intimacy – Rev. Tim Ehrhardt

*Jesus heals and forgives a paralyzed man*

Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up 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 paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (New International Version)

“The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum of saints.”
Abigail Van Buren (“Dear Abby”)

Why does the Church exist? Why did Jesus come to this earth? What are we supposed to be doing? Does Christianity make any difference in this world? Why are we here?

The Church is not on this earth solely for the benefit of Christians, any more than a hospital exists for the benefit of the doctors or insurance companies.

Rather, the Church is designed to extend the mission of Jesus through proclamation of good news with the restorative touch of grace. The Church is the community of the redeemed, gathered together for worship and encouragement, and then sent into the world to be the continuing presence of Jesus on this earth.

This mean that the Church’s calling is not to find others who can help them with their tithing and budget, or to keep the pews warm with fresh bottoms.

Some folks are not healthy. Some are sick physically, and others spiritually. Even more are emotionally brokenhearted. And then there are those who are sick-and-tired of being sick-and-tired.

Please know that Jesus came neither to condemn nor heap a pile of unrealistic expectations on us. Christ points us to the source of healing and transformation, and invites us to come to him.

Conversely, there are many other people today who are healthy, spiritually alive, and have a good well-being. And they possess the opportunity to participate in ways that bring holistic healing to the world as Christians. The mission of Jesus is our mission, as well.

Jesus came to bring forgiveness and transformation. In today’s Gospel healing, it was a case where the person’s paralysis was both physical and spiritual. The paralytic found in Jesus healing of both body and soul.

The religious insiders observed the healing of the paralytic. Yet, they didn’t rejoice over it. Instead, they were hung up on Jesus claiming to be God. Although this may have been a hard truth to accept, Jesus labeled their response as evil – because of an inability to perceive the situation as a divine intervention. Since the religious insiders wrongly discerned who Jesus is, they wrongly interpreted the situation.

It’s important to see Jesus as the Human One who extends compassion and forgiveness. If we fail to see this about Christ, we will get caught up in all kinds of silly matters concerning personal preferences and power plays, based in how we think things should go, rather than how God is shaking out things.

Jesus came to forgive our guilt and shame. Healing the body is good, but it’s not enough. Christ came to heal both the body and the spirit. At the heart of the human condition is spiritual brokenness, and Jesus wants to remove the obstacle of sin and create a new healthy society. This is a radical vision which seeks to encompass all persons – which means Jesus touched many people overlooked by others.

Jesus came to call the despised people of society, the “sinners.” He called Matthew, a tax collector. Tax collectors were hated. They were corrupt characters who extorted money from innocent people. And furthermore, Jesus had dinner with Matthew, along with all of his unsavory buddies. This kind of behavior by Jesus was deeply offensive to upstanding citizens.

However, Jesus did not back down, saying that it’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. And he backed up his social actions with Scripture by encouraging offended folks to meditate on what the biblical phrase, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Hosea 6:6)

It is possible to engage in outward rituals of worship, do all the right things, fulfill duty, yet still miss the heart of what God wants for humanity. Mercy is what God wants. Jesus knew this. So, Christ entangled himself with sinners to bring spiritual healing and restoration.

If we want to see God deliver people from their unhealthy situations, we must entangle ourselves with them, into complicated lives that are not pretty, with persons who have been tainted by sin.

Lots of people are in awful predicaments. Christians, like their Lord, will need to get their hands dirty and their feet wet to extend Christ’s ministry of mercy and forgiveness.

The gospel was never intended to be proclaimed from afar, but up close and personal. The merciful mission of Jesus requires the following three activities:

Intimacy with Jesus. Engaging in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, giving, fasting, reading, and meditating on Scripture. These practices help us to know Christ better and how to respond with mercy.
Intimacy with fellow believers. We are hard-wired by God for community. Superficial relationships only provide superficial community. Christians need to help one another with spiritual growth, and to hold one another accountable for the mission of Christ.
Intimacy with “sinners.” This world is filled with sick, needy, hurting, and lonely people who are locked in unhealthy patterns of living. They need a merciful change of life that comes from the merciful Jesus acting through merciful Christians.

Mercy, not judgment, is at the heart of all change. For things to be different, we must be acquainted with mercy.

Most merciful God, we confess we have sinned against you in thought, word, deed, and neglect. We have not held fast to your commandments and have strayed from your teachings. We turn away from self-centered actions and pride. For the sake of your Son, Jesus, have mercy on us and forgive us so that we are released from all sinful obstacles. Empower us with your wisdom, revelation, and discernment so that we might be your merciful hands, feet, and words to one another and those who do not yet know you. Amen.

Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper. While he was there, a woman came to him. She had an alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. She poured the perfume on Jesus’ head while he was eating.

The followers saw the woman do this and were upset at her. They said, “Why waste that perfume? It could be sold for a lot of money, and the money could be given to those who are poor.”

But Jesus knew what happened. He said, “Why are you bothering this woman? She did a very good thing for me. You will always have the poor with you. But you will not always have me. This woman poured perfume on my body. She did this to prepare me for burial after I die. The Good News will be told to people all over the world. And I can assure you that everywhere the Good News is told, the story of what this woman did will also be told, and people will remember her.” (Easy-to-Read Version)

It seems that much of the world’s default response to events right in front of their eyes is to be judgmental, binary, and negative – as if everything is a simple sum of right and wrong, good and bad – and all adjudicated by our perceptions and perspectives on it.

The disciples reflexively moralized the actions of the woman and her jar of expensive perfume. What a waste, they believed. They thought they knew better and could do better.

But there was more going on in today’s Gospel lesson than what meets the eye. In the Apostle John’s account, the woman in the story is identified as Mary, a woman with a sordid background who had her life transformed through meeting Jesus. (John 12:1-11)

Near the end of Christ’s life, as he was about to enter Jerusalem and be arrested, tried, tortured, and killed, this woman, Mary, is aware of what is happening when others are not, even the disciples of Jesus. Her own brokenness cracked open to her the true reality of life.

The surface event itself is a touching and tender moment in history. This woman, whom everyone knew was a damaged person, took a high-end perfume and broke the entire thing open. She then proceeded to anoint Christ’s feet with it. You can imagine the aroma which filled the entire house with expensive perfume for all to smell.

The woman, Mary, was affirmed by Jesus for seeing the situation as a possibility and opportunity of loving her Lord. Mary alone had the vision amongst all the disciples, and the accompanying action, to enter through the door of risk in order to connect intimately and lovingly with Jesus.

Mary’s love, radiating outward for all to see, reflected the genuine love of God for the world – a love so great that Jesus would soon experience death and burial because of that love for humanity.

The disciples were grumping and cursing about the right way to do things; whereas Jesus blessed the woman with no reference whatsoever to morality or ethics. Mary had no concern for playing the numbers game and counting money, but instead focused on the ultimate value before her.

Giving what she had to Jesus, Mary demonstrated the path of true discipleship. She helps open our eyes to the realities which are right in front of us:

The broken jar of perfume shows us her brokenness and our need to be broken. (Matthew 5:3-4)
An extraordinary and extravagant amount of perfume was used, picturing her overflowing love for Jesus. (John 20:1-18)
The perfume was poured on the head of Jesus, and she herself used her hair as the application (according to John); hair is a rich cultural symbol for submission and respect. (1 Corinthians 11:14)
The perfume directs us to the death of Jesus. (John 19:38-42)
The perfume highlights for us the aroma of Christ to the world. (2 Corinthians 2:15-17)
There is more to the disciples’ response than mere words about perfume; the Apostle John specifically names Judas as questioning this action – the one who is not actually concerned for the poor. (Matthew 26:15)
The woman and the disciples (specifically, Judas and Mary) serve as spiritual contrasts: Mary opens herself to the sweet aroma of Christ; Judas just plain stinks.
The perfume presents a powerful picture of the upcoming death of Christ, for those with eyes to see; he was broken and poured out for our salvation. (Luke 23:26-27:12)

Christianity was never meant to be a surface religion which only runs skin deep. The follower of Christ is meant to be transformed, inside and out, so that there is genuine healing, spiritual wellness, and authentic concern for the poor and needy.

Keeping up appearances is what the Judas’s of this world do. However, the Mary’s among us dramatically point to Jesus with their tears, their humility, their openness, and their love.

In this contemporary environment of fragmented human ecology, our first step toward wholeness and integrity begins with a posture of giving everything we have – body, soul, and spirit – to the Lord Jesus. In receiving the love of God, we can then freely give that love to a world locked in the shackles of tunnel vision, judgmentalism, and incessant moralizing.

To take the risk of breaking ourselves open and becoming vulnerable, we find love. In finding love, there we see intimacy. And where there is intimacy, there is the relational connection which transforms the dark and the negative to possibility and light.

Loving Lord Jesus, my Savior, and my friend, you have gone before us and pioneered deliverance from an empty way of life and into a life of grace and gratitude. May I, and all of your followers, emulate the path of Mary and realize the true freedom which comes from emptying oneself out for you. Amen.