Following Jesus (3)
Scott Bayles, pastor
Scripture: Mark 3:1-6
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 1/15/2017
If you were with us the last couple of weeks, you know we recently began a sixteen-week journey that will take us from the banks of the Jordan River to an empty tomb on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and points in between.
The Gospel of Mark will be our tour guide on this journey, as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Even though Mark is the shortest of the Gospels, Mark actually records more events than any of the other Gospels—making it a very fast-paced, action-packed biography of Jesus and the ideal starting point for anyone wishing to get to know Jesus a little bit better.
Last Sunday we zeroed in on the first twelve verses of Mark 2, where multitudes of adoring fans flocked to see Jesus and four determined fellas lowered a paralyzed man through a hole they dug in the roof so Jesus could heal him. Of course, Jesus used this as a teachable moment, forgiving the man’s sins and then proving His divinity by telling him, “Stand up, pick up you mat, and go home!” The crowd went crazy and stunned onlookers began praising God!
In the verses following, Jesus attends a party at Matthew’s house—a religious mixer, where saints and sinner rubbed elbows and swapped stories. When the religious elite wondered why Jesus spent time with “such scum,” Jesus reminds them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.”
Later Jesus gets into an argument with the Pharisees about fasting and another argument about picking grain on the Sabbath. That finally brings us to chapter three.
If you have a Bible or an app on your phone, open it to Mark 3:1-6. Since this is such a short story, I’d like to jump right in and read the whole passage:
Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath.
Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him.
He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus. (Mark 3:1-6 NLT)
As I read this interaction, three different perspectives and personality types stand out to me. The first is, of course, Jesus—who demonstrates a compassionate personality.
• A COMPASSIONATE PERSONALITY
It’s important to notice that the Bible says, “Jesus… noticed a man with a deformed hand” (Mark 3:1 NLT). That is to say, this guy didn’t come up to Jesus and ask for help; rather, the sight of him kindled Jesus’ concern. This is just one of the myriad examples of the love and compassion that Jesus felt for people. Jesus cared about people.
He still does.
We live in a world of hurting people. Americans buy over 3,000,000,000 Tylenol® each year. Jesus knows every headache, every fever. Emergency Room visits reached an all-time high last year of 136.3 million. Jesus knows every stroke, every seizure, and every cist. He chose to demonstrate God’s power by curing diseases, casting out demons, and healing hurts, instead of some pointless feat like moving a mountain or parting the ocean. Jesus was always on the lookout for hurting people and He was always willing to help.
Seven centuries before Jesus was born, the Bible prophesied, “the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the suffering and afflicted. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted, to announce liberty to captives, and to open the eyes of the blind. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of God’s favor to them has come...” (Isaiah 61:1 TLB).
In Mark 2, Jesus fulfilled this prophesy by healing a paralyzed man. But he didn’t stop there. Now He’s healing a man’s disabled hand. Everywhere he went he took time to heal and to help. The word compassion itself is use at least thirteen times throughout Jesus’ four biographies (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), and every single time it was either spoken by Jesus or it was used to describe Jesus!
If we want to be more like Jesus, then we’ve got to start seeing people through his eyes—looking for helpless or hurting people and reaching out to them with the love and compassion of Christ.
It’s so easy though to look the other way or convince ourselves that it’s someone else’s problem. I’m reminded of a story…
ILL. A loud pounding on the back door awakens a man and his wife at 3 o’clock in the morning. The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger, standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push. “Not a chance,” says the husband, “It is three o'clock in the morning.” He slams the door and returns to bed.
“Who was that?” asked his wife. “Just some drunk guy asking for a push,” he answered. “Did you help him?” she asks. “No. It is three o'clock in the morning and it is pouring rain outside!” the husband answers.
“You should be ashamed of yourself!” his wife replied. “Don't you remember about three months ago when we broke down and those two guys helped us? What would Jesus do?”
Feeling guilty, the man does as he is told, gets dressed and goes out into the pouring rain. He calls out into the dark, “Hello. Are you still there?”
“Yes,” comes back the answer. “Do you still need a push?” calls out the husband. “Yes! Please!” comes the reply from the darkness. “Where are you?” asks the husband. “Over here! On the swing!”
Following in the footsteps of Jesus requires a compassionate spirit and it may even require going out in the rain at three o’clock in the morning at times. Jesus had a compassionate personality. He genuinely cares about you and me. He reaches out to the hurting and heals the broken.
Sadly, it seems like there will always be those who would rather criticize and cut-down rather than show compassion and Christ-like love. The second perspective we see in this story is a critical personality.
• A CRITICAL PERSONALITY
Notice again what Mark writes: “Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath” (Mark 3:2 NLT).
This seems like such an outlandish, absurd criticism to me. Why would someone get angry over something as kindhearted and considerate as healing a sick or injured person? These Pharisees were just overwhelmingly critical, just hoping that Jesus would break the rules so they’d have something to criticize.
