Jeshua, Son of Mary. H. D. Kreilkamp
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does Christ’s call to penance and turning to God urge us to consider seriously for our lives the good news he proclaimed? Are we open to the Spirit and to God’s revelation when the Voice from heaven proclaimed Jeshua as his beloved son?
Chapter 2
Mark’s account of the good news shows why Jeshua attracted large crowds of people. He was like a breath of fresh air. He said cheerful things, even while answering his critics who were scrupulous about Jewish laws, which they interpreted much more strictly than did Jeshua. They scrutinized whatever Jeshua did and said. That didn’t surprise him. Mark tells us that whenever Jeshua was moved with compassion over someone or some situation, he made life better for those overburdened by it. The legal experts took offence at the freedom with which he interpreted the law to the benefit of people’s needs.
Here, in the house where Jeshua lived at the beginning of his public life—we aren’t sure whose house it was, his own or Simon’s—something happened that no one expected. As relayed in chapter 1, it was an event that some people must have considered to be outrageous. There was such a crowd in and around the house that people outside couldn’t even get near the door to catch a glimpse of Jeshua, much less get near enough to touch him or have him lay his hands on them. Four men showed up carrying a paralytic. When they saw the crowd they decided to do something drastic to get him in.
The house, like many in those days, was a simple one. It probably had a flat roof, which probably could have been accessed using an outside stairway. So up the stairs the four of them must have gone, hauling the paralytic on a stretcher. If they couldn’t bring the paralytic into house through a ground entrance, they would lower him down through the roof! Not finding an easy way, they began tearing a hole in the roof. We can imagine what a stir this must have caused those inside the house—and the murmuring that began there, perhaps with protests. Jeshua, however, wasn’t disturbed by the break in. He remained cool. Instead, he marveled at the faith of the five of them; the four men letting down the paralytic on a stretcher and the paralytic himself. Jeshua simply said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven!”
What a stunning remark that undoubtedly was for all in the room! It touched a nerve in the minds of some. The scribes, for instance, being experts on the law of Moses didn’t share Christ’s cool assertion of an authority that only God had. (It’s good to remember also that in those days people seriously afflicted with some illness were considered stricken because of some sin they had done.) “Who but God alone,” they thought, “can forgive sins?” Perhaps some of them scowled. Jeshua read their thoughts, that he was doing something only God could do: forgive sins. So Jeshua responded to their thoughts: “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?” he asked them. “Which is easier to say to the paralytic: ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk?’” (2:9).
We can almost hear their hearts thumping, and feel their rage. (Oh, some of them thought, it’s easy for anyone just to say such words, but it is still blasphemy.) We can imagine the silence in the room, and their speechlessness, as Jeshua continued looking at them. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth.” He then said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat and go home.” (2:11).
We can almost hear the gasp that escaped from the crowd when the paralytic stood, picked up his mat, and left, making his way through the crowd. Most of them were probably jubilant at seeing the paralytic healed, picking up his mat, and leaving. But the faces of the scribes must have blanched as they watched this spectacle. What rejoicing there must have been, nonetheless, among most of the people in the house as they gave glory to God. Never had they ever seen such a thing! The whole incident was so impressive that they never forgot it. It’s one of the many stories about the good news of Jeshua that, once you’ve heard it, you can’t forget it. It’s a story that stands at the head of many similar wonders that Jeshua worked among the people while proclaiming the good news, and it set a joyful tone to many of the subsequent wonders worked by his command.
Another occurrence took place along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Jeshua saw a person, Levi by name, who had been ostracized because his occupation was taking in taxes. This work made Levi a “collaborator” with the Romans, an occupying power in Palestine at the time, and the Jews not only detested Levi but placed him “off limits” within Jewish society. Nonetheless, Jeshua called Levi to leave his customs post to come and follow him. Levi rose, left his table as a tax collector, and followed him. Levi then celebrated his new fellowship with Jeshua by inviting his friends to dine with him. To the dinner came many tax collectors and others who were also considered collaborators of the Romans and sinners.
Jeshua often attracted people from different strata of society, especially those on the fringes. Some scribes saw Jeshua with Levi and his crowd of cronies, and asked, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jeshua overheard their remark and said aloud, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (2:17). This statement was yet more words from Jeshua that describe beautifully the meaning of his life. Like a physician, he made himself available to people in need, like Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, the paralytic man, and the ostracized. Likewise, people in need of healing were drawn to him from all over Galilee.
There were also some questions raised in Galilee about Jeshua’s lifestyle. First, there was the question raised by one segment of the Jews, the Pharisees, about why Jeshua’s followers didn’t fast. The followers of John the Baptist and the followers of the Pharisees observed this ritual. To these critics Jeshua replied with a question that also encouraged the mood of joy in his admirers: “Can wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?”
There’s a joy implied here that we find among all the followers of Jeshua, the joy that pervades a wedding (John in his gospel described the wedding at Cana that Jeshua and his disciples attended). A sense of joy accompanied all the wonders Jeshua performed. No, people at weddings don’t fast, and the presence of Jeshua at weddings more than doubled their enjoyment of the meal. But take away the groom from a marriage or a newly wedded bride, and you can expect mourning and fasting. There were added implications here for what was ahead, not only for Jeshua himself, but also for his disciples.
Some of the sayings of Jeshua in this chapter of Mark’s gospel are like those in the book of Proverbs. However, these simple sayings imply reasons why Jeshua chose the men he did to proclaim the good news he came to spread. First, there’s the saying, “Nobody sews a piece of new, non-shrunken cloth on an old cloak” (2:21). This is common sense, of course: when any old cloak gets patched and then wet, when it begins to dry, any new patch sewn onto the old cloak will tear away. Jeshua also said that “No one pours new wine into old wine skins” (2:22–23). Christ had new things to say, refreshingly new sayings about many things, so he chose his disciples from among everyday workmen—fishermen, and even a tax collector—the sort of men who did not require him to contend with old, worn out cloaks, skins, and thought patterns. He breathed fresh ideas unencumbered by stale sayings.
The Pharisees remained unconvinced. They criticized Jeshua’s disciples for walking through the fields where they sometimes used their fingers to strip the heads of ripened wheat grain from their stalks and then eat the seeds. What’s more, the disciples did this on the Sabbath. This was something forbidden by law, the scribes insisted.
However, Jewish law did not forbid this. In Deuteronomy 23:25 we read, “When you go through your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pluck some of the ears with your hand . . .” though you weren’t allowed to take in hand a sickle to harvest them. “Trivia pursuit,” you say? Not exactly, for the scribes and Pharisees were scrupulous about observing the prescriptions of the law. Eating a neighbor’s grain, especially on the Sabbath, was an offense to their conservative sensibilities. Jeshua’s followers were liberals, not lawbreakers. They knew that plucking and eating grain while they walked with him through the fields were neither acts of thievery nor violations of the Sabbath law. Such simple acts were allowed by the Jewish Scriptures. The disciples knew this. Jeshua knew this. The scribes and Pharisees knew this.
Yet the Pharisees were still critical. So, Jeshua recalled for his critics how David didn’t