4- More Than a Healing: Mark 1:40-2:12 - Mike Olynyk, Meadows Church

You're invited!  Come on a journey as we see the sights, smell the smells & experience Jesus' story told by Mark in an immersive way.  Engage in the story as one of the crowd, the disciples or even as a religious leader.  For an even more immersive experience, click the link below to follow along with the PDF media with maps, pictures of historical sites and more.

MORE THAN A HEALING PDF - CLICK HERE

Meadows Church is a church in the community, for the community, located in Langley, BC.  We want you to know that you're welcome here!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You're listening to audio from Meadows Church in Langley, BC. For more information about Meadows Church, go to Meadowschurch.ca. We are continuing our series called Encountering Jesus. And our focus in this time together is not simply to read the text, but we want to experience the text. What was the crowd seeing? What were they thinking? What were their fears? What were the smells, the sights, the sounds? We want to become one of the crowd members. At times we want to become one of the disciples so that we can experience what it would be like to encounter Jesus. And if you missed it last week, I want to remind you, I really encourage you to listen to and track with us as we dig into God's word. You can do that. And actually, you know, if you've been here before, I have maps, I have like, we're gonna look at the first century roofs today. Uh all of that is in our slides, but you can actually download those packs on our website and audio at meadowschurch.ca slash messages if you miss it. Last week, we left our fearless hero Jesus as he started his Galilean tour. He had just left this place. This is Capernaum. No sprawling Langley Township. I always think of places as too big when I when I experience, but it was smaller. It was a little, well, I I don't I don't even think you would call it a village, maybe a hamlet of Capernaum. This is an important detail. It's quaint, it's small. And he was traveling from village to village throughout Galilee, and many of these hamlets were like Capernaum. And if we look at where he traveled, just around this 53-kilometer hike around the Sea of Galilee, look at how many different towns or villages are in just that stretch. And then beyond that, his Galilean tour continues to other towns, to other areas. Jesus was busting out to all of them. Why? Because all needed to hear the freedom, the hope that Jesus offers. He wanted them to be free. He wanted them to hear about the kingdom, and he wanted miracles to be a plenty to point towards this freedom. Before we go any farther, though, there is a cultural note that we need here as we dive in. As he's on his tour, you see, he would come and he would teach in different towns on the Sabbath. But what you need to know is Jewish law actually prohibited any walk that was more than 2,000 paces. That is one kilometer. You might be thinking, where is that in my Bible? I don't see it. Well, you're right. It's not in the Bible. It was one of these Pharisaic religious laws. I can tell why Jesus was so infuriated with the religious leaders. Here is just another one of these rules that sorry, you can't go for a hike. That's a little too far. That's 1.2 kilometers. So no nature walk for you on the Sabbath. This is the type of laws that they heaped. And are you curious how it came about? It was an ambiguous two verses. Joshua 3, verse 4, and Numbers 35, verse 5, which very, very unspecifically talk about 2,000 paces, one of which the tents had to be that close to the tabernacle as the Israelites were staying at a certain location. They had to set up their tents so that they were no more than a kilometer from the tabernacle. So that must mean that you can't go more than a one kilometer walk on the Sabbath? This is what the Pharisees did. They keep, you know, it's gotta be good. It's making you holier. Just abide by it. So I got a question for you. And maybe this is something you can discuss around tables later. Did Jesus break this quite arbitrary synagogue law? It's not biblical, it's not of God, so it's not a sin. So did he break it so that people could hear in multiple synagogues on the same day? Or did Jesus help his message by not creating a barrier between cultures, by actually staying with somebody in the village the night before and leaving after Sabbath? This was customary in the culture of the day, especially with Sabbath law, where a foreigner or somebody from Israel would come into a town and they would request to stay the night. And that was normative culture of the day. So what do you think? Think about it now, and I'd love in our table discussions afterwards does Jesus appease the cultural law to preach the kingdom, or does he break cultural norms to get to the places to preach? It's a fascinating discussion. Let's pick up our story in Mark 1, verse 40. A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. If you're willing, you can heal me and make me clean, he said. Now we don't know when this story actually transpired. We can look at the other accounts of Luke and Matthew. Luke's account of this story in chapter 5 tells us that it occurred in one town, not in his hometown. And one other thing to note, that this wasn't just any type of leprosy. This was an advanced case of leprosy. It was horrible. Should we know a little bit about leprosy then? Because I don't know about you, but I don't walk down the street and go, oh, hey, oh leprosy, tell me about it. Like it's just not commonplace. So