The second chapter of the Gospel of Mark begins to illustrate the parallel messages of the life of Christ. One thread of the tapestry begins to show us the nature of who Christ was and the demands he faced being fully human and fully divine. The other thread continues to weave the message that Jesus came to share, a timeless message of freedom and love that is still relevant here in our modern world.
We saw in the previous chapter how Jesus ordered both a man he healed of leprosy and an evil spirit not to reveal Christ's divine nature (Mark 1:44 and Mark 1:25 respectively.) While the evil spirit obeyed, the man cured of leprosy did not and, as a result Jesus, "could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places." (Mark 1:45) "A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door." (Mark 2:1) We can accurately assume that Christ snuck into town as we know that Christ "could no longer enter a town openly" and that "News about Him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee." (Mark 1:28) What we don't often consider is what sort of sacrifice this had on Jesus as a man.
The image painted of Jesus in the scriptures is of a deeply emotional, tremendously passionate individual. Even within just the first two chapters of the Gospel of Mark, Christ speaks "sternly" (Mark 1: 25), was "filled with compassion" (Mark 2: 41), and issued a "strong warning" (Mark 2:43). By the end of chapter three we'll add an angry look and deep distress (Mark 3:5). It is Christ who told his disciples, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," as he prayed at Gethsemane. (Mark 14:34)
We often look at the Gospels as a message delivered by Christ and the crucifixion as the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. What we fail to recognize is that Christ made sacrifices on a daily basis for us.
Here was a passionate man with incredible emotional depth. Like all people of that personality type, Jesus almost certainly was overwhelmed with the depth of what he felt and needed time alone to maintain His emotional balance, recharge, and let go of the constant bombardment of being a servant of all. We see in Mark 1:35 that Christ didn't simply get up to pray to begin his day. "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." He needed the alone time. And what's more, Jesus didn't tell anyone where He was going. This is made clear in verse 36 when Simon and his companions "went to look for Him, and when they found Him exclaimed, 'Everyone is looking for you!'" What's even more interesting is that Jesus chose not to return to town with them but replied, “Let us go somewhere else - to the nearby villages - so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” (Mark 1: 38)
At first glance, we might think that Jesus was running away from the crowds, that He simply had had enough and needed to get away. Instead, Jesus chose to follow the path that had been laid before Him and continue to spread His message even though it would create the one thing He had the most difficulty handling - an overwhelming wave of people constantly wanting more from Him.
Looking at the situation chronologically, we see that the news about Christ quickly spread over the entire region. (Mark 1:28) The evening of what was apparently the first Sabbath teaching that Jesus gave at the synagogue, the entire town gathered at the door of the house where Jesus was staying (Mark 1:33.) His response? Christ healed the sick and cast out demons (Mark 1:34) presumably well into the night as the town didn't gather until after sunset (Mark 1:32.) Needing some time alone to pray, Jesus slipped out of the house before first light, only to have Simon and his companions track Him down (Mark 1:35-37.) The people flocked to Christ in such numbers that by Mark 1:45 "Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to Him from everywhere." A few days later (Mark 2:2), "So many gathered [outside the home that Jesus had presumably entered that day] that there was no room left, not even outside the door." Jesus retreated to a lake (Mark 2:13) where, "A large crowd came to Him, and He began to teach them."
And it's about this time that the Pharisees and teachers of the law began to hound Christ. They accused Him of blaspheming in Mark 2:7, challenged Him for eating with "sinners" (Mark 2:16), and accused Jesus and His disciples of breaking Sabbath law (Mark 2:24.) By Mark 3:6, they were already plotting how they could kill Jesus. In other words, not only were constant demands being put upon Christ, but He was also being regularly confronted by men with so much vileness in their hearts that they were clearly intent on murdering Him. Even John the Baptist's followers confronted Christ for not having His disciples fast when the followers of both John the Baptist and the Pharisees were fasting (Mark 2:18.)
I don't know about you, but if I were in Christ's shoes, I'd be sorely tempted to say, "Wait a minute. You guys follow John the Baptist, right? He came to make the way ready for me, not the other way around. Back off! Do you realize that I haven't had a moment alone since I began this ministry? Every time I try to stay in a house and sleep in an actual bed the entire town shows up and I'm up half the night healing people and casting out evil spirits. And the Pharisees? They want me dead. I can see it in their eyes and their words drip with malice. You and your master are supposed to be on my side. Don't you dare question me or my followers. Got that?"
But Jesus didn't come in a spirit of self-interest. He came in a spirit of love. And while the demands that were placed upon Him would have certainly taken their toll as he was not only fully divine, but fully man, Christ set aside His own needs time and time again to minister and teach those who came to Him in a constant flood. He was clearly not immune to the stress and heartache of His path. This was a man who uttered the phrase, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." And yet He loved us enough to put us first and bring us a message of love and freedom.
We not only need to be receptive to the message that Christ bought, but transform our own lives to embody that message. In Mark 2:19-20 Jesus teaches, "'No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.'"
It isn't enough that we simply accept Jesus into our lives. We cannot be followers of Christ and seek to embody His love without first being willing to change our lives, how we interact with other people, and who we are as individuals. Jesus is not a patch to cover over a hole we've made in the garment of our psyche. He is not something to fill us up when we are feeling empty. We do not continue in our previous ways, but change ourselves so that we seek to be the very embodiment of love, much as Christ was the embodiment of love.
Christ made it clear in Mark 2:25-27 that the spiritual guidelines we use in this process should encourage our growth, not limit it. We read in verse 27, "Then He said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'" In other words, the guidelines we follow on our path to embody Christ's love were made for us and should be followed when they enable us to become better servants of Christ. When they hinder us from drawing closer to Jesus, when they hinder us from truly being a reflection of Christ's love, then those same guidelines should be discarded. In other words, the laws that are laid out within the scriptures are there to help us grow; we were not created to follow those laws.
And what are we seeking to gain by following the scriptures? Love. Returning to 1 John 4:7, we are reminded that God is love. That if we truly love, then we are born of God. But what is love?
Paul does an exceptional job of describing love in 1 Corinthians13:4-7. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not selfseeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
This isn't permission from Christ to discard spiritual laws when it's convenient for us to do so. It's permission to set them aside when they prevent us from being the embodiment of Christ's love. Jesus actually gives us a higher standard to reach for than most Christians realize. We need to transform ourselves to be the full embodiment of love. It's not enough that He pours the wine of His love into us; we must become new wineskins to hold that love. In other words we need to change and embody that love, not with our words, but with our lives and who we are. Jesus didn't give us clearance to dismiss the laws reflected in the scriptures at will, but rather to develop wisdom and discernment and have love be our guide, not man's interpretation of what love should be.