January 10, 2021 1st Sunday After Epiphany Mark 2-3

            People have been joking about how bad 2020 was and looking forward to seeing it in hindsight.  Yet 2021 seems to be trending for the worse!  Last week we had unprecedented actions in our nation’s capitol.  The idea of the capitol building itself being basically attacked is something we don’t even dream of.  I suppose if it had happened at the hands of terrorists we could understand.  We know and can accept from September 11, 2001 that terrorists might be able to devise clever schemes that could take us unawares.  However, our own citizens taking violent action against the building itself to stop the certification of a legal election is not something we are ready for.  And then to have our president, if not outright calling for it, fail to urge against it, is not something we can imagine in the land of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  While we know our nation isn’t perfect, we do tend to have a sense that we are an example to the world of democracy and peaceful transfers of power. 

        This year is also starting off with coronavirus cases growing and while vaccines are coming we are far from out of the woods.

Racial tensions are not dropping and issues there aren’t really making progress either.

Mixed through it all is a nation deeply divided by what is true and what is not; or perhaps I should say by having truth be politicized. 

Perhaps we find ourselves starting 2021 wishing we were back in 2020!

I’m not going to say there is a direct connection between current events and the dynamics at work in the two chapters we read from Mark’s gospel, but I think we can relate to the unsettledness that is being caused by Jesus’ ministry. 

We make a mistake if our minds portray Jesus as a do-gooder from the rural northern outskirts of Jewish society who just happened to run afoul of the cruel and greedy leadership.  No, Jesus actually was a serious threat to the fabric of society.  And more than just a threat to the fabric of society, he was a threat to people’s notions of truth and authority. 

We see it in the very beginning of our gospel passage from today but it actually began very early in chapter 1; the movement beginning before Jesus was even on the stage.

            John the Baptist, whom we met in 1:4, was proclaiming the message a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  On the surface it seems an innocent enough thing for us 21^st Century American Christians.  But we are mistaken.  In many ways our relationship with God is too easy to fully understand Mark’s gospel.  We believe that we can receive forgiveness from God simply for asking for it.  We start every worship service doing just that!  And it is indeed true.  But, that is not how everyone always thought.

            Go back to the Jews early in the 1^st Century.  Forgiveness was not available just for the asking.  Forgiveness occurred by offering sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem.  You had to travel to Jerusalem, have an animal to sacrifice, and work through the systems and rituals established by the religious leadership.

            Think about it, if you were a Jew living in Egypt or Greece or even Rome, how are you going to go to Jerusalem once a year to offer a sacrifice.  Let’s say you need to offer a sheep or a goat or a cow.  Are you really going to travel all the distance with an animal in tow?  Remember, only healthy animals make valid sacrifices.  You can’t take a sick, or lame, or emaciated animal that is otherwise worthless and use it for sacrifice!

            It makes no sense to travel with a large animal.  You’re not only going to have to transport the animal you’ll have to somehow make provisions for all its food too.  What you would do is sell one of your livestock, pocket the money, and then when you travel to Jerusalem you buy an animal that is suitable for sacrifice.

            In Jesus’ day there were thousands of people descending upon Jerusalem, especially at Passover, in order to offer sacrifices.  As a Jew you were also not allowed to use Roman money in the temple complex.  It had the graven image of the emperor on it, and an inscription proclaiming the emperor to be a god.  So, once you got to the temple you had to exchange your idolatrous money for appropriate money.  I always bring to mind when my kids were little and we’d go to Chuck-E-Cheese.  You’d exchange your American money for game tokens.

            We’ll explore this in more detail when we get closer to the end of the gospel, but when Jesus goes into the temple at Passover he sees a vast infrastructure at work where people from far away can exchange money and buy animals appropriate for sacrifice.  It was all the necessary “infrastructure” for forgiveness of sins – or for being in right relationship with God.  A lot of people had a lot invested in that infrastructure. 

I do not at all want to suggest parallels between Jesus and the people who stormed the capitol building last week, but when Jesus enters the temple complex and overturns the tables of the money changers and causes a scene he is attacking the religious capitol building of sorts.  In the eyes of devout Jews he is undermining the central place, not of democracy, but of relationship with God.

