Can I see some ID, please?

There is a current movement to stiffen voter identification requirements, requiring voters to present photo ID at polling places and provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering for federal elections. Acceptable documents include a passport, birth certificate, military ID, or government-issued ID showing birthplace. Wow, pretty stiff-- all for the sake of authenticity to the exclusion of many. Is this level of stringency necessary? That is debatable. But what is unquestioned is the morality of fraud. Voter fraud—all fraud—is criminal. Proper id has its place, even in Christianity.

Racism, gender bias, xenophobia, nationalism—all have been charged to the authenticity of Christianity, raising the hypothetical question of the efficacy of ids for believers—cards for card-carrying Christians. How would this card look? How do we develop a workable prototype?

Since Christians are followers of Christ, what if we required Christ to step in a lineup and ask, “Can we see some id, Lord? Mark, chapter 2 through 3:6 is our line up.  Turn to Mark, chapter 2 through 3:6.  Allow your sanctified Spiritual imagination to permit Mark to bring in five Lords. Your job is to pick the impersonator so we can rid the faith landscape of Christians whose card doesn’t match conduct. Behind the two-way glass stands five Lords. They can see you. The question is:  do you see you?

“Number 1, would you please step forward”

The Lord of Forgiveness stepped forward to prove He can heal relationships. We see that in verses 1-12. We see it in a nutshell in verse 9:

            Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, `Your sins are forgiven,' or to say,

`Get up, take your mat and walk'?

Christ, the Lord of Forgiveness, healed a paralyzed man to prove He had authority to forgive.  Here is the background:  While Jesus was preaching in a crowed house, a group of friends cut a hole in the roof and lowered their paralytic friend—despite his condition, the crowd and the ceiling—down by rope so he could  be blessed, get close to Jesus. Jesus says to him after seeing his friend’s faith: Your sins are forgiven.”   

That ticked off the card-carrying, fraudulent churchy church legal scribes who said that “…is against the law, blasphemy. Only God can forgive sin.”  And that was exactly Jesus’ point.  He has the authority to forgive sin because He is the Son of God.

Forgiveness is God’s territory, because sin is a crime against God. So only God can set that sin aside and restore things aright. And what must be restored the broken relationship between God and man, and between man and man because of sin.          

Unforgiven sin makes paralytics of us all. A paralytic can’t move on his own. We become paralyzed when we sin.  We can’t more close to God. In fact, according to Colossians 1:21-23;

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of         your evil behavior…

Do you recognize #1 as He stepped up in the lineup for who he is, that because of Him, you and I can now move closer to God and to each other.  Thanks to the Lord of Forgiveness who did as the friends did who lowered the paralyzed man to Jesus.  What a friend we have in Jesus who lifts you up despite your condition, the crowd and the ceiling of pass transgressions.  Can you identify him as Lord? “Thank you, # 1.”

“Number 2, would you step up?” From a paralyzed man, we move to the tax man who encountered the Lord.

The Lord of Redemption stepped forward to prove He came for the bankrupt according to verses 13-17.  We see it clearly in verse 17:

            Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have      not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Christ, the Lord of Redemption, came to pay what the tax man (and sinners) could not pay.  When we think of the tax man, we don’t think of him paying, but us having to pay far too much and much too often on April 16.  But the tax man is grouped with sinners in verse 15.  As well they should.  They were crooks. Thus, they were sinners.  And sinners are in debt to God. We owe God perfection and righteousness that was robbed from him just as Adam stole perfection from the garden of Eden. Without the shedding of perfect blood, there is no payment for our sins.  We owe him big time.

Unpaid sin makes us all tax men who could not pay what we owe God. Do you recognize who paid it all—your debt to God—Lord # 2 who redeemed us.  He paid the price.  Romans 3:23-25 says it completely:

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement.

Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe.  Do you identify him as Redeemer Lord or are you holding over someone a debt of sin that Christ has already paid for? Thank you #2, step back.

Number 3, step forward. From a tax man, the Lord came to fasting men.

The Lord of Change stepped forward to prove he came to make a change.  We see that in verses 18-22.

