Paralyzed No More (Mark 2:1-12.)

Through the magic of imagination, I was able to capture an interview with the man who was healed after being totally paralyzed.  I think you may have heard his story before. It can also be found in Mark 2:1-12.  You might even be able to catch the periodic poetic rhyming in this man's speech. Enjoy the story.

 

I had forgotten what it was like to walk,

to be able to care for myself

and go where I wanted;

to run through the village

and into the meadow

where the sight of softly swaying stalks of sun-drenched grains

fill your heart with delight.

I’d forgotten even what it was like to walk across the cool shuttered rooms

to the kitchen to join with my brothers,

and any others

who were there, eating eye to eye.  

They brought me my food upon a tray

And set me where I would not be in the way

They carried me.  My brothers, they had to carry me! 

Them and my friend Ya’acov who still remembers when we played tag

among the trees and scooped tadpoles

from the trickling stream

and told each other stories until the fires turned to glowing embers. 

But everything was different today.

They gave me no choice, ignoring my voice

of dissention. I had no say.

Today, they say, we are gong to see the Healer, that Yeshua, the one from Nazareth. 
Miracles, they tell me

and their voices ring with excited intentions

to make me one of them.

I don’t want to go, I tell them.

but they were so sure

and since I could not get off my bed

I was borne along in dread

to the destination the others

had determined for me.

Crowds of people barricaded the door

with no intentions of letting them carry me in.

Though I begged to go home,

I knew they would win

over my protests

and my pleading would fall upon deaf ears.

Then I heard cheers from within the house:

“He hears!  He hears!”

As someone was freed from a life of deafness.

by this Yeshua, this healer from Nazareth.

Always somebody else, I thought.

I swallowed the familiar sense of failure

That had been my daily bread

Ever since That Day.

There is no way I told myself,

to be free of That Day,
Not anymore

I told myself

I’ll have to pay

And live out my days

upon this litter,

causing others to bear this bitter task

– me as the burden they had to carry.

I was shaken from my self-absorbing reverie

And jostled on my bed

as I was lifted high above their heads.

My brothers, who with uplifted arms

pulled me with ropes they found somewhere,

up into the air, past the windows,

and clearing the cross beams to the roof above where Ya’acov was waiting 

I settled with a thud

and then wondered

if being this high made me any closer to God.

I marveled that they’d done it,

and that they’d cared for me this much

that each would play a part to bring me here.

They had such hope, I knew,

but the thought of further failure

caused me to fear of disappointing them again

and brought panic

to my already pounding heart.

Now what? I asked them tentatively

afraid of what they intended next

concerned they would ask something of me

I could not give them.

But they knew what I could not do.

They knew all too well

without my having to tell them

what was racing through my mind.

Then dirt was flying here and there.

and I was tasting dust

but I could only watch

as they dug a hole after lifting off the thatch.

Oh, how I wished that we were home.

“Hey! What’s going on?” shouted someone

from below.  I just wanted to go.

But there surely was no way to make them stop. If only I could just hop

off this bed and fly away.

But it was clear I’d have to stay

and see this through

whatever my brothers and Ya’acov

were determined to do.

And then again with the ropes they’d found

they lowered me down upon my bed

to just in front of the Man who stood and said

something about how much faith my brothers had   
to be so determined that they’d bring the lad
to Him through a hole in the roof.

He seemed not annoyed but delighted,

even touched by this act

of what He called courageous faith.

His words about faith stirred something inside me.

All of a sudden I knew that I could face whatever would happen.

Somehow I sensed there would be no disgrace, the very thing I feared the most.

He bent down to talk with me at my level

and His eyes, His eyes – what color were they?

I cannot recall, for all colors seemed to be

at home in Him,

as if in His eyes – in those eyes

He Himself was also everyone else,

and even me.

I can’t explain what I seemed to see.

But then, He looked into my own eyes

as if He saw the core of me

And He said to me,

“Son, your sins are forgiven.”

At this the crowd grew quiet. Deafeningly silent.

But I was not concerned with them.

I could only try and grasp what He just said.

