From Crap – to Wholeness FOR us and wholeness FROM us.
2nd June 2024
Mark 2:1-17
Have you noticed how Jesus never flinches from those
who are sick,
who sin,
whose lives are falling apart….?
In fact, he seems drawn to them.
How might we recognise Jesus meeting US, in our own need?
Can we explore this story of Jesus,
as we consider our own willingness to accept that
the way he responds to people in need
might be how he is reaching out to you too?
I’m thinking this might be a message you need today
if you are feeling overcome by sickness, sin
or some other burden.
And if you are NOT feeling overwhelmed in these ways today – thanks be to God!
(And it’s likely that today’s message might be helpful for you another day.)
It’s quite a long story today.
There are three scenes:
1. The healing in the house (that’s the house with the hole in the roof!)
2. The call to “Follow me” beside the lake
3. The dinner at Levi’s house
Do you know how I would summarise all that Jesus does in this passage?
Jesus brings wholeness.
Jesus brings wholeness by
1. Healing broken physical bodies
2. Forgiving sin (broken relationship with God)
3. Bridging broken relationships with one another (creating community)
4. Calling into his mission and giving a new vocation
You can see I’ve rearranged the order of what Jesus does in this passage.
I’ve done that deliberately to suggest that these actions are what Jesus offers us today.
1) Healing what’s wrong
2) Forgiving sin (and making us right with God)
3) Bridging broken relationships with one another (strengthening community)
4) Calling us into his mission and giving us a new vocation
Jesus wants wholeness FOR us
and wholeness FROM us.
We are able to be part of the healing that Jesus brings – sharing this grace with others around us.
The uncomfortable truth of this passage is: Jesus shows us we all have crap in our lives.
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
That’s all of us by the way.
Jesus makes it sound like there are two categories of people: healthy and sick – or righteous and sinners –
but that’s an illusion.
We all have need of grace.
We all have crap in our lives.
Dislocation, distortion, deception and contradiction.
Let me tell you a story…
It was dark.
I was reversing my car from the street into my driveway.
(And it turns out I had a misplaced confidence in my driving ability)
Reversing up the driveway, I felt the rear wheel go over something, making the whole car lurch up.
I had a sick feeling as I got out of the car to see what I had run over.
It wasn’t a person or animal – thankfully.
That night was rubbish night.
I had run over our rubbish bag.
The bulging bag of weekly rubbish had been patiently resting on the curb.
I had ‘collected’ the rubbish bag under the back bumper of the car. And dragging it along the driveway tore the bag open, strewing the contents all the way up the length of the driveway.
The massacre of the bag was completed when (what was left) went under the rear wheel;
the weight of the car completely exploding the remaining contents.
What you also need to know (to fully picture this scene)
is that it was a very windy night.
(I know this will be hard for you to imagine in Wellington!)
So, the rubbish is now being blown down the street.
My filthy refuse is ‘parading’ through the neighbourhood!
And this is where I saw a sermon analogy…
The secret, somewhat shameful contents of the bag are now out in public – for all the neighbours to see.
Here were the things that had no purpose any more,
my mistakes, the things I literally wanted out of my life for good:
receipts for fast food indulgences,
lolly wrappers,
snotty tissues,
wasted food leftovers,
and waaaaay too much used coffee grounds!
We have ‘stuff’ in our lives that we wish no one would ever know about, let alone see.
We ALL do.
The wonderful good news is that God knows this better than anyone, AND God loves us more than anyone.
Jesus has paid the costly price to remove our sin,
and with Him we can find the forgiveness and restoration we long for.
1) We all have crap in our lives.
And today we are shown that Jesus meets us
(with all the crap of our lives)
with the fullness of his humanity.
2) Jesus lives the fully human life.
The true humanity of Jesus is given as the paradigm
for knowing what it is to be a human being.
3) Jesus reveals God’s destiny for us;
to experience a fully human life in Him.
Scholar Ray Anderson notes:
Christ is not merely a healer, he is the healed one.
He took on himself the diseases and infirmities which inflict humankind and made an end of them in the resurrection from the dead.
He is the source of health because he himself has been made health for us even as he was made sin for us . . .
reconciliation is the restoration of humanity to its true orientation through the new humanity of Christ.1
This truth about Jesus can come into our own lives.
How?
By faith.
Faith allows human disorder and contradiction to be brought before Jesus,
to summon personhood through restored relationship.
We usually know when we our bodies are sick.
When we lack that kind of ‘health’, we know our need.
What about the other disorder and contradiction in our lives?
The brokenness – in our relationship with God.
The broken relationships with others?
Jesus comes to heal all our brokenness.
In fact, we can’t know true wholeness any other way.
There is nothing we can do to make ourselves whole.
When we recognise our need, we are then ready to receive what Jesus offers us.
So when you dare to pray “God, I know my brokenness, make me whole.” – this isn’t a complaint,
but an act of faith.
We express our faith in the One who invites us to experience our God-given, full humanity, in Him.
This grace is real. We can know it today.
…AND it is an ongoing project.
Jesus summons out our true personhood bit by bit – until one day…
Let me finish with a suggestion for a response you might make today…
My friend Lynn Baab says her favourite term for prayer is “draw near”.
Just like in today’s passage where we hear of Jesus’s healing – the story of the afflicted woman who approached Jesus to touch the hem of his cloak
– is a story of faith.
And what is even more impressive about this woman’s faith is her bravery to be honest when Jesus asks who touched him.
She knew her need; she knew who to draw near to.
In the book of Hebrews we are encouraged:
“… let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16, NASB).
…let us pray…
PRAYER
Jesus, our Healer
In our brokenness, help us recognise our need.
As we see the rubbish in our lives, move us to respond to accept Your healing – as the One who is healed.
Let us draw near to you with confidence – not in ourselves, but in your grace.
Heal us and make us whole – in every part of our lives: bodies, minds, emotions, relationships – as we continue to follow Your call to join Your mission here on earth.
Amen.