Action/Adventure/Drama

Well, sometimes a passage you revisit so many times in your lifetime, it becomes almost part of you. And I've got to admit, this is one of those passages for me. So for me, it's very familiar; I don't know whether it is to you.

We are thinking about Mark's gospel, and we're thinking about the story aspect of it. We said a great story has a great beginning, a great story has a quest, a great story has a hero, and today, a great story has action. Now, somewhere back in movie history, some absolute genius got the idea of ending the movie with a wildly exciting car chase. No movie was complete without the regulation good guys chasing bad guys, or bad guys chasing good guys, and a losing end to the movie.

After a while, it became a bit predictable, so they changed the formula. Soon we had horse chases, plane chases, even train chases. Thelma and Louise gave us the whole FBI chasing two women through the desert—how's that for a bit of toxic masculinity?—while in Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino gave us the opposite: four women chasing a man to his well-deserved [end]. Speed gave us a bus chase; Speed 2 gave us a boat chase; Star Wars gave us light-speeded spaceship chases.

In 2017, Business Insider magazine rated the best chase scenes of all time and found that number one was not The Blues Brothers (that was number two). Number one was not The Matrix Reloaded (that was number three). It was not Mad Max: Fury Road (that was number four). In fact, they decided that the best chase scene was in a less famous 1971 film called The French Connection.

Someone has even mapped the distance that Tom Cruise runs in his films and has mapped that to the amount of money the film makes at the box office. They've worked out the more Tom runs, the more money the film makes. Every great story has action, right? Well, maybe that's not exactly true, but it's fair to say we like action.

One of the characteristics of an action film is not so much the chase or the explosions or the body count, but it's a thing which is called average shot length, or ASL for short. Average shot length is the time between when the camera starts rolling and when it stops. You get the idea: how long a shot actually takes. The longer the average shot length, it makes the narrative more relaxed and slows everything down. But a shorter average shot length speeds it up and brings a sense of urgency.

For drama, average shot length is about 15 seconds. So you think about it: we're focused on one person talking for about 15 seconds. For action, average shot length is about 4 seconds. When Steven Spielberg made Raiders of the Lost Ark, average shot length was 3.5 seconds. When he made Schindler's List, it was 8.5 seconds. That's the difference between action and drama.

You need both. If average shot length gets too long, then people's minds begin to wander and they get a bit bored. If average shot length is too short for too long, people get tired of the change all the time and they lose concentration. A shorter average shot length gives the sense of pace and movement. It engages your attention. It helps to immerse the audience in the film. But you also need longer shots to think, to absorb what's going on.

Well, there you go. That's "Film 101." That's how you do it in film. How would you do that if you were writing? Mark, in his gospel, is a genius at pacing and action. He begins in chapter one with all these really quick cuts from scene to scene. The words that keep coming up in Mark's gospel are words like this: "immediately," "at once," "as soon as." It gives us the sense of speed and pace—short average shot length. It gives us the sense of action.

Mark's gospel opens with no birth narrative. There's no account of Jesus' birth; you see those in Matthew and Luke, but you don't see it in Mark's gospel. It just begins with Jesus the man. We just turn up and there he is. He's doing things. It's like we're dropped in, and then we have to work out the characters as it goes on because we don't know too much about him.

After that, in chapter 1, verse 12, it says, "at once," and then he's out in the wilderness. Then in verse 15, "the kingdom of God is near," he says—which is kind of like saying, "I'm near." Then he gathers his disciples on his quest. Then he casts out an evil spirit. And then it says in verse 23, "just then," that's when it happened. That's an action-packed scene where he casts out the evil spirit. Then verse 29, "as soon as" they went to Simon's mother-in-law's place and the people crowded in. Then next thing you know, he's praying quietly, then he heals a man with leprosy. That would make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. It's like shot, shot, shot, shot all the way through chapter one.

And then we slow down for our very first rest: Chapter two, long average shot length. It's like Mark wants us to slow down and think really carefully about what's going on here. He wants us to reflect on this because it's important. He's slowing us down so we've got time to do that. It's a very famous scene; you may know it well.

Chapter 2, verse 1:

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. And he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

See if you can picture this. They're in the house or in some building and Jesus is teaching and it's absolutely packed. Then suddenly there's some sort of disturbance they notice and something's happening on the roof—and it's not possums because it's not Lavender Bay. An opening appears. We think of these earthen roofs with thatching on them, and so there's some dust that drops down, and they move the earth and wear away, and then some faces appear, and then they lower a mat down on the stretcher—a man down on a mat of some sort.

Well, Jesus jumps at the opportunity. See verse 5: "When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'"

Now, this is confusing, isn't it? I mean, this is a very confusing set of events. Can you imagine the disappointment? He looks at the man and says to the man, "You're forgiven." I wonder how you would feel as the man. I wonder how you would feel as the men who've labored to bring the man to Jesus.

This is the time to slow down and reflect. They would have been pretty disappointed, I would think, because they had brought him there to be healed, not to be forgiven. That's not what is on their radar screen at all. You know, maybe they think, "We'd like this man to be able to work again, to be able to pick up his wife, to be able to play with his children." You can imagine them saying or thinking to themselves, "No, no, no. The legs—they're the important thing. The legs. Fix the legs. That's why we've come, oh man of miracles, that's why we are here."

As you're reading this, if you don't know the ending, you're puzzled as well. I wonder if you've ever thought what would happen if you just ended at verse 5? That was it. That was the end of the story. He just said, "You're forgiven," and they go, "Okay," and they disappear.

