EmmDev 2025-03-07 [Moments with Mark] Hospitable Evangelism

Hospitable Evangelism

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to Him, and He began to teach them. As He walked along, He saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with Him and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw Him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked His disciples: "Why does He eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark2:13-17)

Levi (aka Matthew) was a tax-collector. Tax collectors were considered sellouts and traitors by their fellow Israelites. Levi didn't have many disciple-making skills and he had a bad reputation to overcome.

However, Levi had two things that he could offer:
Firstly, he had a rag tag ragamuffin friendship group comprised of other tax-collectors and people seen as sinners and outcasts. These were people on the fringe of society. They would not easily join the crowds who went to listen to Jesus. In the second place it seems that Levi knew how to throw a good party and so when his life is overturned by Jesus' call, the first thing he does is to host a "Matthew Party". He doesn't organise a crusade or gospel rally - he just invites his friends to meet Jesus. He's just confident that Jesus presence and love will be enough. (Do you see the connection with the Roof Diggers? The best thing you can do for a friend is to bring them to Jesus!)

The "Holy Huddle" (Pharisees and Teachers of the Law) are incensed.
They're convinced that these "bad people" should be avoided and that Jesus should not love them.

Jesus answer is both beautiful and enigmatic.
"I've come to call the sick and not the healthy, the sinners and not the righteous."
The beautiful part is broken people are welcome at His table and to His love.
The enigmatic part is that those who think themselves righteous are not excluded by Jesus, but by their own pride. If people truly believe themselves perfect, they are saying they have no need for God. Once we admit our brokenness, we realise that there are not degrees of brokenness.
We either need forgiveness or we don't. We either need healing or we don't.

May we, like Matthew, take time to let our friends experience the love of Jesus, especially around a meal!

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EmmDev 2025-03-06 [Moments with Mark] Roof Diggers #3

Roof Diggers #3

Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins..." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!" (Mark2:4-12)

In this passage we have the beginnings of the tension between Jesus and the teachers of the law.

It is a sobering tension.
They have knowledge, scripture and theology.
They have been trained and are part of a beautiful spiritual tradition.
And yet they don't recognise Jesus.

The problem with knowledge, education and tradition is that it can calcify.
The beauty of worship and the magnificence of the rituals can dull with repetition.
The depth of spiritual truth contained in Scripture can become cold doctrine if confined to the head and not allowed into the heart and hands.

We are not very different from the Teachers of the Law.
We have tradition, scripture, knowledge and theology.
The only thing that will keep us different from them is if we allow these gifts to move from our heads to our hearts and hands and if we remember that our faith is a relationship and not just knowledge to master, rituals to observe and commands to enforce.

This is where the teachers of the law went wrong.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and began the season of Lent where we hope to draw near to Jesus and know Him personally.

It's the season where we practice NOT being the teachers of the law....

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EmmDev 2025-03-05 [Moments with Mark] Roof Diggers #2

Roof Diggers #2

Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins..." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!" (Mark2:4-12)

Can you imagine how all-consuming paralysis must have been?
And yet, when the paralysed man's amazing friends take the bold action of digging open the roof, Jesus identifies a different priority.
- Not the fact that he couldn't walk
- Not the fact that he needed his friends to help him with everything
But his need for forgiveness.

Now we don't know the man's heart. Was he resentful and bitter from his illness and had that consumed his heart? Was there some guilt from his past that he believed had caused his paralysis? Or was his paralysis psychosomatic?
We'll add this to my long list of interviews for heaven.
I'm going to go and meet with this man and get the whole story.

But when Jesus sees him, He discerns that before this man can be healed of physical paralysis, he needs to be healed of guilt that paralysed his soul and so Jesus, the sinless Son of God and the Messiah who is the Lamb of God, forgives him.

The teachers of the law are incensed and, if it had been anyone else pronouncing forgiveness, they would have been right to be incensed. Their theology is correct: "Only God can forgive sins." It is their hearts that are malfunctioning - they can't recognise that Jesus is the Son of God.

And so Jesus heals the man. The healing of a paralytic was unheard of - only God could do it. It is definitive proof that Jesus is the Son of God and that He can forgive sins.

In one beautiful moment Jesus heals the man - INSIDE and OUT.

Hallelujah!

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EmmDev 2025-03-04 [Moments with Mark] Roof Diggers #1

Roof Diggers #1

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that He had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." (Mark2:1-5)

This healing story is a favourite for many.
It's so gripping:
- A crowd (probably because the healed leper didn't keep quiet.)
- A tragically sick man with really really good friends
- The drama of the wrecked roof
- The strange approach Jesus takes to the healing
- The criticism of the teachers of the law answered

We'll spend a few days on this one. For today I just want to reflect on beauty of friendship and faith in youth.

The fact that this paralytic man had four friends willing to make the efforts and take the risks they did says a lot - both about the man and his friends. One can only assume that carrying him around was "old hat" to them. I can imagine the quips, jokes and banter amongst them. So when it becomes known that Jesus is in town and that He's even healed a leper, they don't hesitate. "Let's get you to Jesus!" (That's still the best thing one can do for a friend: to bring them to Jesus.)

The building is crowded, people are wedged in tight, nobody's moving, not even for a paralysed guy and his four buddies. So they make a radical and downright crazy decision: "Let's go through the roof!" (This is what convinces me that they are young men... Older guys would just not be so impulsive - they'd be more cautious - "let's just wait till the crowd goes...") And so one guy is sent off for rope while the other three tackle the combination of grass, clay and interwoven sticks that made up the roof.

Imagine being in the house while Jesus is speaking. All of of a sudden there's scrabbling and dust. Some of the smaller bits of start falling through. "What on earth? Look out! Here comes a stretcher." I think Jesus is grinning from ear to ear at this point as he witnesses love in action. I think He'd be breathless with beauty of faithfulness and devotion. And healing must most certainly follow.

Later that day or early next morning four friends and their newly walking buddy return to the house to repair the roof. Their hearts are full, their eyes are shining. They went on an adventure of faith together and it was worth it all.

Maybe we all need to be a little more like them...

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