MARK 2:1-22 Lesson 4
MANKID’S TRUE NEED
I. Greetings:
II. Introduction:
Note: If you remember last week, Jesus had been remarkably successful in a healing ministry; but after prayer He knew it was time to preach elsewhere.
At the beginning of chapter 2, Jesus was back in Capernaum and some people were going to approach Him. When most people pray to God, they do it to ask Him for something. We often think of God as Someone powerful that we can ask things of. The Bible is not against such thinking.
Q If you knew God would give you one thing, what would it be?
An = Push this question – it is important to get them to form such a thought in their minds. Write down right now that one thing. Get them to talk and to write that one thing down in the margin of their Bibles or something they have with them to write on.
III. Jesus is back in town: Preaching with Interruption: Mark 2:1-12
A. Preaching the Word.
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:1-2.
Q Once again, why did Jesus leave Capernaum the first time?
An = He left to teach the Word of God, to teach the Good News.
Q When the crowds came, what did Jesus do for them?
An = He spoke the Word. Notice how many times preaching/speaking the Word is mentioned in Mark 1-2 alone: 1:14, 1:21, 1:38, 2:2, and 2:13. This is the key. If our ministry does not center on teaching God’s will (His Word) then it is not Jesuanic or like Jesus. Jesus did other things but teaching the Word was the center. If you come to this meeting and do not hunger for the Word then what Jesus primarily wants to do for you cannot be done.
B. Teaching Interruption: Starting a Storm.
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:3-4
Q Could that man have found Christ alone?
An = Of course not, he could never have ever got near to the Lord on his own. He needed the help of his friends.
Q What does that mean?
An = Life seems to be designed so that we often do not find God without the help of someone else. It seems that God wants us to help and be helped by others: to need and to be needed by others. Many of your friends and relatives will not get near where Jesus Christ can be known and encountered until you bring them. It will not always be easy.
Q Did these men have to get creative and get aggressive? What did they do?
An = They destroyed public property!!
Q Did Jesus have this miracle thrust upon Him? Did this interrupt the teaching?
An = Yes it did. If you have ever taught or spoken publicly you can relate to the disturbance this can cause. It is tough to speak publicly when your train of thought in yourself and the audience is broken. The busting of the very roof above His head had to have disturbed Jesus.
Q Did their action disturb His intended goal of teaching the Word?
An = Seemingly, they did interrupt the teaching of the Word. Often people want miracles more than the Word of God. I would and I have been often angry when I get interrupted.
Q Was Jesus angry for having His teaching disturbed?
An = He seemingly was not, as He called the man “My son”. Maybe, He did not get angry because He knew people are physical beings and easily sidetracked with the body’s needs. (Notice that in the chapter above He got angry (or stern) when expecting the man to deal with the consequences of his healing responsibly, but not for wanting to be healed.) It seemed Jesus’ desire to teach was again thwarted, but perhaps that was why He said the amazing thing that He did.
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:5
Q What did Jesus say? Did He anticipate the response His Words received?
An = Jesus did deliberately stir the pot at times. Here, however, He told this man his sins were forgiven.
>>> Have someone read Psalm 103:3
Q Does God’s activity involve both healing and forgiveness?
An = Jesus was intentionally pointing to a truth about His person for He and His Father are alike.
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:6-7
Q Did the scholars of the day (scribes) understand what He had done?
An = Yes, they certainly understood that to forgive sins was only done by God and therefore Jesus had blasphemed.
Note: Jesus seemingly began this controversy deliberately. He wanted to start a storm. It was He who stirred the pot.
Q Do churches tend to like passive ministers?
An = Those in church authority usually do not like those who stir the pot. Today, we may not like having Jesus around us. We want the preacher to tell us what we already know, but do so with good humor or good stories.
C. Teaching Again: Using or Riding the Storm. Mark 2:8-12
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:8-9
Note: Jesus saw their inner thoughts. He then confronted, or brought out into the open, the brewing anger in their minds with His rhetorical question at the end of 2:8.
Q What did the question of verse 9 imply?
An = It implied that the two things of healing and forgiving are naturally to be together, as we saw in the Psalms.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 2:10-12
Q What did verse 11 prove?
An = It proved that Jesus could certainly do both: heal the body and forgive sin. In verse 10 Jesus clearly said the healing was to be seen as a proof that He could heal both the soul and the body.
Q Has Jesus made the interruption a teaching moment? How?
Q Is what we want, i.e. the things we ask for in prayer (look at what you wrote down at the beginning of the lesson), what He wants to give?
IV. Jesus’ Unconventional Way of Teaching by His Selection of Leaders. Mark 2:13-22
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:13
A. The Unusual Selection: Mark 2:13-15
Q What was Jesus doing with these large crowds near the lake?
An = He taught them. Again we notice that teaching was Jesus’ most desired action from Mark’s constant mention of it.
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:14
Q This time who interrupted (or ended) Jesus’ teaching?
An = It was Jesus Himself by the calling out or making the selection of a disciple. He called Levi, son of Alphaeus, a tax collector, to “Follow Me”.
