Mark 1: 40-2: 17 40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, If you choose, you can make me clean. 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, I do choose. Be made clean! 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44 saying to him, See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them. 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter. 2.1 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. 3 Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone? 8 At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Stand up and take your mat and walk? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralytic 11 I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home. 12 And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We have never seen anything like this! 13 Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. 14 As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me. And he got up and followed him. 15 And as he sat at dinner in Levi s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples for there were many who followed him. 16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? 17 When Jesus heard this, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners. Page 1 of 6
Back in your elementary school days, were there certain kids or certain families that your parents definitely didn t want you to associate with? I know there were in mine. Later in life when we get established in a certain neighbourhood or a certain career, a kind of self-selection happens, so that folk who move in the same circles as us are in many ways like us, but elementary schools, at least the state-run kind, are great clearing houses of all sorts and conditions of people. When I was growing up it was very clear that the Chisholms* were poor and liable to steal, the McCullochs* were dirty and used an outside toilet, and it was only a matter of time until the Gordon* kids would be serving time in jail. I don t know what has become of the Chisholms, the McCullochs or the Gordons, but already at 8 years of age, their lives didn t look promising. Already at 8 years of age they were outcasts. It seems quite primitive now when I think of it, but at our elementary school we had something called the poor table. At lunch hour all 500 kids or so would pack into the cafeteria and sit at long tables according to grade. Most of us had lunch boxes, with sandwiches lovingly packed by our mothers, a piece of fruit because nutrition was important and 15 cents to buy a carton of cold milk. Sometimes, being kids and being quite fussy about our food, we would find some unapproved of element that Mum had just tried to slip in there a shriveled fig or an ugly dill pickle wrapped in saran. Such rejects were placed on the poor table and then furtively picked up off the poor table by the likes of the Chisholms, the McCullochs, or the Gordons kids for whom there was no lovingly wrapped sandwich made by Mum. The poor table made scavengers of these kids and like scavengers in the animal kingdom, we considered them a very low form of life. Outcasts for sure. Page 2 of 6
Up until now in our reading of Mark s gospel we have seen Jesus working the synagogue circuit, and despite all his instructions to tell no one there is a gathering buzz about his ministry. He is sought out by all the sick and demon-possessed people in the vicinity. When Mark writes about Jesus getting up in the early morning to go away by himself to pray, or getting into a boat and rowing to the opposite side of the lake to flee the crowds, we definitely get the sense that Jesus celebrity is a burden to him. So imagine Jesus as a popular evangelist, a celebrity harassed by his adoring public, and then come again to today s stories stories which show Jesus seeking out the company of lepers and sinners and tax collectors. It is rather surprising isn t it? I mean we can imagine some famous film actor like Johnny Depp coming to Toronto for the film festival and going around in dark sunglasses and a ball cap to avoid public attention, but can we see him lining up with the homeless people for a bowl of soup at the Scott Mission? Can we imagine him, or even some famous circuit preacher, some religious celebrity, coming to Toronto and instead of preaching at the scheduled breakfast for the city s Christian businessmen, sold out at $100 a plate, going down to the corner of Jarvis and King to spend some time and share a $1.00 slice of pizza with the heroin addicts? The fact is that Jesus has a low taste in people. Why even I, who have nothing particular by way of fortune or family to commend me, knew enough at the age of eight, not to risk my reputation by consorting with the likes of the Chisholms, the McCullochs or the Gordons! But perversely enough, Jesus seek out just such as these as his company, and eats from the poor table with them. Today s reading from Mark is made up of three separate stories. The first one is about Jesus cleansing a leper. The second is about Jesus declaring a paralysed man s sins to be forgiven and then healing him from his paralysis. The third is about Jesus sharing a meal at the house of Levi, a tax collector, and calling this Levi, the man we know as Matthew, to be his disciple. What the three stories all have in common is the unclean or unsavory Page 3 of 6
