"To Save a Life!"
Falling in Love with Jesus…all over again! An epic journey through the Gospel of Mark (message #17)
Pastor Jerry Ingalls
May 22, 2011
The Word of God from Mark 3:1-6 (NAU), "He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. 2 They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 He said to the man with the withered hand, "Get up and come forward!" 4 And He said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?" But they kept silent. 5 After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him." [Prayer]
We have so much to learn from watching the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and essentially that is what discipleship is all about…to follow in the footsteps of our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In today's Scripture lesson, Jesus Christ is encountering the final of five controversies where His ministry comes in direct conflict with the traditions and ways of the Jewish religious system. This controversy is whether or not to save a life on the Sabbath Day.
There are five things Jesus models for us if we are serious about following Him and want to be used by the Holy Spirit to be healing agents in people's lives. IN ORDER TO SAVE A LIFE, WE MUST:
1) BE WILLING TO STICK OUT OUR NECKS!
Mark 3:1-2, "He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. They [the Pharisees] were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him."
Whether this is the same Sabbath day (as Matthew 12:9-14 indicates) or the following week (as Luke 3:1-6 indicates), Mark does not indicate, but we do know that Jesus was on the Pharisees' most wanted list of Sabbath Law-Breakers. In the forth controversy narrative in Mark 2:24 we read, "The Pharisees were saying to Him, 'Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?'"
Bottom line: Jesus was walking into what was becoming one of the most dangerous places possible for Him to enter—the synagogue. Not only was He walking into the lion's den, but these lions were watching Him knowing that He would be unable to resist healing a man with a withered hand—He was walking into an ambush. Little did they know that they were coming up against the Lion of Judah and the trap was really to reveal the injustice and hatred within their own hearts. In order to save a life, Jesus was willing to stick out His neck for another person! Are you? Who or what are you willing to put yourself in danger for? Are you willing to stand up against injustice?
IN ORDER TO SAVE A LIFE, WE MUST:
2) BE MOTIVATED BY LOVE!
Mark 3:3 continues, "He said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and come forward!'"
It is amazing to me that the Pharisees knew that Jesus would be unable to not help this man with a withered hand, yet they could not see Him for who He really was—the Son of God, the Messiah who had come to save their lives, just as much as all these sinners they detested.
Saint Jerome (4th Century Church Doctor) found an ancient fragment of this story that recorded the man with a withered hand saying to Jesus, "I was a mason, who earned his bread with his hands. I beg you, Jesus, to restore to me my health, so that I need not beg for food in shameful fashion." This man's life altering and debilitating condition had truly stolen his life, his dignity, and his place within society. Jesus was motivated by love to call the man forward; He could not ignore what compassion compelled Him to do!
In the same way, God was motivated by love when He sent Jesus Christ to save humanity through His life, death, and resurrection. God's love saves and now we are called to save others with this same love. 1 John 4:19-21 declares, "We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also."
"God is love" and love wins when we allow God's love to motivate us to reach out and save a life. How does God's love motivate you to reach out to a person in need?
IN ORDER TO SAVE A LIFE, WE MUST:
3) KNOW THE VALUE OF LIFE!
Mark 3:4 captures when the Lion of Judah reverses the ambush and exposes the Pharisees for who they are (sinners who need Jesus!), "And He said to them, 'Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?' But they kept silent."
As I meditated, studied, and prayed through this Scripture I found that the deepest issue in this story is not whether or not it was lawful for Jesus to heal on the Sabbath day, although that is of course the obvious issue. Let me explain, the Scribes did make an allowance to do good or heal on the Sabbath as long as it was truly a life or death situation that could not be delayed by a day. Listen to a similar occasion when Jesus healed a woman bent over by a demon, from Luke 13:14-16, "But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, 'There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.' But the Lord answered him and said, 'You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?'"
The Scribes had regulated the practice of medicine and healing on the Sabbath down to the smallest detail. It was an acceptable legal principle that "any danger to life takes precedence over the Sabbath." According to this, Jesus had legal right to heal on the Sabbath, but the Pharisees did not see this man's withered hand, nor the woman's demonic possession for 18 years, as life or death situations! So, they opposed and protested His actions!
