13 January 2011

13 January 2011

Psalm 18:1-20; Isa. 41:17-29; Eph. 2:11-22; Mark 2:1-12

The Lord promises to act on behalf of His people. When they have needs He will abundantly provide. He will not simply satisfy them with just enough, He will change everything to make even the deserts flourish. Talk about climate change! This will be done so that everyone will know that God is creator and sustainer. Reversal of the natural order cannot be accomplished naturally, it is supernatural intervention that will be needed and when He reveals Himself in this way, it will also reveal all else to be no more than idols, false gods who are impotent. It is important for us to always be thankful for creation and for the creator of all whose imagination and creativity are beyond anything we can envision.

Jesus’ power and works astonish all who encounter Him. There is, however, controversy beginning to creep into the storyline. Does Jesus forgive the man’s sins in order to be controversial? It doesn’t seem likely that is the reason He pronounces forgiveness first. It seems more likely that there is a connection between the man’s sins and the paralysis and that forgiveness was a necessary precondition to the healing. Certainly there are incidences of what we know as conversion disorder, paralysis without physical cause. Such cases are treated as psychological problems. Jesus, the penultimate physician, knows how to cure this problem and treats its cause first and then effects what seems to us to be the cure. How could He have known is the real question, not by what authority He does it. Spiritual problems require spiritual cures. The pronouncing of sins as forgiven is an important thing. We do this each week in our worship and yet it often becomes just a part of the liturgy rather than allowing the priest’s words to be balm for our souls.

We are now part of the people of God, joint heirs of the promises of God. Jesus accomplished what we could not. Again, the problem for Gentiles was not something we could solve on our own, it was a spiritual problem, not a physical one. The physical mark of circumcision was not what made the difference, anyone could be circumcised but that didn’t fix the problem. The issue was a spiritual one, circumcision itself was only the sign of covenantal relationship but it was/is a constant reminder that a relationship exists and that there are terms for that relationship. The mark in the flesh that defined the old covenant is abolished by the marks in Jesus’ flesh from the crucifixion and that leads to the circumcision of the heart and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a constant reminder that this covenantal relationship also has terms. The spiritual healing we needed has been effected and now we who were paralyzed in our sins, living not by the Spirit of God, now know a different way of walking this life.

I love you, O LORD, my strength.

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.