Forgiven? The words ricocheted around my head.

My thoughts came so quickly.

Suddenly I was back on That Day

when my poor choice had sent me

hurling down an emotional ravine

that had left me reeling

and so devastated, I could hardly move.

How could I have let it happen like that? 

I was powerless against it.

And afterwards, I had lain there in my misery

in darkened silence for so long

that when I tried to move

I couldn’t. And since

even the thought, even a flicker of remembrance of That Day would

bring me such dismay

that it kept me paralyzed inside

as if part of me had died

and the rest of me was in mourning

And unable to rise.

Forgiven, He said.  He’s forgiven me of my sin.

How can He do that? He’s just another man.

But I looked again into His eyes - His eyes

and saw reflected there myself as if my sin

was absorbed into His very being, and then

I knew that it was true

I knew I was forgiven

as if my sin had never been.

That Day, I knew, no longer had control of me

and, just like that, I was free to live again!

While I was still trying to process this

and have it all make sense to me

a discussion was going on with

some men wrapped in tallit.[1]

“So you will know” Yeshua said,

“that the Son of Man

can forgive the sins of men,”

He looked at me again and said,
“Son, take up your bed a walk.”

I had been so overwhelmed and awed

that my guilt had fled

I had forgotten I was still upon my bed.

I looked inside myself for the usual dread

and for the hopelessness but they were gone. 

Carefully I bent my knees

and slowly stood upon my legs.

which no longer felt like useless pegs.

Straightening up inch by inch,

I felt the strength

grow in my body.

I reached for His arm to steady me

but He had already reached for me

to be there as I needed Him

until I stood erect. 

The crowd cheered, at least most of them,

Though a few in the throng

scowled as if He’d done something wrong.

But I didn’t listen for long,

This was so right.

This was so good.

And from where I now stood

I lifted my arms to my brothers and Ya’acov

who peered down through the hole

in the roof above

where they’d watched from that height

and who now were cheering

with all of their might. 

With a love I’d never known before

I gave praise to my God

and great thanks to Yeshua.

“Pick up your bed and go home,” He said.

I gathered my litter under my arm

and climbed over the people in the room

who made room for me to walk

through the crowd as they cheered me on.

I ran – yes I ran – outside to Ya’acov and my brothers who met me there with great joy

and hugs that could smother. 

They lifted me off of the ground, spinning me around, then watched me walk and jump and leap in the sunshine.  When we finally  realized the time, I said,  “Come on. Let’s go home” and I began walking 

into my future where my life was waiting for me to begin again.

---

[1] Fringed prayer shawl.

The Gospel of Mark Through Jewish Eyes - Part 2

Shalom, Folks. I hope you had a good week. Thanks for joining me and the others who are a part of this online class.   Some of this lesson might seem a bit on the heavy side as I lay a foundation for where I believe God is taking us as we study the Gospel of Mark through Jewish eyes. We are taking a look outside of Mark's gospel today to how the people he knew might be somewhat bewildered by our "church" today. But take heart, Yeshua has overcome the world, and we are living in a day when God is overcoming some  erroneous doctrines and restoring the truth of His Word where it is needed. And in contrast to some past periods of church history, a renewed sweet sense of His presence is available to us as has not always been there. 

When Yeshua walked the earth and taught God's people, He was largely bringing correction to misunderstandings of God that had come about through what some well-intentioned men had added to the Scriptures. Some of those intentions in time became sufficiently entrenched as religious doctrines so that   when Yeshua came to bring clarity to God's word, His teachings challenged their religious rules which also served to challenge their positions of power. This news isn't news to us, of course, but it's still significant to consider because it serves to make us aware that we too must be careful not to hold onto cherished ways of "doing church" that God may be seeking to better align with His word and His ways.

