yes he can

Today as I read through Mark 2, the confusion of the Jewish religious leaders portrayed seemed comical. Look at these examples:

“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 this paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up, take your mat and walk”? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.’ So he said to the man, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’” (Verses 6-11.)

“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.’” (Verses 15-17.)

“Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, ‘How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?’

Jesus answered, ‘How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.’” (Verses 18-20.)

“One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?’

“. . . . Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’” (Verses 23, 27&28.)

Over and over again, these doctrinal and legal experts sputtered, “You can’t do that!” And every time Jesus responded, in essence, in the same way: “Of course I can. You don’t get who I am. I have authority to forgive sins because I’m the prophesied Son of Man, and because I can forgive sins, I’m here for sinners. And all your laws about fasting and Sabbath observance are meant to make you fit to approach God, and yet in me God has approached you.”

I’m reminded of a church I visited once where an elder made a young man take his sunglasses off the top of his head in church. That young man’s demeanor turned sullen and stayed that way throughout the service. It seemed to me that elder prevented a son of the church from worshipping by enforcing a ticky-tack man-made rule.

Do we ever do that? Maybe. But we don’t when we look to Jesus’ life as our example. Jesus always, as in these passages, did what best served the peoples’ relationship with God. His heart was always for the individual, not for the institution.

There’s a lesson there for the church.