What we have here is a difference in opinion on the sanctity of life! I believe we continue to see this same issue today amongst believers (Sanctity of Life is more than opposing abortion, just like Christianity is more than just making sure you've gotten saved!). Jesus came to usher in the Kingdom of God and to give people eternal life today. Every disease, demon possession, injustice, and religious abuse was incompatible with eternal life—the abundant life promised in John 10:10—so Jesus Christ (moved with compassion & motivated by love) had only one option that was acceptable to Him and His Father—to preach the gospel to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord (Luke 4:18-19). This is the mission of the Messiah and our purpose in life as His disciples—to be the hands and feet of Christ in today's world who care for the entire life of a person (from conception to eternal life). We are not to just care for people when their physical life is at risk; we are to care for their emotional well being, their spiritual state, their physical health (nutrition and fitness), their relationships, their finances…THE WHOLE PERSON! Do you believe in the sanctity of life?
IN ORDER TO SAVE A LIFE, WE MUST:
4) ACT IN THE BEST INTEREST OF OTHERS!
Mark 3:5 is action-packed, "After looking around at them with anger [STOP, don't read through this too quickly…it may just offend the idealized and sanitary vision of Jesus you hold sacred in your mind…Jesus was fully human, yet He did not sin, but He did get angry on more than one occasion, but it was not His anger that caused Him to act, it was His love and His care for human life!], grieved [another very real human emotion that we must each deal with, but once again Jesus feels a human emotion without allowing it to cause Him to sin] at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored."
Jesus' anger was the expressed anger of God toward their attitudes and their greater concern for the legality of His actions rather than the value of a human life. God grieved that His children knew Him well enough to trap Him in a situation that would cause Him to have to act because of His very nature of love, compassion, and mercy toward another of His children, yet they themselves had no love, compassion, or mercy for anyone or anything outside of their own rules and regulations. They were truly hard-hearted blind guides who loved their own view of God, but when confronted with God Himself they rejected and hated and plotted to kill Him!
Are you in love with this Jesus—the wild Messiah—as experienced in the Gospels or are you in love with the popular and somewhat harmless view of Church Jesus?
Let's learn from the Jesus of the Gospels, even in the midst of His anger and grief at the Pharisees, Jesus still did the right thing—He acted in the best interest of this man who had lost His livelihood. How about us? Can we choose to act in the best interest of others regardless of how we are feeling or our circumstances?
If we all had to wait until we "felt like" helping others then the world would be…WAIT…the world is in the condition it is in today because Christians have been waiting until we "felt like" acting in the best interest of others. Listen to the Bible exhort us from Philippians 2:3, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves." We are to act like Jesus!
Do you reach out to the walking wounded and spiritually dead of our community? Are you willing to take action even when there is nothing in it for you?
IN ORDER TO SAVE A LIFE, WE MUST: first, be willing to stick out our necks, second, be motivated by love, third, know the value of life, fourth, act in the best interest of others, and finally 5) DO IT EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW THERE WILL ALWAYS BE OPPOSITION TO SHARING THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST!
Mark 3:6 concludes this story with the culmination of all five controversy narratives that points to the Cross and the Passion of the Christ, "The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him."
Jesus knew He was walking into a dangerous place, but He went anyways. Jesus knew that to heal this man on the Sabbath would continue to drive a wedge between His ministry and the established religious leaders of the Jewish synagogue, but He healed anyways.
The sad reality of our text today is that it exposes the dangerous depths of our human sin nature (depravity) and the bad fruit of sin that we each are fully capable of, especially in religious fervor to protect our well worn methods and mindsets. In the name of piety, the Pharisees had become insensitive both to the purposes of God and to the suffering of men. Blinded by their pursuit for righteousness, they plotted murder and associated with men they hated—the Herodians, both acts (according to their own laws) unlawful on the Sabbath Day. As Jesus questioned them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?" (4).
The reality is that when we (you and I) commit ourselves to intentionally following Jesus Christ by making disciples, then we too will face opposition when we serve and help others—when reach out to save a life! The sad thing is, that sometimes that opposition will even be from other Christians. But, if you are willing to join me, we'll do it anyways! Why? Because that's what Jesus would do and I'm His witness! Listen to 1 John 3:16, "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
Obedience to the Way of Jesus Christ is motivated by love—we should be healing agents in people's lives because that is exactly what Jesus Christ does for us!
[response]
Have you experienced the power of God's love when He saved your life? If you have not yet experienced this great love, then today you are being invited to experience the true source of love and life—a relationship with God in Jesus Christ!
Are you ready to extend God's love to others? Let us pray together for the Lord to empower us with love…
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