Mark 2:1-22 - January 7, 2024

As we are now past the Christmas season, our lessons during worship will take a turn. Throughout the previous months, we have gone through the Old Testament story - starting in Genesis and working our way through creation, covenant, and calling of Israel. Around November and the season of Advent, we transitioned to hearing from the Prophets who spoke of what God was up to. And then on Christmas, it was the birth of Jesus.

Now, in this new year, we will go through Jesus’ story from the Gospel of Mark, reading it pretty much straight through. 

Mark 1 gives us the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, starting - not with this birth - but with his baptism. He goes to the wilderness, proclaims the coming of God’s Kingdom, calls some disciples, and teaches with authority. Things are going quite well for this Son of God. 

Then we get to Chapter 2. We have several stories in our lesson today, which fall into three main pieces. 

First, we have the healing of the paralyzed man. This is a pretty famous story and one that I have generally liked. I like the idea of these incredible friends who would stop at nothing until they got their friend to see Jesus. And I love the idea that Jesus stopped everything he was doing and healed him. 

It makes sense - at least most of it makes sense. One thing I didn’t quite expect was Jesus telling this man that his sins were forgiven. Oh, I expected Jesus to be all about forgiveness, but it just seems a strange thing to say to someone who was paralyzed. I don’t think many of us - scribes included - would have predicted it to play out like this.

In the next section of the story, we have Jesus calling Levi to follow and then sitting for dinner at his house alongside tax collectors and sinners. Why, that’s unexpected company. We would think that a righteous teacher like Jesus would surround himself with morally upright individuals. Tax collectors were often regarded as collaborators with the oppressive Roman government, and association with them by Jewish leaders was greatly frowned upon. And sinners? Well, I don’t think I need to say too much about them; they are considered the absolute low-life of society. This is not who we envision Jesus hanging out with. 

Then the third section is one of those funny passages in the Bible. Not funny “ha ha,” but funny odd - a wee bit peculiar and uncommon. We aren’t much for fasting in our culture anymore, and so the practice of the Pharisees and John’s disciples may strike us as unusual. However, fasting was a sign of repentance, discipline, and a practice that demonstrated (flaunted) to others your religious piety - otherwise, how would everyone else know that the Pharisees and John’s disciples are fasting? 

Anyway, it’s common enough that it strikes people as odd that Jesus’ disciples don’t fast. What kind of religious teacher is he if his own disciples aren’t fasting, not doing what is expected of other religious types? 

And so, Jesus surprises again. He compares the situation to a few things. 

First, a wedding feast - indicating that it’s not time for mourning or fasting, but it’s a time of joy and celebration. It’s a new time. 

No one sews a new piece of unshrunk cloth to an old cloak - or, maybe to modernize it a bit: no one buys unshrunk cotton shirts and expects them to still fit after a good wash. 

No one puts new wine in old wineskins; no one makes a new pot of coffee with old coffee grounds. 

So, with Jesus’ preaching and bringing of the kingdom, something new has come - forgiveness foremost, comprehensive community, forgoing fasting. And even when we start to expect the unexpected - Jesus throws the curveball, pointing out the somber fact that one day, he will be taken away. 

*****

All the unexpected in these three scenes is meant to point us to the new things God has done in Jesus. His coming was intended to offer forgiveness of sins and healing for the world. 

The paralytic carries his mat and then carries on in life. There is a radical nature to God’s grace, one that unexpectedly heals in ways that we don’t even know, and one that includes everyone, even those considered outcasts. 

We see how that grace changes lives in the story. Because his message of forgiveness and acceptance wasn’t just preached; it was lived out - Jesus spent time with people, ate with people, he accepted their hospitality. 

These scenarios near the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry show what Jesus was about.
“I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
“The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”
“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak … And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.” 

Unexpected forgiveness, unexpected welcome, unexpected new things. 

But God’s not done. God is doing unexpectedly new things right now. 

Through Jesus, God continues to offer us forgiveness so that we can carry on. Our sin doesn’t mean we are unlovable and deficient; sin doesn’t remove us from God’s love and welcome. Instead, we are just who Jesus came for - so we can get up and keep walking. 

God continues to come to us with inclusive fellowship, coming so we know we are welcome. God continues to point us to the joyous celebration where the bridegroom is present forever.

This forgiveness and welcome are about our restoration - pointing us again to the assurance that whatever has happened, and whatever has gone wrong, God is still here, loving, redeeming, and restoring.

And God continues to work in us and through us to live out Jesus’s own unexpected forgiveness, unexpected welcome, and unexpected new things for the world. 

Because God forgives us, we can expect that God forgives others. And because we’re forgiven our trespasses, we can forgive those who trespass against us. 

God welcomes others through us - in a warm meal we host each month, for the outcasts of society, to provide sustenance and hospitality and welcome. In feeding, giving, sharing, we help everyone to see the love of God. 

And, of course, there are the unexpected things God promises yet to do, and all those things revolve around grace. The ways God has worked in Jesus, and the ways God is still working now, will one day come to complete, promised fulfillment. 

Some of that fulfillment will happen sooner than others. The healing or resolution we seek may come in a form we don’t anticipate, just as it did for the paralytic. God's grace transcends our expectations, bringing healing and transformation in ways that go beyond our physical. God promises forgiveness, welcome, and all things new. Then, now, and one day. 

Today’s lessons can be summarized as, “Be prepared to be surprised by what God might do.”

In each episode of these stories from back then, Jesus extends unexpected grace into unexpected places.

And in each day in the present, God extends unexpected grace to us.
It’s promised and seen in our baptism, bringing life, growth, and change.
It’s promised and held in the communion meal, with forgiveness and welcome set out for us all.
It’s promised and renewed in the expansive, inclusive, welcoming nature of the new things God is doing. 

The healing of the paralyzed man, the unconventional relationships of Jesus with tax collectors and sinners, and the transition from traditional fasting practices all point to a God who delights in breaking unexpectedly into our lives. This grace, evident in Jesus' actions, is not stuck in the past but is a living blessing in our present. It calls us to embrace the unexpected, extend forgiveness and welcome, and always anticipate the ongoing surprises of God.