Can you imagine if it just ended at verse 5? They take the man home—and I'm just imagining this, of course, I don't know the answer—but they take the man home and his wife's waiting there. She's full of excitement and she says, "What happened?" They say, "We're not really sure what happened, actually." She says, "Did he not talk to you?" "No, no, he talked." "Did he not have the power?" "No, no, he had the power." "Well, what happened then?" "Jesus told him he's forgiven." And she says, "Well, what use is that? That's no use to me."

Maybe they take him back inside and he carries on his life—whatever his job is, you know, fixing pots or making shoes or something like that, whatever he would do in that culture when you can't really walk. Then 10 years goes by, and another 10 years goes by, and another 10 years goes by, and finally he dies.

Finally, he finds himself walking through the gates of heaven. He goes up to the front desk and they say to him, "Welcome." He says, "This place is beautiful. How long can I stay?" They say, "Yes, it is beautiful. You can stay forever. You'll never be removed. You'll never be disappointed. You'll never be bored." He says, "I don't really deserve this. My life has been a bit of a mess. There's lots of sins in my life." And they say, "Yeah, well, that's probably right. But it says here you have been forgiven. So, welcome."

He says, "How can this be possible?" They say, "It's all been paid by Jesus Christ." And he goes over to Jesus and he says, "Thank you. You know, when I came through that roof, I didn't really know what I was after, but you gave me something absolutely wonderful." You can imagine a hundred years later, he'd walk up to Jesus and say, "Have I said thank you recently?" And maybe a thousand years later, he walks up to Jesus and says, "I just want to say thank you again."

You know, we live in a great part of the world. We live in a great time. We have great medical care. We are deeply thankful for healthy bodies, for being well. But you know, doctors don't bring you to God. Nor does the pharmaceutical benefit scheme. Nor does aquarobics, or resistance training, or cardio, or vitamins. None of those things bring you to God.

We live in a great part of the world, a great time with great medical care, and we are deeply thankful for healthy bodies. We are deeply thankful for being well. If you look after yourself, that's good and you should do it, and you may have a better quality of life and that's good. But slow down and think about what Mark is saying to us here. If you face up to God unforgiven, that is bad. The most important thing you can have is to be clean and right and acceptable to God. Jesus gives this man something that will lift him right up to eternity forever. That's infinitely better.

Now, the grounds by which he's able to forgive is that in a few years' time, he's going to go to the cross and he's going to pay in his own blood for this man's forgiveness. We'll see that in a few weeks' time when we come to Good Friday. He'll take the rejection of God so this man can be accepted. But not just this man—anybody who goes to Jesus for forgiveness.

You know, being in church, it's possible to be in church and not be forgiven. That's kind of the worst place to be because the church is always talking about forgiveness. Just because you're around the talk, you can think that it's true for you. But if you've never asked God for his forgiveness, if you've never done that, if you've never put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can be in church and unforgiven. We can't see people's hearts. We don't know—I don't have the ability to see in people's hearts—but it seems to me it must always be true.

So, Mark would be saying, reflect on this. Reflect on this incident and ask yourself the question.

But it doesn't end there. It doesn't end just after verse five. Go on to verse six:

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Now, these religious leaders are angry. That's an understatement. They're angry for a couple of reasons. Number one, they think Jesus is just talking hogwash. But also, he's doing something blasphemous because he's making a "God statement." No one can forgive sins done to God except God. So Jesus is either insane, or he's saying something deeply disturbing: that is, he has the ability to forgive the sins done to God because he's God.

Think about this for a moment. If I go and say something to you that is just appalling, and then somebody else comes up to you and says it's okay, or comes up to me and says, "It's okay, I forgive you," it doesn't make any sense at all. The person I've done the wrong thing to—they're the person who needs to forgive me. If sins are done towards God, if Jesus is saying, "I can forgive sins," they rightly understand that he's making a God statement, and they're angry.

So Jesus gives them some proof. Verse eight:

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take up your mat and walk'?"

Well, it's a good question. Which is easier? Is it easy to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven," or is it easy to say, "Get up, pick up your mat and walk"? It's easy to say, "You're forgiven" because it's unprovable. It's untestable. If he says to them, "Your sins are forgiven," you can't see any difference. Who knows?

But see, if someone is paralyzed and he says, "Get up, pick up your mat and walk," that's a much harder thing to say because you know right away if it's rubbish or not. Is he just talking through his hat?

Verse 10:

"But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins..." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take up your mat and go home." He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We've never seen anything like this."

Do you notice why he does it? Why he goes to all this trouble? Look at verse 10. He says, "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." See, if someone says "forgiven," big deal—you can't tell. It's invisible. But if he does something visible to prove the invisible, well, he's demonstrating his authority over both, isn't he?

If he can say, "I'm going to forgive sins," which is invisible, but then he does something visible—causing the man to walk—does that not demonstrate he has the authority to do both those things? And when the man walked, everyone now knows Jesus is one who keeps his word.

And not just then, in this particular incident, but today as well. You and I can know that Jesus is someone who keeps his word. When he says his death is for sins, for forgiveness—when he says that his resurrection is to demonstrate that it's all true—you know that he is one who keeps his word.

This is a really great story for us when we are trying to think about our priorities because it's so easy, isn't it, to get caught up in all sorts of priorities other than the priority that Jesus seems to be acting on, which is the forgiveness of sins. So many things you can do as a church, so many things you can do in your life, and they're all good and well. But in order to prioritize them, we need to take on the priorities that Jesus has. Jesus gives this man more than a place in the workforce; he gives him a place in the kingdom. Infinitely more wonderful than anything he was hoping for and far better than he was thinking.

Well, let's pray, shall we?

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this glorious gift of forgiveness. We thank you that in the Lord Jesus, you have taken away every barrier. You've taken away every distance between ourselves and you. And Heavenly Father, although these men had shortsighted faith, clearly it was enough. And we pray you might grant us this same faith, this same trust, and that it might really take us somewhere. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

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