if we're gonna dig into culture, if we're really going to experience it, we should know what life was like coming alongside people with leprosy. Leprosy, otherwise known as Hansen's disease, is quite a curable disease today. With rounds of antibiotic treatments, you can actually be cured of leprosy. There are approximately 250 known cases in the United States right now and 250,000 cases worldwide. The World Health Organization is trying to eradicate leprosy because it is a curable disease through information and through disease control, through medication. So, surprisingly, get this. Studies are showing that leprosy isn't actually that contagious. It is one of the least contagious of skin diseases. I found that so intriguing digging into this. You can't get it just by a handshake. You can't get it by a touch, you can't get it by a hug. Leprosy is a bacterial infection that comes from either droplets from your mouth or droplets from your nose. That's how you can contract leprosy. But you can convince anyone back then that it wasn't highly contagious. The stigma and the fear of leprosy was like next level in this time in history. It doesn't help that the disease caused deformity, loss of digits, eventually you'd lose nerve ending, and then eventually the whole digit would be gone, so you could end up with just a stump. You would have rashes that were that would hurt at first, and then eventually you wouldn't feel a thing. As the the disease progressed, there was no antibiotics, there was no cure. It was a terrible disease that built slowly. Get this over up to 20 years. You could have the bacterial infection for up to 20 years without showing signs, and then it would come. And do you know why that is so shocking? You have no idea where you got it from. Do you sense the fear? Do you sense the misinformation in all of this? What's exponentially worse, though, is the medical protocol for those who contracted leprosy and other skin diseases. You essentially lost your humanity when you contracted the disease. If you look at Leviticus 13, God actually provides a medical journal of the day. Actually, most of the Torah, particularly Leviticus, is actually nutrition guide, medical guide for back in the day when there was nothing. And the priest was your doctor. Well, this medical journal was not good for those that had leprosy. It protected the people of Israel, allowed for diagnosis, healing, and quarantine of people with disease. But listen to what the poor man faced. Now we know the fear of the people. Let's get into what this dude who's coming to Jesus. This is what he faced. Leviticus 13, verse 45 and 46. Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must tear their clothes and leave their hair uncombed. They must cover their mouth and call out, unclean! Unclean, unclean. As long as the serious disease lasts, which for our disease for today, leprosy, is forever, there's no cure right now, they will be ceremonial unclean. They must live in isolation in their place outside of the camp. Lonely, shamed, demoralized. He couldn't work, he couldn't associate with his family. People with leprosy were forever condemned to a horrible life and death. And get this, it was a small town. We've seen this, the hamlet. You would have gone to the temple or the synagogue with this individual for school, and later on in life you would see that now he has leprosy or now she has leprosy. Do you know what that does to the fear inside of you to think about? You saw the isolation, you saw the ripped clothes, you saw the frail body from the lack of food and nutrition because they couldn't work. And then, of course, the disease. And you were terrified of contracting it. Can you imagine walking down the street and there in front of you is a group of people with ripped clothes and unkept hair? And they are shouting, unclean, unclean! In that moment, your heart is racing, and you want to be anywhere but in that pathway. That's what people with leprosy feel like. And that was the stigma of culture of the day. Let's hear how Jesus addresses this because it's far different. Verse 41 says, Move with compassion. Jesus reached out and he touched him. Experience this man's feelings for a moment. Leprosy is progressive, slowly. He has had it for a number of years. When is the last time that someone had the least bit of compassion for him? When is the last time someone looked at him without contempt, fear, or anger in their eyes? And someone had actually been close to him. This lonely and hopeless man in this one half of a verse must have been on cloud nine. He knew more was coming, but in this moment he felt heard, seen, and touched. Touched. When's the last time you felt the touch of someone? A hug, a kiss, a friendly embrace on the shoulder. It feels good. One of my love language is physical touch, and so you'll know I give side hugs all the time. And uh it it feels good. There's a sense of love receiving and taking from this. And this man had not experienced that for 10, 20, 30 years, 40 years. Jesus touched him. Jesus loved him. To the shock and awe of the crowd, Jesus reaches out and he touches his shoulder. This wretched, this unclean man, and the crowd shouting, don't do it, Jesus, you're gonna get leprosy. No. Jesus breaks through the cultural fear and norms. And his protocol is love, relationship. Move with compassion. Jesus reached out and touched him. I am willing, he said, be healed. And instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed. Think about this for a moment. This is a man without fingers, probably, because it's an advanced case of leprosy. He has skin rashes all over, he might be missing toes. Suddenly, instantly healed. All of it. Just amazing. That's how excited he was right there. Let's keep going. Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning. Verse 44 don't tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses. This is in Leviticus. For those who have been healed of leprosy, this will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed. But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened. I mean, could you blame him? In this one moment, there is a life-changing excitement just coursing through his veins. He can see family, he can go to work, he can go to the synagogue, he can do it all now. He's been healed, of course, he's gonna tell people. Jesus says, Don't tell people why. Well, the next verse will tell you why, or the next part of the sentence. As a result of the man sharing, large crowds soon surrounded Jesus, and he couldn't publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him. News about this healer, about this teacher, this exorcist, the dude that spoke with real authority and power, unlike any religious leader. This news was spreading like wildfire. Well, when Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Remember this place? He's back there now. From as early as the fourth century, there has been a chapel over the house. Now it looks like a UFO, but back then it wasn't quite a UFO. But there's been a chapel over it. And during this time in Jesus' life, he would have lived with Peter and Andrew. How do we know this? Well, his home was Capernaum. He had just healed Peter's mother-in-law, if you remember from the story. And Peter and Andrew are both his disciples. It made sense. Back in the day, you didn't have one big house that everybody lived in. This was the floor plan. And remember, if I showed you the video or the picture before of all the basalt foundations, this is the artist's rendering of what that would have looked like. You have shack after shack after shack, and the whole extended family would be in this complex. And in the center of it, this is where the UFO is positioned. The chapel. Over this room. This is where Mark 2, verse 1 takes place. Let's read. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the doors. Have you been in a mosh pit ever? It's sweaty. It's hot. The BTUs on people are hot. Can you imagine this house? It is packed. Standing room only. There's probably a little room between Jesus and the other people, but that's it. The courtyard filled with people trying to get in to see Jesus. Well, while he was preaching God's word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. This is a first century roof. It is made of beams going one way, and then over top of it they put sugarcane or weaved reeds as the foundation for then putting dirt and soil on top of that, and that would protect them from the elements. So can you imagine what's happening here? You're standing there, you're listening so intently to Jesus, and suddenly you hear something, and then dirt starts to fall. And then rocks. Then somebody gets hit with a sugar cane. And there's light. And it's a dark place. They don't have torches. Maybe some candles were lit, but it was so packed it would be quite a dark room. And now it is brilliantly lit up with this hole that is now a sunroof in the ceiling. I have always wondered what the homeowner was thinking. Have you ever read that story and gone, dude, like what about the dude's house? Well, now we know. It's Peter and Andrew's house. Jesus is living there. By the way, Jesus was a carpenter. So you know for sure that the mother-in-law was like, oh no, you're gonna build that back up later. It would get rebuilt. But these men carrying their friend, digging through a roof without fear of consequence, the tenacity, the passion to see him healed. Wow. Then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus. That placement was spot on. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, My child, your sins are forgiven. But some of the teachers of the religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, What is he saying? This is blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. My child, your sins are forgiven. That statement would have lingered in the air. The religious teachers would have had time to grumble amongst themselves before Jesus' next words. In the meantime, what were their friends thinking in that moment? How about the lame man? Was it more of an, oh, come on, we did all this and you're just gonna forgive his sins? I doubt that. The freedom that Jesus brings is life-changing. And in that moment, I truly believe that the faith of the four young men that they would have experienced freedom. And the anticipation for more. So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, Stand up, pick up your mat and go home. And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out right through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, We've never seen anything like this before. I don't know, I think I want to stay around Jesus a little more. But I guess if he tells you to go home, you go home. We just witnessed and experienced two amazing moments in Jesus' ministry. I'm actually kind of kicking myself that I took on two when I was dividing the text. And by the way, I studied Mark and then decided how to break it up, and then we're going through it. I'm like, ah, maybe we should have done one at a time. But God's providence in it. Because I think there is a theme that parallels both stories that