Long ago, when God gave the Ten Commandments, he said, “Remember to keep the Sabbath holy. Work and get everything done during six days each week, but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work… The reason is that in six days the Lord made everything—the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. On the seventh day he rested. So the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11).
God intended the Sabbath to be a day of rest and worship. But the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had turned this blessing into a burden. Because of their legalistic approach to God’s commands, the religious leaders had developed an elaborate written code of all the actions that were prohibited on the Sabbath, including any type of work. They considered healing to be part of a doctor’s line of work and, therefore, forbidden. So, according to their religious regulations, Jesus was breaking the law.
Today when a law no longer serves a practical purpose it just sort of fades into obscurity, but there are a lot of odd laws still on the books. For example, it is illegal for young girls to walk a tightrope in Wheeler, Mississippi, unless it’s in a church. In Honey Creek, Iowa, it is against the law for anyone other than a policeman to carry a slingshot to church. No citizen in Leecreek, Arkansas, is allowed to attend church in any red-colored clothing. And in Blackwater, Kentucky, tickling a woman under her chin with a feather duster while she’s in church service carries a penalty of $10.00 and one day in jail.
Jesus apparently considered the convoluted codes of the Pharisees concerning the Sabbath to be in the same category as these other archaic laws.
In an earlier encounter with the Pharisees, Jesus explained, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27 NIV). In other words, God made the Sabbath to meet the needs of people, not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. The point is that all of God’s commands are important, but they were designed for our benefit and when we legalistically insist on the letter of the law, overlooking the needs of real people, God is not pleased. Mark says, “He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts” (Mark 3:5 NLT). In fact, the Bible records seven times that Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, challenging these religious leaders to look beneath their rules and regulations to the true purpose of the law—which was to glorify God and bring peace among people.
This might be a good time to ask ourselves: Do I have any Pharisaic tendencies? Do I put rules and traditions above the needs of real people? Do I look for reasons to criticize others? If so, we’re not following in the footsteps of Jesus.
That brings us to the final personality-type we see in this story. In addition to a compassionate personality and critical personality, we also see a compliant personality.
• A COMPLIANT PERSONALITY
Let me return your attention to verse five. Mark writes, “Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored!” (Mark 3:5 NLT).
This disabled man has no speaking part in this story. We don’t know anything about his past, profession, or position. We only know one thing about him. When Jesus told him to stretch out his hand, he did just that. He complied. He obeyed.
Even though Jesus rejected the Pharisees’ legalistic adherence to religious rules, He still wants us to have compliant, obedient hearts—hearts willing to surrender to His will. If this disabled man hadn’t obeyed when Jesus said, “Hold out your hand,” he would have missed out on a miracle—a life changing moment.
Obedience leads to blessing. Disobedience leads to trouble. Remember Jesus’s parable of two builders who each built a house? One built on cheap, easy-to-access sand. The other built on costly, difficult-to-reach rock. The second construction project demanded more time and expense, but when spring rains turned the creek into a gulley washer, guess which builder enjoyed a blessing and which experienced trouble?
According to Jesus in Matthew 7:24 the wise builder is “whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them.” Both builders heard the teachings. The difference between the two wasn’t knowledge and ignorance, but obedience and disobedience. Security comes as we put God’s precepts into practice. We’re only as strong as our obedience.
Do you want restoration? Does your marriage, checkbook, or life need healing? Then, obey God’s commands! “Obedience,” wrote C.S. Lewis, “is the key to all doors.” As we obey God’s commands, we open the door for God’s favor!
Many years ago, the famous evangelist Dwight L. Moody conducted a series of meetings in Boston Massachusetts. A musician named Daniel B. Towner led worship. One night a young man responded to the invitation. When he came forward, he said, “I'm not quite sure—but I'm going to trust and I'm going to obey.” That statement struck Mr. Towner, who jotted the sentence down, and sent it to J.H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister. Together they gave birth to the unforgettable stanza:
Trust and obey—for there’s no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Like the young man who responded to Moody’s invitation and the disabled man whom Jesus healed—we might not be sure what’s coming or why Jesus even commanded certain things, but we can still trust and obey. Decide now to choose a compliant spirit. And as you do, you can expect blessings—and the assurance of God’s help!
Conclusion
Through this one miracle, we see the wonder of Jesus’ love and compassion toward people in need, we see the futility of legalism and the blessings of obedience. As we set out to follow Jesus, let’s be as obedient to Christ as this crippled man was, let’s never allow the letter of the law to get in the way of the Spirit of the law, let’s reach out to people in need with the love of God, and let’s celebrate all the wonderful things that Jesus is doing!
Invitation
If you’re here today in need healing, perhaps not physical but spiritual healing, Jesus has called you over. He stands ready with outstretched arms, to receive you and redeem you. If you’re ready to commit your life to following Jesus, come forward while we stand and sing.
