PREPARATION:
As you read, think about these questions:
• Jesus reveals some more about Himself, what are those things?
• Some people took advantage of the miraculous powers that Jesus offered. Who were they and how did they respond to Him?
• Some people were offended by what Jesus and His disciples did. Who were they and how did they respond to Him?
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Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man
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CONCLUSIONS
1. How did the paralytic and his friends respond to Jesus?
Jesus had been at Capernaum before and had healed a lot of people, then left for a while as He traveled from village to village, proclaiming the gospel and teaching about God’s Word.
I’m guessing the paralyzed man had heard of Jesus’ previous visit and arranged with some friends to take him there if Jesus ever returned to town, and as it so happened, He did. But when they got to the house where Jesus was in residence, it was too jam-packed to get in.
I can imagine them standing around for a while outside discussing what to do, when one of them suggested, ‘Well, if we can’t get in through the door, let’s use the roof!’I suspect the homeowner was not too pleased, but I’m also sure the men were willing to pay to have the roof repaired.
So the attitudes exhibited by the paralytic and his four friends toward Jesus were first of all faith, they believed Jesus could and would heal the paralytic, if only they could get the man in front of Jesus. They were desperate, willing to do something very much out of the ordinary to accomplish their goal, and they were committed to getting the help their friend needed, no matter what the cost. This is very much like the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:6
NOTE how the rest of the people in the home who had come to see and hear Jesus reacted, “…they were all amazed and glorifying God…” That is, ALMOST everybody…
2. What did Jesus reveal about Himself?
In chapter 1, we saw that Jesus had demonstrated the authority to teach God’s Word in a new, to way, to cast out demons, and to heal the sick. Mark used the testimony of the demon to further show who Jesus was, “I know who You are–the Holy One of God!” Later in chapter one, when Jesus again encountered demons, He did not permit the demons to speak “because they knew He was the Annointed One from God.”
I believe this is an example of what God does, that is, He reveals things to us via successive revelations, instead of revealing everything at once and overwhelming us. That is why it is important not to ‘overrun’ your insight.
What I mean is like driving at night; your headlights allow you to only see so far, depending upon whether low beams or farther with high beams. You need to be traveling at a slow enough speed to have time to react when your headlights reveal something ahead, like a curve or object in the road, which needs you to take appropriate action.
In the case of walking with God, it’s like He’s giving us directions on how to walk through a maze from His perspective above, but only one turn at a time.
So, because God reveals things to us successively, we need to act in obedience, but only as far as we can ‘see.’ Don’t forge ‘full speed ahead,’ leave some maneuvering room in your life. The path we need to walk to get from where we are to where God wants us to be is usually not a straight line. But God only directs us to make changes within our ability, and sometimes that is in ‘baby steps.’
I think that is why the Psalmist said ‘God’s Word is like a lamp for our feet.’ If you’ve ever walked at night when camping, or in the country where there are no streetlights, and you had to use a lantern or flashlight to light your way, you might understand how these light sources can show you only the path just ahead, just a few steps are revealed at any one moment. That is how I have found it to be following Jesus in my life.
In this situation with the paralyzed man brought for healing, Jesus said instead, “Your sins are forgiven.” This didn’t set well with the opposition. Jesus said to them that He wanted to clearly demonstrate that He had the authority to forgive sins, so He then commanded the man to “get up, pick up his mat, and go home!”
Obviously the man was no longer paralyzed, but Jesus didn’t say, “Be healed,” or anything like that. I think the implication was the man was already healed when Jesus said his sins were forgiven.
I just happened to hear a message from Andrew Hopper from Mercy Hill Church this week from James 5:13-16, which is about prayers for healing by the elders, where it also mentions if the sick person has sinned, their sins will be forgiven.
So, the Bible clearly teaches here, and in other places, that there is a relationship between our physical infirmities and sinful spiritual condition. Also that there is a relationship between what we would call insanity or other mental illnesses, and demon possession, or as in Mark chapter 1, ‘unclean spirits.’
How can we tell if someone has an organic sickness from an injury or infection, as opposed to suffering from a judgment as the result of their sins? How can we tell if someone is possessed by an unclean spirit that needs to be expelled? I don’t know that we CAN tell. But this I believe, JESUS can tell and we CAN pray to Him and trust Him to heal, to forgive or to deliver us from an unclean spirit as needed. We just need to ask Him, listen for His commands to us and trust that He knows what we need.
3. Some people were offended by what Jesus said and/or did. Who were they and how did they respond?
In chapter 1, those who listened to Jesus teach in the synagogue commented that He taught with authority, not like the Scribes did.
To understand what they meant, we can look in Matthew where a similar comment is recorded at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. All during the Sermon, Jesus kept saying, “You have heard that it was said…, but I say to you...” That was Jesus teaching with a personal authority.
Apparently this comment from the synagogue had gotten back to the Scribes, because some of them came to the house where Jesus was ‘holding court’ this time. When Jesus told the paralytic, “…your sins are forgiven,” the Scribes didn’t say anything, but they were thinking it very loudly! One of the Divine powers Jesus demonstrated was His ability to know what people were thinking.
Note that Jesus didn’t criticize them for what they were thinking. Jesus demonstrated all of the qualities we are told by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:13,14 Christians are to exhibit. In this instance, Jesus patiently tried to help them to understand.
At this point, the Scribes were not yet portrayed as actively hostile, just questioning. It’s not unusual that there are things about Jesus, about the gospel, about the Bible, etc., that we don’t understand. It is very reassuring to me that Jesus doesn’t reject or condemn us when we have questions, especially since compared to Him and Father God, we are like children in our understanding of spiritual matters. Instead, He is willing to patiently explain and even to demonstrate His truths to us, if we’ll just give Him the opportunity.
There are many more revelations about Jesus in Mark 2, but the weekend is ending and a new week of Bible study begins in the morning. What new and exciting things about Jesus the Christ might I discover this week?
NOTE: Story pictures (c) Free Bible Images and used by permission
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