What John the Immerser said he was bringing was a message to prepare for the coming Messiah, and then Yeshua Himself, through His teachings and acts brought to Israel truth and revelation that also prepared God's people, those with ears to hear, for what Yeshua's atoning death and resurrection accomplished. Could it be that what God is doing today, bringing truth where it has been corrupted, and restoring correct understanding to misinterpreted Scripture is also preparation for the fulfillment of His final redemptive plan for mankind? New-found insights into places in God's Word  that were unclear or confusing before and now being understood that may have been misinterpreted or identified as something that wasn't what was happening at all. But now we have information to inform us of what was really being said. We will be talking about a number of these as we go on in our study. These are helping to readjust some of our concepts of the Father and His Son in "Spirit and in truth" by revealing truth where text has been added or misinterpreted. Happily, we are living in a time when our God is restoring  the power of the truth of His word and it is being manifested in our lives once again with healing, signs and wonders and changed lives. How exiting is all that?!

My mind just went to what Moses must have felt as 'The God of All There Is' Himself gave him unprecedented insights from creation forward that would impact not only Israel but the whole world! No wonder he was so exasperated and angry when he saw the people worshiping an insignificant golden calf after being with the Almighty Creator of the world! This gives me the expectation that for those of us who will spend time with God and let Him impart to us Who He truly is, the foolish things we once saw as "gold" and of value will fall away so that we can see that only He is worthy of worship and being adored.  But back to Mark.   

Remember, this is the first writing of the story of Yeshua and Mark had to decide what to say. The challenge was not what to include but what to leave out as there was so much to say. Each thing he chose to put in the story he obviously felt was more meaningful than some other things he didn't include, in order to build a true picture of Messiah Yeshua.  Try to give some thought to Mark's motivation for wanting his readers to know this or that about Yeshua as we go on for some added insight into the story. Mark as the shortest of the four gospels seems clipped in speech and brief, as if Yeshua's always in a hurry. Not so. Mark uses the term ‘Immediately’ often which means more like “and then this happened.”

There is controversy as to whether this Mark is the John Mark of Acts or not. If so, then the believers would have been meeting in his home under his mother's hospitality, and so as a young man he would have seen or been a part of much of what the virgin church was experiencing, including when Peter came to the door after being put in jail and Rhoda thought it was Peter's ghost and not Peter himself at the door (Acts 12:12-16).  If he is that Mark, he would also have been the cousin of Barnabas who, being a Levite might mean that Mark also was a Levite and possibly came from a family of temple-serving priests (Acts 4:36). (There's so much in between the lines I wish we knew.)  Barnabas brought John Mark, now called just Mark, along on a mission trip with Paul (Colossians 4:10), only to have a falling out with Paul about Mark's behavior in some way, though later Paul asked for him to come to him saying that Mark "is useful to me in ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11). Evidently forgiveness for whatever happened put it behind them both. And we know that Mark traveled with Peter as well and heard all his stories which information, it is thought by scholars, is what Mark likely based a good bit of his gospel upon.

The sentence structure in Mark occasionally uses some Latin phraseology, “gospel” being one of them meaning good news, but the writing is more Hebrew in phrases and sentence structure, making Mark’s gospel undeniably Hebrew.  Even though Mark may have been addressing some Gentiles, he tells the story the way he heard it from Peter, and Peter certainly spoke as a Jew, telling the story of the Jewish Messiah to other Jews.  Keep in mind that Mark and the first century Jewish followers of Yeshua had every reason to believe that all who would come to the Lord – Jew or non-Jew – would see that Yeshua was the perfect embodiment of the Word of God given to Moses and the prophets, as there was nothing in Yeshua contrary to those teachings.  He fulfilled every Biblical prophecy pertaining to His life and lived His life as the quintessential Jew in every way.  The believers would have unquestionably thought, of course Yeshua would always be regarded as the fulfillment of the teachings God gave to Moses!  How could it be otherwise? 

These very teachings, known as the Torah defined for Israel how to live the highest quality of life on earth, free from selfishness and all that comes about as a result of it; free from the guilt of sin, and a way to live under the protection and provision of God. It also told of how this One God created the world - a good thing to know - so there is to be no worship of any other (false) gods. No other nation had anything close to this way of life.  So of course those early believers in Yeshua would expect nothing different of anyone who would come to trust in Israel’s Messiah.  As we read through Mark, consider that all that Yeshua lived out in what He said and did, to the very moment of the end of His life as a Man, was in the context of fulfilling the Hebrew Scriptures.

