scribes

My rowdy friends

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“…he was eating with the sinners…” Mark 2:13-17

We have a word today that does a good job of describing Jesus: he was politically and religiously incorrect. He never seemed to be doing the right thing at the right time or to be with the right people.

Jesus went out again to the seashore. Of course, the crowd followed and he began to teach them. While he was out there, he passed a tax office. There were probably no crowds surrounding Levi as he sat at his desk. Tax collectors worked for the Herods and the oppressive Romans. They were widely regarded as greedy traitors or worse. Levi’s position was not the sort to attract the attention of anyone desiring to win friends and influence people. Yet Jesus approached him, saying, “Follow Me.” And Levi did.

Later, Jesus and his disciples were dining with Levi, who is also known as Matthew. In attendance were many tax-gatherers and sinners. Probably not the best optics for Jesus’ growing ministry. But he wasn’t concerned about that. These were people whom Jesus had reached out to and touched in some way. They were following him because they knew he could change their lives and remove their sin, unlike the Pharisees with their rules and categories.

Speaking of Pharisees, some of their scribes crashed the party. They were having trouble dealing with how these people had escaped the pigeon holes they had put them in. Once a sinner, always a sinner, they might have thought. Instead of confronting Jesus directly, they pulled a couple of disciples aside and demanded to know “why is he eating with tax gatherers and sinners?”

Jesus saw what they were up to and answered them: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, only the sick. I didn’t come for the righteous, but for sinners.” Which let the scribes off the hook. Sort of. Their sense of their own righteousness was duly appropriated by saying and doing the proper thing at just the proper time and in just the right measure. It completely hid their own inadequacy in God’s sight. As long as they considered themselves righteous, they would miss out on the true righteousness that Jesus brings, and with it the key to entering God’s kingdom.

Copyright 2019 David J. Cooley

Seeing not believing

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“…in order that you may know…” Mark 2:1-12

The story of the paralyzed man and his friends is well known. It’s one of those stories that is too amazing to have been made up. The friends bring the paralyzed man to Jesus, carrying him on a makeshift stretcher. The place is so crowded they can’t come near Jesus, so they get the bright idea of coming in through the roof. We probably all have a friend or two who thinks like this, much to our embarrassment. To make a long story short, Jesus heals the man, who picks up the stretcher and walks home. That’s about it, except there were some grumpy scribes there, too. But, of course, there is more to it.

The paralyzed man and his friends are known only by their actions, not their words. We can surmise that they were driven to act, but Jesus sees deeper than us and reveals a motive we can’t see: their faith. He also sees in this man what we cannot: his need for forgiveness. Well, you say, that’s a pretty easy call. We all need our sins forgiven. And besides, Jesus is trying to make a point with those scribes in the front row. True, but I don’t think Jesus was using the man to win an argument. What we know about Jesus tells us that he puts people first, acting with compassion towards them. Then he deals with those who have a problem with it.

The scribes were neither vocal nor active, and kept their thoughts to themselves. Their fault-finding and nit-picking letter-of-the-law approach to life led them to teach that the degree of a man’s affliction indicated the degree of his sin. No wonder the paralytic had his sins on his mind! Jesus saw this. His first words to the man are “Your sins are forgiven.” The scribe’s first thoughts were “blasphemy!” and “only God can forgive sins.” How do we know this? Jesus saw it and exposed their thoughts to the crowd, who were now anxious to see a healing.

Jesus asks the scribes point blank: “How can you think like this? Is it easier to say ‘be forgiven’ or ‘be healed’?” He then issues a challenge: “So you will know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins…” He turns to the paralytic, “Rise, take up your pallet and go home.” Which the man did. The people were amazed, never having seen anything like it. The scribes? We’re not told what they thought. But the growing conflict between the official religious establishment and Jesus was now evident. Was he a fraud or the real thing, the Son of God?