Q Was the call to join a religious group or to a task?
An = It was neither, it was to Jesus Himself. He did not call Levi to religion, but to follow Him!
Q What was a tax collector in those, or the complement to one today?
An = In that society, the taxes collected were for the Roman Government, an occupying military force that was resented by the Jews. Therefore the money went to a foreign, occupying force. The Romans used locals to collect taxes and the collectors were allowed to collect all they wanted and only had to hand over to the Romans a certain quota, the rest was kept by the collector. It is easy to see such people were regarded as “low-lifes” and “traitors” among their own people. A complement to that today would be a “pimp” or “drug dealer”. Both acquire money at the expense and oppression of their fellow human beings.
Q Did Jesus imperil His religious reputation when he called out to a hated tax collector and asked that individual to join His staff?
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:15
Q What was Jesus doing by eating with this man and his friend?
An = Jesus was accepting them, giving them legitimacy.
B. Jesus Teaches with the Repercussions of His Activity. Mark 2:16-27
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:16-17
Q Can you relate to verse 16? Have you ever seen someone with a good reputation have it questioned because of who they associated with?
Note: To eat a meal with someone in the Bible meant to have fellowship with them. Also, look again at Jesus’ reply in verse 17.
>>> Re-read Mark 2:17
Q What was Jesus teaching through His acceptance of Levi and his friends?
Q How many people in your family or close group of friends, if they would be honest about how they really felt, would consider themselves spiritually sick?
Q What did Jesus have to say to them if they admitted that they were a sinner?
Note: This passage means that Jesus was both very realistic about the human race but very willing to deal with us humans in our needy condition. I believe Mark is implying that if we claim to be His follows, we are both aware of the horrible tendencies we humans have but also be willing to deal with them!
III. Jesus’ Further Unconventional Religious Teaching.
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:18
A. Using A Common Religious Activity to Bring Up a Point: Mark 2:18-20.
Note: The issue here was fasting. Fasting was done twice a week by the seriously religious Jews. Since Jesus was a Rabbi, it was expected He would be as serious in His piety as those of His day. If He was a good Rabbi, and the teacher was responsible for his student’s practices, then Jesus should have had His disciples in a fasting routine as well. Though Jesus did speak in other places about fasting, and did assume His disciples would later be involved with fasting, His disciples apparently were not fasting at this time. The disciples of John the Baptist fasted, and they knew Jesus was associated with John, and so the question about why Jesus’ disciples were not fasting seemed to be a reasonable question. It is here that Jesus demonstrated His amazing ability as a teacher. He seemed to have deliberately not had His disciples fast so as to use their lack of action as an “object lesson”. Jesus may have set His audience up by His careful lack of a common action among “holy people”.
Q How does it strike you that Jesus was not intimidated by the expectations of religious people? Have you ever struggled with this or seen others struggle in this manner? Q Was the holiest man on earth worried about His reputation? What was He concerned about?
An = He was concerned about what was important for both the disciples and the audience to learn.
>>> Have someone read Mark 2:19-20
Note: His response to this situation was another example of how He taught. He used metaphors from daily life. He talked with word-pictures. He took their question and put the question back to them in the form of a metaphor or picture-situation they could relate to.
Note: Notice, they had to answer a question using their minds. He made them think out the answer themselves. Jesus forced them to use their minds.
Q What would be an example of this today?
An = He said it was not possible to fast when “glory” was with you. Just as it would not be possible to mourn if you were in love, and the one you loved came home after going to school out of state. To fast at their home-coming dinner would not be right. Similarly, it would not be right to fast at a wedding feast, it would be a great insult to a host or parents of the bride and groom. There are natural and appropriate times for feasting and celebration. Baring some catastrophe, to be down when the one you were in love with was around would be a similar insult. You could tell them they were the “light of your life”, but they would feel they were a pretty dim bulb.
Q What was Jesus teaching by not fasting?
An = He was teaching us that where God’s Presence was, His Glory was there also. Jesus was right in saying one cannot fast when He is present, because Glory is present. However, remember Jesus was not against fasting, there is a time for it. It just was not appropriate then.
B. Jesus went on to explain the Nature of His Ministry or His Kingdom.
>>>Have someone read Mark 2:21-22.
Note: Most of us are not a seamstress of any ability but it does make sense that if one sewed an unshrunken patch of cloth to a shrunk piece it would eventually tear. Concerning the new wine in new skins, new wine begins to ferment and putting it in old skins would destroy both the wine and skins.
Q What did He mean by these sayings?
An = Perhaps list the answers given. In some senses 2:23-3:6 define what new wine skins are, but…we will look at this next week.
Q What did these little metaphors mean in light of 2:13-17?
Q How did the calling of Levi, the tax collector, and the saying in verse 17 help us understand the saying about “new wine in new wine skins” 2:21-22?
Q If there was to be a spiritual revival at your church and new people came, what would have to change about the structure of the church?
An = Jesus said old wine skins would not work, new ones would be needed. Jesus came to save men from sin and not to merely strengthen institutions.
Q Do we really want new wine? Do we really want revival or do we want His active presence under our control?[:]