Jesus saw himself in these terms, instead portraying Jesus as a servant and prophet within Judaism. Our passage today demonstrates how wrong this sort of assumption really is and how Mark’s presentation of Jesus goes beyond the known categories of prophet and preacher to something unique and powerful.

Our passage begins as another healing story, this time mentioning the enormous response Jesus was receiving in Capernaum. It is interesting that Mark says Jesus had come “home” in verse one. Apparently, Jesus was living in Capernaum and it was the anchor for his early ministry. The passage- as written- is most naturally interpreted as happening in Jesus’ own house! This simply shows how much different the gospel portrayal of Jesus is than the “approved” version which has Jesus as always itinerant. Many commentators say this story is happening in Peter’s house because it is mentioned in chapter one. But if the story is an independent unit (which is far more likely) then Jesus’ own home in Capernaum is the more natural meaning. (For another unusual factoid about Jesus ministry, see who paid the bills- Luke 8:1-3!)

Jesus ministry at this particular opportunity is to “preach the word.” This may mean to comment on the scriptures, but I believe this is the message of the Kingdom summarized in chapter one, perhaps including the use of parables we will encounter later. We are again reminded that Jesus saw the central aspect of his ministry as the delivery of a message. Miracles and healings were not center stage but illustrations of the power and reality of the Kingdom Jesus was proclaiming. The house-crowding response is in line with what all the Gospels show us about Jesus early ministry- the mobs were overwhelming, particularly when healing or feeding miracles occurred. This is clearly the reason the religious and political leaders are interested in Jesus from the outset. His ability to draw a crowd was proven and potentially dangerous to the status quo.

I heard many sermons growing up about the four men who brought the paralyzed friend to Jesus, but this is not the center of the passage, rather it is the “memory device” used to isolate this story for recollectio. Such details show that these stories were memorized and repeated long before they were written. The persistence of these men apparently reflects the persistence of the paralyzed man himself, who is insisting on seeing Jesus in order to be healed. His confidence in Jesus is so bold that no barrier- be it crowd or roof- will prevent him from getting to Jesus. It is interesting that Jesus sees “their” faith. It is not only the paralyzed man’s faith, but the faith of the men that is commended.

Evangelical Christianity is hyper-individualized and resists the idea of a “community of faith.” Covenant Theology is more comfortable with the idea that faith is a corporate matter from first to last, even as we are personally accountable and must personally believe. I believe it is Biblically impossible speak of faith outside of a community of faith that believes before we do, nurtures us as we learn to believe, supports us as we believe and believes when we stumble in belief. God’s covenant with his “people” is a community covenant that does not down-play individual faith, but places God’s covenant with the community at the center of his dealings with human beings. All this underlines why it is vitally important for every Christian to be part of a believing community and not just a “lone ranger.”

In the Gospels, surprise is often the center of what is meant to be communicated and Mark certainly surprises us when Jesus’ words to the paralyzed man are “Son, your sins are forgiven”! The forgiveness of sins seems to have nothing to do with this story. The paralyzed man was coming for healing of his body. What does this mean? No wonder that the teachers of the law are immediately awakened from their dozing by this little sentence.

Some could jump to the conclusion that this passage teaches that sin causes sickness. Such as claim needs a comment. In the Bible, all aspects of our fallen condition are the result of our separation from God and the curse that results from it. In this sense, sin is the cause of sickness. (See Romans 8:18-22) But in any sense that a particular sin causes a particular sickness, we must be very, very cautious. While there are some instances where such a conclusion is drawn (See I Corinthians 11:30 for instance), this sort of cause and effect thinking is generally discouraged. (See John 9:2ff) I do not believe Jesus is drawing such a conclusion. It is the case, however, that Jesus message of the Kingdom does teach that the end of separation between God and man is manifested in every area of human existence, including physical healing.

The crux of this story is the extension of Jesus’ Kingdom authority to that final and most profound area of human life- the forgiveness of sins. Sin is the basic human problem, the problem that occupies Genesis 1-11 and leads to the plan of God beginning with Abraham and continuing through the entire Bible. The Kingdom of God is an invasion of territory claimed by Satan but held by the power of sin. Salvation is the victory of God over sin and the victory is manifested first and foremost in forgiveness. The most basic of human needs is for the guilt we have before a holy God to be removed. Such an event is impossible in human power alone. We cannot forgive ourselves or do enough good to persuade God to forgive us. God forgives out of mercy and grace, prompted by the work of his Son in the incarnation, cross and resurrection. God may now forgive sinners because their penalty has been paid and his justice satisfied. The entire Old Testament pointed in this direction and Jesus now proclaims forgiveness as a free gift. May we never lose the wonder of this most important Good News of the Gospel.