Christ, the Lord of the Lord of Change, showed fasting men they must change.

Followers of John the Baptist were fasting. The Pharisees were fasting. Why? Fasting was an outward act of self-denial to show their holiness.  He gave them three parables of a wedding, weaving and wine, to teach that the things that matter, you must change inwardly.  Jesus, the Son of God was about changing from the old superficial way to relating to God in a new, refreshing way.

He gave an example of a wedding. If the man getting married is at the party, then it’s time to celebrate, not get all pious and holy in appearance.  Jesus is the bridegroom. Some day he will be gone, but until then, celebrate him.  But the Pharisees heart was not about celebrating the presence of Christ among them. They needed a change of heart—a new heart.

The second example was of new clothes. You don’t sew a new piece of cloth onto an old piece of clothing. The new will shrink differently than the old. You're going to have a bigger hole.

The third example of wine. If you put new wine in an old wine skin, the new, fermenting wine will expand and bust the old dried-up skin. His examples point to this truth: Unchanged hearts make men’s holiness a “holey” mess.  If you don’t have a changed heart, the newness of life in Christ through his spirit won’t work.  The old system of relating to God is incompatible with the new way of relating to him though his son, like new cloth is incompatible with old cloth. Something is going to tear.  You’ve got to change  

Do you recognize you need to change? You can’t keep relating to what’s on the outside.  It’s not about show, or an outward sacrifice.  Joel 2:12 says: Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;

The Lord of Change, you may step back.

Finally, Number 4, step up.

The Lord of Sabbath Change stepped forward to prove His priority was love, not legalism seen in verse 23 through chapter3:6.  We see his priority clearly in verse 27 and 28:

MK 2:27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." 

Christ, the Lord of Sabbath, came to meet the needs of the hungry and hurting man. The issue was the law required that the Sabbath be honored. It was a day of rest. No work was allowed.  But when Jesus and his disciples were walking through a field and were hungry, they picked the wheat by hand and ate it.  They worked. But his concern was not some religious rite.  The spirit of the law was that man was to be served, not burdened.  Human need was more important than a ritual tradition. And since Christ was totally about meeting the needs of man, He declared himself, the Lord of the Sabbath.

He demonstrated this even more dramatically in the synagogue when he healed a man with a withered, hurting hand.  It’s better to heal a hurt in love. That is the higher law.  

Unloving men are more concerned with legalism than higher law.  Jesus clearly says what the higher law is when he asked what the greatest commandment in Matthew was in 22:36.  He said there were two:  Love God and love your neighbor.  That’s what his priority was.

Do you recognize what should be your priority: meeting needs or not marginalizing immigrants

CONCLUSION:

Four suspects have stepped into the light, up to the line. But there is a fifth:

The Lord of Self who must step up and be identified.

• Are you the one who is guilty of the crime of unforgiveness?

• Are you the one who is guilty of trying to work off your debt to God when Christ has paid it all.

• Are you the one who is guilty of refusing to change, trying to run an old game with a new coach?

• Are you the one who is guilty of majoring in the minor when your brother is in need?

Depending on how you answer those question, then we need to see some ids.   Take out your ids, not the world‘s ids, but the Christ ids.  Does it say this:

Name: Christian, as in the Name of Christ that under that name every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.

Address: Kingdom of God on earth.

Date of Birth:   The Day I accepted Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Sex:  Imago DEI. 

Weight: Lighter because you are no longer carrying unforgiveness in your heart because of the Lord of Forgiveness who move you from enemy of God to friend of God.

Credit Status:  Paid in full by the Blood of the Lamb who is the Lord of Redemption.

Organ Donor:  Yes. Christ has donated you a new heart, so now you are a changed person under the direction of the Lord of Change. The stuff you use to do, you don’t want to do. 

Those who, carry this card, but more precisely carry themselves this way, show not that they are lord, but who is their Lord:  Jesus Christ, the Son of God

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The current movement to stiffen voter identification requirements at the ballot is under debate. The bigger question is: Can we see your Christian id. Your conduct is the card.