Pattern Interrupt

I was once trained a technique to make telephone sales calls, called 'pattern interrupt'.  The idea was to not sound like every other telephone sales 'cold call', and catch the person 'off guard' and maybe get them talking.  It was cheesy, but it worked.  If you want to not be ignored, be different. We tend to filter out things that fall into uninteresting patterns.

In the gospel of Mark, chapter 2, we see Jesus starting His ministry by acting unexpectedly.  He teaches "a new teaching with authority!" (Mark 1:27), He has the miraculous ability to heal sick people, His disciples don't fast because He says He is 'the bridegroom' who is present (Mark 2:18-22), He hangs out with sinners and hated tax collectors, preferring them to the self-identified 'righteous' - the insiders (Mark 2:13-17), and He even turns holy tradition on it's head by declaring that the prescribed day of rest (Sabbath) was created to serve humankind, rather than to rule humankind.  He is seriously different!  All the patterns are being interrupted.

What catches my attention is the much loved story of four faithful men bringing their paralyzed friend to Jesus and having to dig a hole in the roof above Jesus to even reach Him because of the crowds. (That always seems comical to me - the picture of Jesus calmly continuing to teach while plaster falls from the ceiling into His hair!).  The obvious need presented to Jesus is for Him to heal the paralyzed man of his physical condition.  We'd expect this gracious compassionate Jesus to heal the man.  We are not entirely surprised (now that we are in the second chapter of Mark!) to read the paralyzed man came in by the roof, but walked out the door!  But...Jesus sees things in an unexpected way.

Jesus first tells the man that his sins are forgiven.  Mark teaches us the theological point that only God can forgive sins, so Jesus is proclaiming Himself as God!  That's outrageous enough and the religious insiders are scandalized by this.  The kicker is...Jesus says it is harder for Him to forgive a man's sins than to heal him of being paralyzed. Woah!  Really?

I always thought it was simple for God to forgive me of my sins (i.e. my disobedience towards God, selfishness, ignoring God, pleasing myself and not God etc.).  Surely it's just a word and a nod, right?  Apparently not - there is more to it than just a royal declaration from God. Huh. This forgiving is hard for God - harder than even curing chronic disease?

Perhaps the hint is in that odd 'bridegroom will be taken away from them' statement in verse 20.  Jesus is starting out His public ministry with one eye on the end of His public ministry - the goal of His whole earthly life - the dreadful political/religious execution - the terrible cross.   The religious insiders understood that in their day and culture, to get forgiveness of sin, you had to take a healthy animal to the temple and have the priests slaughter it.  It was costly, time consuming and rather socially embarrassing, but that was the procedure. Jesus knows there is another side to the transaction however, a side so weighty that the Old Testament wanted the Jews to see actual blood being spilled to help them understand its awful gravity: death.

The Bible throughout teaches us that sin is a relational death - essentially a break in relationship with God, Who is the source of our life.  Our sin separates us from Life Himself - God, and thus causes us death.  Relational death, spiritual death, the death of joy, and in a profoundly mysterious way, even the inevitable death of our physical bodies. Sin equals death.  To forgive sin, then, is to undo death, to break death, to overwhelm it with Life.  Life (God) has to bring death within himself, and thus defeat it, and eliminate it.  This is actually the work of God (who else could even think of doing it?).  This is the work of forgiveness.  It takes God more than we can readily imagine or understand to forgive our sin - to take our death from us, and to give us back a deathless-life instead.

Yes, the paralytic walked out the door.  His physical restoration was only a token - an illustration of a much more profound healing.  He was forgiven.   We can be forgiven.  We can be made alive again.  Jesus called Levi to follow Him, and He calls us still.  We can respond, we can follow Jesus and in following, turn from our sin and find new life - forgiveness.