character of the person who receives Christ s attention his pity, his healing, his forgiveness, his call. Leprosy of course was a dreaded disease in the ancient world. I saw a leper once. A woman who was browsing in a bookshop in Aberdeen. She had no nose. Just a hole where the nose used to be. It was a shocking and unsettling sight. In Jewish communities there was a special fear of leprosy because there was a taboo around corruption and death. What leprosy was seen to be, was a part of the body becoming dead flesh while the person remained alive. If a leper, for example, were to come into contact with a priest on his way to offer sacrifices in the temple, the priest would be considered unclean and unfit to offer sacrifice. For this reason lepers could take no part in the religious rituals of Judaism. And because they took no part in the religious rituals of Judaism they were considered sinners spiritually unclean as well as physically unclean. The only social group they could belong to was a colony of other lepers. The rest of society was so strict about this rule of segregation, that a leper would have to go about with his face covered and calling out a warning as he approached: unclean, unclean. This is the sort of man who musters the courage to come to Jesus and say to him on bended knee: if you choose, you can make me clean. And as Mark says, (verse 41) Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him I do choose, be made clean. Next we have the story of Jesus and the paralysed man. This story is set amid a crowd who more-or-less trap Jesus inside a house where he is staying. There is no fire exit kept clear, and no way for anyone else from outside to gain access to the house through the door. But there is one paralysed man who is so determined to get to Jesus that he gets his friends to take apart the roof of the house, some straw affair probably, and lower him down through it. Mark says at verse 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. -- Rather a strange thing to say, don t you think? Forgiveness of sins is all well and good, but surely the man s hope was for healing from his Page 4 of 6
paralysis. He came to Jesus and his friends brought him to Jesus because they all believed that this man who had healed so many other people could also help in this case. Now it could be that Jesus subscribed to a view, which was common in the ancient world, and which said that if a person was ill, it must be a punishment for sin. In Luke s gospel, however, we hear Jesus correcting this opinion when his disciples propose it. Pointing to a blind man he says he is blind neither because he sinned or because his parents sinned, but so that God s glory might be made known through him. So whatever the reason that Jesus turns to this man and says your sins are forgiven, I don t think it is explained simply by his being a paralytic. A better explanation I think is to suppose that Jesus sees this man s heart, sees that unforgiven sin is at the root of his problem guilt for sin is what is paralysizing him spiritually and physically. We know that sin and guilt for sin which we don t feel is forgiven, can have a paralyzing effect upon us, so Jesus begins by healing this man s spiritual condition and ends by setting his seized-up body free. The scribes when they hear that Jesus has pronounced the forgiveness of sins are all upset because they consider this a blasphemy Who can forgive sins, they say (verse 7), but God alone? But they miss the real scandal. The real scandal is that in this crowded house there are, on the one hand, the ultra religious scribes and on the other hand, this paralysed man and his friends this paralysed man who Jesus has perceived to be a sinner. And whose faith is Jesus impressed by? Not the faith of the religious professionals, but the faith of the sinner. That is the real scandal and the scribes are too blind to even see it. Jesus has once again chosen his friends, and they are the lowly, the stigmatized, the ones who eat from the poor table. In the third story there is no mistaking this scandal. When the scribes of the Pharisees see Jesus eating with a tax collector, Levi, and his band of irreligious friends, they comment Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus reply is given in verse 17: Those who are well have no need of a physician, but Page 5 of 6
those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners. And what Jesus does in this rough company is indeed call sinners. He not only eats with them, he calls Levi to follow him and be his disciple. Previously Levi was hated because he was a thief and a traitor, a civil servant for the resented Roman occupiers, and a fellow who made his own living by collecting extra tax, however much extra he wanted. Although Jesus is eating here at an outcast s table it would have been a table richly laid savoury breads bought with the money skimmed from poor labourers, imported wines, bought with money that the parents of Galilee needed for their children s milk. And Jesus eats at this corrupted table, but he recognises it as a poor table too, and he says to Levi, now come eat at my table be my disciple and instead of being hated for your sins against the community, be hated because of me. Jesus continues to call not the righteous but sinners. In the words of your communion invitation, the words of William Barclay: come not because you are strong but because you are weak, come not because any goodness of your own gives you the right to come, but because you love the Lord a little and want to love him more. The table which our Lord has set for us with the best he has to offer his own life, his own body, his own blood, the very forgiveness of the only God is a rich table, but it is also a poor table: a table from which only the poor may eat. If we think we are well, we have no need of a physician; if we think we are righteous we have no need of the saviour s forgiveness; if we are hungry we will be filled with good things, if we are rich, we will be sent empty away. Come then, to the poor table and sit amid the lepers and the Chisholms, and the McCullochs and the sinners and the outcasts and the Gordons, and the Lord Christ Jesus who is broken for you. * The Chisholms the McCullochs and the Gordons are not the real names of the families I have in mind. Page 6 of 6