How ironic it is then that within a few hundred years almost all that was Hebrew or Jewish, including Scripture, was removed by its leaders from the church.  The Reformation of the church certainly did what it's name implies, it reformed many wrong doctrines and did away with many heretical practices, but it was just that, a reforming of church ways; it was not the Restoration that Peter said must take place before Yeshua's return. To quote Peter again as it continues to be a foundational verse for this study, "Yeshua is withheld in heaven until the restoration of all things as spoken by the prophets from the beginning" (Acts 3:21). It is those things we're in search of today and in this study!   

Please note also that there is not one place throughout the entire Tenakh, the Old Testament, where the Torah is referred to as "the law." Rather, the Hebrew words used are more along the lines of teachings or instructions. The Hebrews did not regard the Torah as "you better keep these or else..." but rather as instructions on how to live the best way of life according to all God had taught them. We will talk more later about this when we come to Yeshua's relationship with the Pharisees, but keep in minds that how we may read the word "law" in our English bibles does not present us with an accurate picture of Israel's relationship with YHVH. Think of the teachings also not so much as being Jewish but Godish!  Because it is God who gave Israel their entire way of life through the Torah which Yeshua embodied.

Some of this may be foreign to those who have been raised in the church that has been so alienated from Yeshua’s life as a Hebrew because anti-Hebrew misinterpretations became entrenched rather early on in the church. Even that word church is a misinterpretation of another word, ekklesia which is actually a Greek word, having to do with those who are called out for a purpose. Believers are certainly 'called out' of the worldliness around us. Though we are 'in' the world, we are not to be 'of' the world. You already knew that, right? In meeting together, the ekklesia formed a Kehilla, a Hebrew word having to do with a congregation meeting together in meaningful relationships. Messianic congregations in Israel today are still identified as Kehillote (plural for kehilla).  The term doesn’t have to do with a building, but even so, coming together still had to take place somewhere. Somehow though the word "church" brings up in each of our minds a number of connotations that would not have been familiar to our first century Hebrew brothers and sisters. 

I'm not saying any of this is bad, or that there aren't legitimate ways we are to adapt to the cultures in which we now live, or that anything 'modern' is against the will of God. Of course not, but you may agree that on the whole we do not look like the Book of Acts in terms of spiritual commitment and overarching love for Yeshua. Not yet anyway.  But if we are to give any thought to what God might want to restore to His people, consider that the pristine kehillot would not have even had a clue of what would come about among believers in Yeshua. They would not have envisioned one pastor as a leader who would be the only person who speaks at meetings (even Paul had dialogs, not monologs).  The early believers would not have imagined rows of pews where believers sit silently and passively without anyone contributing insights or revelations, prophetic words of the intentions or affirmations from God or encouragement of the Holy Spirit, or where there would be no messages in tongues with interpretations to reveal God's heart on specific issues - all of which was normal in meetings among the believers. Nor could they have imagined that the power of the Spirit to bring healing would be rare and deliverance from demons just about non-existent. Worship bands of professional musicians, not to mention ear-blasting sound systems, would have confounded them, and certainly, God help us, they would never have even conceived of the Feasts of the Lord having been considered heresy and replaced by two pagan-influenced holidays called Easter and Christmas. Add to all this that it would have been incomprehensible to them that their sacred day of Shabbat would be changed to  when the Roman sun god was worshiped, a day called sun-day, mixing worship of Yeshua and this false god together - thus violating two commandments to keep the Sabbath on the eighth day and to never worship a false god.

Can you see why God, who could envision what would happen, would speak prophetically through Peter and say to Israel, "Yeshua is withheld in heaven until the restoration of all things as spoken by the prophets from the beginning" (Acts 3:21)?  I believe we are in that day or restoration.  Israel is God's prophetic time piece and prophesies are being fulfilled regarding Israel more now than ever before. Not the least of which is the restoration we are talking about.  