It is in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke – but especially Mark – that Jesus’ actions in the temple are what get him killed.  The police authorities track him down and execute him for threatening the center of faith.  We’ll explore that more when we get to that part in Mark’s gospel, but keep that in mind as we look at our chapters for today.  

            The first scene we encountered in Chapter 2 is the well- known and vivid story of the paralytic being lowered down to Jesus through the roof of the house because the crowd was too big to reach him.  That paralytic guy had good friends!  Let’s not let our imaginations get too vivid though and miss the central point.  When Jesus sees the guy being lowered down what is the first thing he says?  Does he say, “Stand up, take up your mat, and walk”?  No!  He says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

            I imagine myself being the paralyzed guy laying there and thinking, “Well that’s an awfully nice sentiment from you Jesus but a fat lot of good those words are going to do me!”  And what do the scribes say?  (And remember what I explained earlier about what it takes for forgiveness.) “Why does this fellow speak in this way?  It is blasphemy!  Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

            Realize that in their eyes Jesus is claiming authority for himself that he does not have.  And if forgiveness can come from just his proclamation then the entire fabric of society  collapses. 

            Jesus perceives all this and replies, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?  Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk?’  But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go home.”  And you know the rest of the story.

            I’m not going to through the rest of those two chapters scene by scene, but if you can remember from when we read them, over and over again Jesus gets in trouble with the religious leaders.  It is over forgiveness, and who he socializes with, and what his disciples do, and religious rituals, and sabbath observance.  Over and over again Jesus’ ministry threatens the religious systems, established patterns, and faith expectations that people think are rock solid.

            Jesus was not just a do-gooder that whipped up a rag tag following.  Jesus was a real threat to the fabric of society.  As we near the end of Chapter 3 we see that things are getting out of hand.  Jesus returns to Capernaum, which is his home during his years of ministry.  We learn that the crowds come together again so that they -meaning Jesus and the disciples- could not even eat.  Jesus’ family hears of it and they are afraid he has gone out of his mind.  Leaders from Jerusalem also come out and say he has a demon.  Remember in those days almost all sicknesses, including mental illnesses, were considered to be the work of demons; or a sign of demon possession.

            It is a complex scene but Jesus replies in a way that shows he is quite sane.  He points out the illogic of those who are claiming that he must be casting out demons by the ruler of demons.  He says, “How can Satan cast our Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”

            I think we should take one aside before reaching some conclusions about Chapters 2 and 3.  That aside is this issue of an unforgivable sin.  Some people get very worried when they hear Jesus say, “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin…”  Much ink has been spilled over this issue, but in a very simple sense it is simply a practical reality.  If you fall off a cruise ship and someone throws you a life ring and you reject it you will probably drown.  It is what you need for salvation.  Similarly, if you reject the working of the Spirit, if you refuse it, you are rejecting forgiveness.  You are rejecting God’s goodness.  You are rejecting God’s love.  It is repeated way of being, an attitude of rejection towards God.  It is not a potentially one-time mistake.  I wouldn’t lose sleep over that Bible verse!

            Let’s pull out two things as we sum up chapters 2 and 3.  First, Jesus teaches that forgiveness and right relationship with God is not something that needs to be mediated through religious experts or systems.  It is something that is open to all.  It is a direct connection between yourself and God.  If you want to feel loved and cared and held by God then just reach out in prayer.  You can do it anytime and anywhere.

            Second let’s realize that if everyone does have that ability to connect with God – our hope and our salvation – then we also are living in a way that threatens the fabric of our culture.  You’ve heard me say this so many times you’re probably sick of it.  I’m not talking about something I find so offensive as storming the capitol building, but perhaps something even bigger. 

I think a lot of our economy runs on people trying to receive fulfillment apart from being in relationship with God.  The economy is based largely on a rat race of status and physical appearances (whether it be your house or your car or your clothes or your body) and brains and wealth and all that stuff.  Our lives are so wrapped up in that which does not build relationship with God; our creator, our savior, and our total lover. 

A life sincerely built on a relationship with God undermines the fabric of our society.  It is not a violent insurrection.  But it is still a threat.

Perhaps as we see so many things in our lives that we used to take for granted we can return to the truth and stability of God’s love for us.  Nothing can ever take you away from God or shake God’s love for you.  That is true freedom!

            Enjoy being free!  But know that such freedom can also be a threat to many.  Ultimately though God’s goodness and forgiveness will carry you all the way.