thoughts on Mark 2.1-12
There seems to be a theme already starting to form in Mark, that Jesus isn't on earth to take the easy route. This isn't a suprise to anyone who knows the end of the story. Here is Jesus speaking and a large crowd has gathered. Four men carrying a paralytic, thinking, "I don't care how big the crowd is, we are going to get you in front of Jesus."
I'm captured by this. Sometimes numbers are intimidating and they are a lot of times a barrier between us and Christ. I want an attitude like these men, who trust so much in Jesus' authority and power. My desire is to bring others to see Christ no matter what the number looks like. One, or twenty, or hundreds, or thousands...what does it matter?
What matters is Christ's authority and power. And Christ honors the faith demonstrated by forgiving the sins of the paralytic. (This is not to say that paralysis is a result of sinfulness) Jesus is asserting his authority to another level. "Why, only God has the authority to forgive sins?"
Yeah there is a definate parallel going on here between Jesus and God, and it's less than implicit.
Jesus has again amazed the crowd and they "praised God". I have to think that Jesus was extremely pleased to see that the result is that God is receiving praise for what he is doing.
I'm captured by this. Sometimes numbers are intimidating and they are a lot of times a barrier between us and Christ. I want an attitude like these men, who trust so much in Jesus' authority and power. My desire is to bring others to see Christ no matter what the number looks like. One, or twenty, or hundreds, or thousands...what does it matter?
What matters is Christ's authority and power. And Christ honors the faith demonstrated by forgiving the sins of the paralytic. (This is not to say that paralysis is a result of sinfulness) Jesus is asserting his authority to another level. "Why, only God has the authority to forgive sins?"
Yeah there is a definate parallel going on here between Jesus and God, and it's less than implicit.
Jesus has again amazed the crowd and they "praised God". I have to think that Jesus was extremely pleased to see that the result is that God is receiving praise for what he is doing.