Being Real in 2024: No Excuses

Mark 1 and 2

The friends of the paralytic went to great lengths to make sue Jesus healed him--removing the ceiling and lowering him by ropes to get around the crowd (well depicted in The Chosen first season, by the way). That's being real.   

Jesus touched the leper He healed. That was forbidden by the law of Moses, for public health reasons, but not by the law of compassion, the law of Christ, the truth of the gospel. Mark's first two chapter (chapters arbitrary, of course) are about as radical as it gets. The gospel jumps out of the boundaries of human categories of righteousness, which gravitate toward rule-keeping. We can use rules to justify ourselves as easily as to condemn ourselves or even more likely, to guide our lives toward God-glorifying, compassionate behavior. Jesus did not say, "well, I have an excuse not to touch this leper." He just did. Same with the Sabbath-keeping. 

What excuses are you making? Am I making?

I saw this short on YouTube, and part of it was on a commercial last night.  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fg4TYyTIDMoj

The commercial last night focuses on the transgendered person (or what we are supposed to take as one) being your neighbor. It seems we really want to make excuses there. First, the He Gets Us commercials are just unBiblical. I say read Mark. Sexual sin and confusion comes in lots of forms. Second, we make the excuse that those people are just icky, in some way.  We really do; we make fun, we act like they will rub off on us, or that they are beyond hope. 

We make excuses for a lot of stuff, because we are focused on rules. The religious of Jesus' time did not take care of their families by saying they would reserve that money for future offerings.  Yeah. I stayed home from church so far this morning (well, life group) with the excuse it was a busy, tiring week. 

God is gracious and forgiving. But He wants us to own up to our reality, not make excuses.