Mark 2:1-22 “Inside and Outside”
INTRODUCTION
Often times our images of heaven are peaceful and serene. The books, Heaven is for Real and Ninety Minutes in Heaven, certainly underscore this thought. Heaven is a place to be reunited with family and friends. There is no struggle between good and evil in heaven. These are wonderful pictures, but I think they are a little boring.
Mark has a more down-to-earth picture of heaven. Heaven has entered into human history in the person of Jesus Christ. Heaven—or the kingdom of God—is where God is and in the midst of God’s people. Heaven is seen and experienced in common and practical ways.
PEOPLE LOVING PEOPLE
One of the stories that Mark uses to illustrate what heaven/the kingdom of God is like is the story of the paralytic and his four friends. These four men want their friend to be healthy and whole. They bring him to Jesus, but there is a crowd and they can’t get near Jesus. Undeterred, the men climb to the roof, make a hole in it and lower their friend down to Jesus. They believed that Jesus could heal their friend and they wouldn’t stop until Jesus had done just that.
I admire the tenacity of the men’s faith. They didn’t let a few obstacles prevent them from helping their friend. There are times when we learn of a person’s need and we limit our response to “I’ll pray for you.” Certainly prayer is important, but the men of the story were not satisfied with that response. They made the effort to be channels through whom God could answer their prayer.
We haven’t perfected this, but I think that Desert Streams is on the right track. Through our “Caring Hands” ministry meals are provided for people who are recovering from surgery or journeying through grief. Sometimes chauffer service or the simple ministry of presence is offered. Instead of merely being appalled by homelessness or hunger, we become part of the answer to our prayers by collecting bottled water or gathering food for the food bank.
I find it interesting that Jesus didn’t respond to the men’s faithful actions in the way that they expected. Jesus first tells the man that his sins are forgiven. I suspect that the men’s thoughts were something like, “Jesus, he needs to be healed more than he needs to be forgiven.” In reality Jesus is reminding us that we all need to be healed both inside and out.
INVOLVED
The next story that Mark includes in his gospel is Jesus calling the tax collector Levi to be one of his disciples. Jesus follows up this action by sharing food and drink with tax collectors and sinners. The religious people were askance at Jesus’ actions. They couldn’t understand how Jesus could associate with such low lifes.
There is a tendency for religious people to separate themselves from others—from the non-religious. We like to gather and listen to good music and allow it to both sooth and inspire us. We enjoy going to conferences and nurturing our faith by gathering information. We love pot-luck meals, small group Bible studies and doing things with our congregational friends. All of these things are good, but they are not the extent of living in God’s kingdom. God’s love and grace doesn’t just gather us, it also sends us out.
Jesus says that the reason he became involved with sinners was because “those who are sick are the ones who need a physician.” Jesus entered our broken world and our bruised and battered lives because we needed God’s unconditional forgiveness, steadfast love and overwhelming grace. It is when we become involved in the lives of others that we see the Holy Spirit at work.
The lay ministers who are involved in our X-Stream Kids educational ministry see the Spirit at work in those rambunctious children. The caregivers for the MOPPETS may wonder at times if their time and effort make a difference, but then they hear the testimonies of the mothers. God works through listening ears encouraging words, hugs and pats on the back.
CHANGE
Our text ends with Jesus talking about old and new wineskins. The grape squeezing was place in wineskins in order to ferment. The skins would expand as the CO2 was released in the fermentation process. If the wineskins were new, the skins were flexible and had the ability to expand. If they were old, the skins had reached their limits of expansion and would burst.
Jesus is reminding the Pharisees and his disciples that heaven/the kingdom of God is a place of change. When God brings us into God’s kingdom, makes us children of God and fills us with the Holy Spirit we become new people. That newness is not a one-time event. Change and being shaped into God’s image is a constant in our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.
We may not be able to see changes taking place within us. If we look back on our lives, though, we can often observe how the Holy Spirit has been working in our lives. We haven’t been able to contain the kingdom of God in the old. We have grown, matured, deepened our faith and expanded our love.
CONCLUSION
We might not experience the New Heaven and New Earth that God promises with Jesus’ return. Still, we can experience heaven on earth. We can live in God’s kingdom and walk in a relationship with God. We can be channels of the Holy Spirit to share God’s love and grace, and we can be part of God’s solution to the brokenness of the world.
Amen.
