A New Heart For A Fresh Start

As a child we would attempt to salvage anything and everything. The house I remember from early childhood was an interesting building. When my mother wanted to clean the floor, she would pour water on the floor, scrub it with a broom, and the water would drain through the floor. The first home with a concrete floor in which I lived was a dairy barn. Dad would tear down old buildings and attempt to reuse the old lumber. It would often split, if it didn’t literally bend the nails, and it was cruel on hand-sharpened saw blades. Over the years the wood took on the characteristics of petrified wood.

In Jesus’ day the Pharisees and Jesus’ disciples were attempting to “reuse old wood.” Jesus saw what they were attempting to do, and he illustrated the futility of their desire to hang on to a broken system.

Jesus’ way was a new way, he was not merely giving a face-lift to a tired and worn-out system. Though he affirmed the God-given principles that God intended for their good, he was illustrating the manner in which he was transforming what had become a legalist system. Just as he warned the Scribes and Pharisees, he has a stern warning for the church today.

Before we read our text, I want us to understand the context of Jesus’ words. In this unfolding drama we learn Jesus’ focus was not on preserving the traditions and practices of the religious system, what I call extra biblical. His focus was to make people new from the inside out. New birth, not remodeling an infrastructure that was strained beyond repair.

The story of the paralytic raises an interesting question, Why hadn’t they seen the amazing works of God? Why didn’t they catch it—embrace it as something only God could do? In the book of Acts, when Paul is attempting to reason with Jewish leaders in Rome, he quotes a passage from Isaiah.

9-10 He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Listen hard, but you aren’t going to get it;

look hard, but you won’t catch on.’

Make these people blockheads,

with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes,

So they won’t see a thing,

won’t hear a word,

So they won’t have a clue about what’s going on

and, yes, so they won’t turn around and be made whole.” Isaiah 6 MSG

In Jesus’ day the Jewish leaders, especially, could not see the mercy and grace of God flowing like a fountain cascading down the mountainside. When Jesus healed the man who was paralyzed, they were amazed, saying, “we have never seen anything like this.” Mark 2:12 The Greek word used for amazed is ???stas?a? (histemi); it means to throw out of position, to displace, driven out of one’s senses. The miracle confounded their way of thinking.

If they marveled at a paralytic healed and forgiven, they would surely stumble over a dead body bursting forth from a tomb. Their persistence to confront, ridicule Jesus, and discredit his message continued—the viciousness of the Jewish leaders superseded that of the Romans toward Jesus.

The Scribes and Pharisees were becoming increasingly critical of Jesus and His ministry. They dominated religious thinking; it was a way of controlling the Jewish people and excluding others. As we study the New Testament, we learn that many Jews became people of the way. Others were blinded by the interpretation of Scripture the Jewish leaders championed. Yet it had become a worn-out system.

Jesus tells a story to help us understand the way in which he wants to make us new people in order to hold the newness of his transforming love.

Jesus uses an image that was well understood; however, those who were wanting to hang onto “The Good Old Ways” did not catch it. Jesus’ response brought attention to two important aspects of his ministry.

1. JESUS FOCUSED ON GLADNESS, NOT SADNESS (2:18-28)

Isn’t it interesting that John the Baptist, the one who announced the Good News by saying, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away sin!”, is fasting just like the Pharisees?

Why were John’s disciples fasting? Because he was in prison? As a sign of repentance? Was their fasting out of season? Why were the Pharisees enamored with fasting? Tradition? To be recognized as spiritual? believe it illustrates the difficulty of people who struggle to turn loose and reach forward.

A member of a church I served said, “I don’t want a new normal. I want to go back to the way things were.” Sorry the COVID pandemic has resulted in systemic changes in so many ways. To illustrate. In 2020 I was scheduled to present at two different conferences back-to-back—fly to Florida and the next day to New Orleans. Both were canceled due to COVID. Since that time all my conferences, except two have been hybrid—virtual and in person. Virtual learning and working at home virtually are a new normal—most things will not go back but forward.