When man seeks to bring about the Kingdom of God by their own efforts and ideas, it will eventually become what human kingdoms are made of and not of the spiritual power and merciful grace of God. It inevitably becomes more earthly than heavenly. On the other hand, no one could have imagined or accomplished what God did by the power of His Holy Spirit in the early church. Indeed, they would not even have had the vocabulary to describe what unfolded. I suspect the same thing is true of the work that God will do in His people who will yield to Him as He prepares us for Yeshua's return,which is to say, the move toward the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God on the restored earth. As we go through this study, it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will bring truths to us that will bring us to deeper truths and consequently to a deeper trust in and love for Him.

Only God can bring about what is fully "of" Him.  We say, Lord, do by Your Spirit what needs to be done in our lives to make us one with You and instruments of glory.  Amen.
 
Till next week ,chaverim (friends, pronounced ha-ver-eem),
Lonnie 

This article may be shared but must include:  Shared with permission by Lonnie Lane, at Lonnielane.com, August 2016. 

The Gospel of Mark Through Jewish Eyes - Introduction

Shalom, folks. That's me in the photo so you know whose writings you're reading.  In response to those of you who have indicated an interest in this study of The Gospel of Mark Through Jewish Eyes, I thank you for your interest and look forward to sharing insights with you as we look into what appears to be the first written story of Yeshua’s life on earth. Allowing for exceptions, it is my intention to post a weekly blog entry here on Friday afternoons in time for Shabbat. Or whenever you choose to read it. I'd appreciate you adding your comments at the bottom if you feel so inclined. First, some introductory thoughts to ponder.  

My expectation is that Yeshua is not returning for a bride with whom He is unequally yoked – who does not intrinsically share His commitment to His Father, His values, His priorities, His compassion, His love for all people, His overarching forgiveness, His kindness, His mercy, and His single-mindedness to be obedient to the Word of God….. You get the picture, I'm sure.  And what about His last prayer to His Father, “that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, ” (John 17:22, 23). His prayers do not go unanswered, but that oneness has yet to be fulfilled. There are still ungodlike divisions among us, in our personal relationships and throughout the body. We have yet to grasp His heart for people, to see one another as He did, no matter who we are, as outside of The Fall by which we have all been victimized, 

 

If indeed we are approaching the end of this age, then we can assume that there must be a people who are sufficiently conformed to the likeness of Yeshua so as to be “one” with each other and equally yoked with Him in all matters of heart and mind.  As Yeshua was entirely reliant upon His Father and the Holy Spirit, doing nothing independently, it would seem we need to learn to be as He was. But we don’t know how! If God is preparing the bride for Yeshua today, then it is His doing. Our part, as I see it, is to learn of Him so as to yield to Him, and, as the Amplified Bible says, to lean the weight of our being upon Him, as we “trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5), meaning understanding according to our own ideas, ways and intentions, independent of God.  I don’t know how to tell you how to do that.  It’s something that happens between each of us and the Spirit of God.  But I do believe He is teaching us today, those whose hearts are open to Him and who want God’s will more than anything else in their lives. Or at least we want to want that! It has a lot to do with falling in love with Yeshua (Jesus) as we see Him perhaps in some ways we’ve not seen Him before. Perhaps a Jewish Jesus will touch our hearts anew, not because He's Jewish, but because of understanding Him, His words and His heart a bit more.   If you are taking the time to read this, I am assuming God has you on His heart and His Spirit is at work in your life.What joy there is knowing this.

We begin with some background. The Gospel stories were first transmitted orally, long before they were written down. These stories were told by those who first knew Him, and then passed down orally in the context of their own culture, which is to say, Yeshua's own Hebrew or Jewish culture with its stories and idioms, expressions and expectations. Eventually the stories were written down and what we have today are English translations of Greek manuscripts. Many linguists now think that the stories were all transmitted initially in Hebrew, not Greek, and only later were translated into Greek. 