we can dive into. You see, the first is this, friends that Jesus had compassion on people. He he loved them and wanted to free them from demons and to heal them. Their sickness and all their physical ailments. Like he loved. That's what he wanted to do. Love people. Full stop. I hope you see that. Jesus loves you. Period. There is nothing you need to do to earn that. He loves you. Jesus loved the man with leprosy. He loved the friends that lowered the paralytic down. He loved the paralyzed man. It wasn't an inconvenience for him. He didn't look at the leprous man and say to him, Excuse me, you're interrupting my conversations with my boys. No. When he first saw the roof coming apart, he didn't stand up and yell, hey, stop it! Then you're wrecking the roof. I know some might have. Jesus didn't do any of that. You see, Jesus is never too busy for love and relationship. You have the Pharisees over here that were filled with legalism and religiosity. And some people think this is where the church is today, that this is what church is. That is not what Jesus made the church to be. Jesus made the church, he made each of us to feel loved and to give love to others. That's it. And we get to see it, we get to see that modeled through Jesus' story. I hope you can believe that for you. So Jesus loves, but there's something more. There's another intermingling of these two stories. It's this statement. I don't know what your experience with guilt and shame is like. You know, uh, it can be so debilitating for some. Constantly looking back and cringing or living in a state where you just can't forgive. Have you ever done that? You're doing something and suddenly it triggers you're like, oh, I can't believe I did that. Like 10 years ago. What the heck? Jesus doesn't want us to carry that burden. He wants you to let go. We all have a moral compass inside of us. Like Jesus built us. He is the maker of everything. He created us. And so we have that inside of us. And he wants to remove that weight of our past that we are embarrassed of, that separates us from him. It's called sin. You see, the most important thing when he looked at that paralytic and his friends was the weight that was on them. Their past, their sin. When we looked a couple weeks, maybe it was even laugh week, we looked at Mark 1. Uh Jesus wasn't, it wasn't his task to go and heal and cast out demons in all of Galilee. That was not what he was called to do. Verse 38 says this when Peter says, Go to your fanfare, go to the people who are cheering you, Jesus responds by saying, We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them too. This is why I came. So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons. Jesus wanted everyone to know. He wants everyone here to know that he is Savior, that he is Messiah, and that he has come to take our burdens and our past embarrassments and our sin. Friends, you don't have to carry that anymore. When you lay it down and Jesus takes that, it is gone. Period. That's what his death and his resurrection did. Jesus took that. The God of the universe was nailed to a cross so that you can be free. That you may only say, you know what's best for me, and I'm going to follow you. It's amazing. Jesus wants you to stop, to believe in him, to ask for forgiveness that actually allows you to release everything and to be free as a child in his father's presence.

unknown 26:51

God.

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Alicia back up. What are you carrying? Do you have a burden that you need to release tonight? So that you can have a sense of freedom. Be free from it. Matthew 11, 28, Jesus is talking to us. And he's saying this. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Do you need rest, friend? Let's pray. God, I know that there's people here today that are carrying things that they don't need to carry. So I pray, God, would you come? Would you make yourself so real to them? Thank you that you take our burdens. So, friends, if you have something that you need to release Jesus to let go of, He is faithful. He's gonna take that. I just invite you to take that thing. To say, Jesus, I give you my baggage. And I replace it with joy. Jesus, thank you that you do that. That you love us so much. I thank you for those that gain freedom right here from that thing. May they walk out of here with your amazing love and joy and peace and hope and all the fruit of your spirit. We thank you, Jesus, for who you are. Amen. As a benediction, I hope you've unloaded baggage today, and that's something you've done and embraced Jesus. But the second point is this that those four friends lowered the paralytic down and changed that paralytic's life forever. So who needs who needs to hear the freedom that Jesus offers? Like, who do you need to lower down from the roof to meet Jesus? To invite to encounter Jesus with us on Sunday nights, or maybe it's more simple. Maybe it's a thing where you just need to share how Jesus is radically changing your life. Take him out for a coffee. I don't know what that is. But I want to leave you with that question as we go. And as the benediction for today. Let's go from this place, just like we have been the church gathered. May we be the church scattered into the places that we work and learn and live and play. Go be that peace. Go be that freedom for somebody as Jesus works in and through you. Amen. We're so glad you chose to join us today. To find out more about Meadows Church and how you can get involved, connect with the pastor or how you can partner with us in ministry. Go to meadowschurch.ca.