Author: Josh King

We all mourn differently. This is especially true across cultures. In our western culture we mourn very quietly, not so the Jew. The cacophony, commotion, and chaos of Jarius’ house were a common scene. Among this mournful crowd there would have been professional mourners hired by the family. One Jewish writing says that even the poorest of families was expected to hire not less than two pipers and one wailing woman. Biblically we can trace the custom as far back as Josiah at the latest. (2 Chronicles 25:35). Jeremiah uses this common imagery when He writes:

Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come; let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water. For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’” – Jeremiah 9:17-19

Jarius’ being a ruler, and thus no doubt a man of some means, would have been expected to have several professional mourners. Also a frenzy of activity would be taking place as the family scrambled to make all preparations to bury the body within twenty-four hours.

Jesus comes on the scene and dismisses the crowd. Remember His presence necessitates feasting not fasting (Matthew 9:14). The King is present, the kingdom is breaking in, away with such mourning, she is only sleeping. They laugh taking Jesus literally.

Sleep was a metaphor for death, but it is easy to see how the crowd misunderstood Jesus. If simply taken as a euphemism he would be in effect saying, “Go away, for the girl is not dead, but dead.” So Jesus isn’t simply using a euphemism for death, but He isn’t saying she is just snoozing either. Again, Jesus isn’t using a euphemism for death, He is euphemizing death. Jesus is saying is that because of Him, death is just a nap.

All this foretells a far greater awakening. Paul says we will not all sleep (1Corinthians 15:51), but be assured, all those who die in Christ are only sleeping; they will rise again with renewed, sinless, glorified bodies. All mourning will be eternally dismissed.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:23

Tax collectors were unacceptable in every way: socially, politically, and religiously. Some might say that things haven’t changed much, but really the plight of the tax collector is so much better in our day. We might despise the IRS auditor in our own house, but we like the idea of him in the house of a scoundrel. Further, no one ever thinks the IRS employee a Benedict Arnold because of his job. He may be one, but it is not inherently related to his job. But to the Jew, the tax collector was the worst of traitors. Backed by Roman soldiers he extorted his own countrymen to finance the enemy. Rome grew stronger, the Jews grew weaker, all while the tax collector grew wealthier. In addition he would be religiously unclean because of his frequent dealings with Gentiles.

There was only one reason to be a tax collector in this society, money. You were virtually free to charge as much as you want and any surplus collected was pocketed.

Now imagine the kind of company that such a person who has so ostracized himself form respectable Jewish society would keep. They would be the sort of riffraff who have nothing to lose by associating with him. Jesus was dining with the likes of pimps, prostitutes, thieves, and gamblers.

Jesus seems to call the oddest of disciples and keep the worst of company. Isn’t it wonderful that we’ve now refined the church so that such persons rarely have any dealings with the church except perhaps to beg outside its doors? Evidently Paul still had this problem, the early church being made up of those with less than desirable backgrounds (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Jesus may still call such disciples, but the church rarely does.

But our “health” may come at a cost. If we keep our illusion of health, the Great Physician will have nothing to do with us, He came for sinners.

Sinner, never fear of being too sinful for Jesus, rather, dread thinking yourself too healthy.

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power.

Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth,
Is to feel your need of Him.

I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
O there are ten thousand charms.

– Come Ye Sinners by Joseph Hart

Logic is a powerful tool, but tools can destroy as well as build. Used wrongly a tool can be deadly to the user. The Pharisee’s logic here is valid. They think Jesus is blaspheming. In Mark they are recorded as thinking, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” They are right. God is always the most offended party in our sin, it is ultimately His prerogative to forgive sin. Your sin never hates anyone as much as it hates God. Sin mocks and belittles all that God is. Think of an attribute of God, then meditate a little, it shouldn’t take long to see how even the smallest sin laughs at that attribute. “Your omnipotent God, do something about this! You are all wise; well I think this is the better way to live. All seeing, do you see this? Your gracious, you’ll forgive this sin.” Sin is the hating of God, the seeking to de-god God. So the Pharisees rightly reason thus:

Only God can forgive sin.

Jesus is a man.

Therefore Jesus cannot forgive sin.

The logic is valid; the problem is that the second premise is false. Jesus is more than a man. That’s the point of this text, the healing of this paralytic is a subplot.  Jesus is the God-man with authority to deal with all of our problems at the root.  Jesus doesn’t come as the Great Physician to merely alleviate symptoms, but to do radical surgery by His own wounds.

All sickness is due to sin. It may or may not be due to a particular sin in your life, but all sickness is ultimately due to sin, namely the sin of Adam. Sickness then is a vivid, pervasive picture of the heinousness of a greater plague of which we all suffer, sin. The greatest disease is not to be dreaded as much as the least sin.

Jesus comes to make all things new; a new heaven and a new earth with no more sickness, pain, or death. In order to do this He will have to deal decisively with sin. This He did on the cross, as the God-man. As Anslem would reason, only God can deal with sin, only man ought to, and only in Jesus do the can and ought meet.

So it is the Pharisees, not Jesus, who blasphemed that day. I do not rejoice that the Pharisees blasphemed, but I do rejoice that it was blasphemy. Jesus does have the authority to forgive sin.

Irony: the disciples who after seeing Jesus’ supremacy over the storm, ask, “What kind of man is this?” receive their answer from demons once they come ashore. Jesus is the Son of God, the Sovereign Judge before whom demons fall, beg, and tremble, the One who in the weakness of His exhausted human flesh beats up a legion of demons with a single word. Learn from the demons not only who Jesus is, but that intellectual assent is not enough (James 2:19).

Insanity: the locals learn to tolerate the kingdom of darkness, but when Jesus demonstrates His power over the realm of evil they beg Him to leave.   They prefer pigs to persons and swine to the Savior.