I expect that you’ve noticed that sometimes you read something in the Gospels that sounds a bit ‘out there’ or detached from what’s going on. Take some of those very expressions in Greek that don’t really seem to fit in with what's being said and put them back into Hebrew and suddenly they make sense and are understood. In other cases, there were translation errors. Words rarely have one meaning, but several, and a translator has the job of choosing what word or words he thinks fits best. But not being familiar with Hebrew dialects or culture, especially in the 1800 centuries when Israel appeared to no longer be a nation, with no one to consult, what seems like a literal choice could skew the whole meaning. We will come across a number of them as we go along and you’re likely to find Yeshua being more logical and realistic in what He says than what appears to be somewhat ethereal.  As we become aware of these corrections you will see how they will help you to understand more what was going on and what He was saying. 

One example comes to mind. In Matthew 6:19-24, right in the middle of talking about attitudes toward money Yeshua makes what seems like a strange and unrelated statement:  "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (:22, 23).  But when you know that a "bad eye" was an expression in His culture for being stingy, then it now fits into what He's talking about. Consider the ways that being stingy (another word could be selfish) is contrary to the generous heart of God.   

It is my prayer that this study will help you to not only understand certain Scriptures more clearly but that it will enable you to come to know Yeshua more deeply. So let’s see what we find that we didn’t know before when we see and hear Yeshua more like the Jews who first encountered Him would have.  And so we begin.

 

The time of Mark’s writing is at least 65 C.E. It is also possible that it was written after the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E.  Either way it was a time of great suffering for the Jewish people under Roman occupation. Peter, to whom Mark was a companion, has just been crucified – upside down in fact, by his own choice, declaring he was not worthy to suffer and die as His Lord did. His wife was crucified along with him so she was evidently Peter’s partner in ministry. Paul also was murdered around the same time which left an apostolic gap in the testimony of Yeshua.  Now that Peter’s eye witness account of Yeshua was no longer available, Mark responded to the need by writing some of what he had heard Peter say in his testimony of Yeshua.  

Earlier, on that memorable day of Shavuot we call Pentecost, Peter proclaimed among other things that “Yeshua is withheld in heaven until the restoration of all things as spoken by the prophets from the beginning” (Acts 3:21). Since Yeshua isn’t here yet, it would seem that we can assume there are yet things that still need restoring. Some commentaries say this means that when He comes He will restore all things, but I believe they say that because it lines up with their doctrine, but doesn’t really line up with what Peter said. “Until” means the likes of “You can’t have dessert until you eat your vegetables.” Something has to take place before the event occurs. In this case, Yeshua isn’t coming back until things that need to be restored are restored. I know this challenges a good bit of the “return” doctrines that exists today. We may find that several of our views are challenged as we move on through Mark. 

Mark’s gospel is thought to be the first account of Yeshua’s life during His ministry and it is thought that Matthew and Luke took Mark as the foundation and added what they knew.  Mark’s motive to write and tell the story was to bring hope that what life looked like in the difficult days they were in was not the only reality. God had intervened and though life looked like evil was all around, there was another reality, a more powerful reality in which even death was overcome.  Mark presented a Yeshua who was devoid of any royalty, try as the people might to impose it upon Him. Rather, He was a Man they could relate to in His humanity, who could lift them above the limitations of all they had come to know. There was more; God hadn’t abandoned them. He was doing something far greater in their midst than any had ever imagined of God, or in their own lives.   

God had Mark write what He did to bring us the same assurance, the same wonder, the same expectations that there is a life in God that is far above what life is like without Him, or even what we know of Him so far.  There is always more. So let’s see what God will say to us as we continue on to seek His truths as Mark and the other Gospel writers attempted to convey them. 

As a side note, in considering reading Scripture through a Jewish lens, there was a high priest by the name of Theophilus, who may have been the man to whom Luke wrote his gospel and Acts. Luke will give you a somewhat different spin when you read it as if it was written to a Jewish high priest and not to a Gentile, understanding that the writings were what was shared “within the family” and not outside of it. To read my article on this possibility go to:  Was Acts Written To The High Priest?

See you next week right here.

Shabbat Shalom,

Lonnie