The scandal here is for Jesus to proclaim forgiveness as the one doing the forgiving! The teachers of the law recognize this as blasphemy and they are exactly right. For Jesus to proclaim forgiveness when he is only a man would be blasphemy for “only God can forgive sins.” This probably seemed particularly scandalous when proclaimed to a man who was “cursed” with a disease and was not repenting in any visible way, merely showing his confidence in Jesus to heal him. Only proper sacrifice and acts of repentance held out any hope of forgiveness to the Pharisees. To simply give forgiveness simply by a word was to act in the prerogative of God alone.

Jesus, if we properly understand him, is always leaving us no choice but to interpret his words and actions as either 1) insane, 2) calculatingly evil, 3) blasphemous or 4) consistent with the confession that jesus is the Son of God. This is not something Christians have created and assigned to Jesus, it is essential to knowing how he understood and presented himself. The idea that we can look back and find the “pre-Christ Jesus” is simply absurd. From the very beginning, Jesus identity as divine was essential to everything the Christian message believes and proclaims. Any version of Christianity that ignores this is a modern reworking.

Mark also presents Jesus as knowing what men are thinking in their hearts. This is also unique and is consistently testified in all the Gospels. This is not just reading moods or body language but a manifestation of knowledge that only a divine person could have; the sort of searching knowledge of human thoughts and motives that allows God to know us as we are and to judge us with absolute integrity.

Jesus makes this incident into a referendum on his authority. This authority has already been demonstrated in teaching, healing and exorcism, but now Jesus combines his authority to heal with his proclamation to forgive sins. The simply words of forgiveness are easy for anyone to utter, but who can demonstrate the integrity of such a claim by healing a paralyzed man on the spot? Jesus makes the Pharisees objection absurd, because with the same word that he heals he also forgives sin. For Jesus, there is no limitation on his authority in any area of life. He can speak to sin, to disease, to demonic oppression, to guilt, to self-hatred- to anything that holds us in bondage- and set us free and make us whole. The meaning of salvation is always holistic in real Christianity. We look to Christ’s work to be applied in every area, according to God’s working through the Spirit and in history. Any believer who ministers in Jesus name is doing God’s work- no matter what area of human existence they are working in: social work, medical missions, evangelism, education, counseling- all are the authority of the Kingdom working out in human relationships and experience.

Before we leave this chapter, we must note that Jesus refers to himself as “Son of Man” and this self-titling by Jesus has caused endless scholarly speculation. Ezekiel (and Daniel) the prophet used this same title and so Jesus may have been referring to himself as the humble prophet, but I doubt this is the source of the title. The use of this title in Daniel 7:13 in reference to the end-time Messiah is simply too obvious to ignore. No one would use this title thoughtlessly. To use this title to refer to yourself at the same time you are claiming to forgive sins and heal a paralyzed man—- I do not see how anyone can miss Jesus claim that he is, in fact, the one Daniel saw and predicted.

Next week we move on to the calling of a tax-collector and jesus extraordinary attitude towards “sinners.”

Questions

1. How would you respond to the claim that “Christianity has taken the simple man Jesus and made him into God.”?
2. Michael mentions that Jesus may have had a home in Capernaum. What is the effect on our reading of the Bible when we already have a detailed picture of what we think Jesus was like?
3. Jesus drew crowds that were overwhelming. What must this have been like for him personally? What problems would it cause? What would the religious and political authorities think?
4. Must Christianity always draw a crowd to be effective?
5. Do you agree that modern Christianity is hyper-individualized? How do you see this in your experience? What are the effects of “Lone Ranger” Christianity?
6. How has your life been affected by being part of a “community of faith?”
7. Michael says the faith community sometimes believes for us when we stumble. Do you have an experience that bears this out?
8. What do you think was the reaction of the paralyzed man and his friends when Jesus said “Your sins are forgiven?”
9. What is the relationship between sin and sickness?
10. Why is the forgiveness of sin at the heart of Christianity? How is all of life effected by sin and by the forgiveness of sins?
11. What are the options for what to think of anyone who claims to forgive sins?
12. Is there any way in which one Christian can say to another “Your sins are forgiven?” (See John 20:23)
13. Jesus knows your every thought. What difference does that make?
14. Christians tend to think of evangelism as Kingdom work, but other kinds of ministry as “second-class.” Explain how all types of ministry are equally Kingdom ministry.