Mark 2:1-12 (Part 2)
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Two people can hear the same message and have completely different reactions. Everyone here is hearing the same word but it will not impact you all the same. Some wil here theses words and put them into practice and benefit from
Then other will put them in the garbage and be judged by them.
What is Faith
What is Forgiveness- by passing the temple - because Jesus was the new one.
What is Son of Man
Jesus the new Temple
What is Blasphemy
What? Everyone in that room must have gasped because the pronouncement that was pouring out of the mouth of Jesus in that moment sounded a lot like 7 time repeated phrase we find in Leviticus
“So the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin, and he shall be forgiven.
The man didn’t come to get sins forgiven, he clearly needs a physical healing Jesus. This shocking statement was met with criticism.
When we express faith we get forgiveness.
6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts?
Well we are questioning them because what you are saying is blasphemous and shocking and completely out of line and unverifiable. How can we tell if his sin are forgiven? That’s why!
But Jesus kept His wits about Him and avoids being indicted by the religious authorities by asking a question to the religious leaders that wouldn’t leave him open to the charge of blasphemy.
To them He says...
9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?
Brilliant - answer a question with a counter question.
The Gospel of Mark ((a) The Authority to Forgive Sins. Ch. 2:1–12)
Jesus sensed the sharp disapproval of the scribes and drew the attention of those present to it by addressing them with the pointed question, “Is it easier to say to a paralysed man ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say ‘Arise, pick up your mattress and walk’?” Jesus’ use of a counter-question in situations of debate recurs in other narratives (Chs. 3:4; 11:30; 12:37), and appears to be characteristic of his response to conflict
Mark (Healing and Forgiveness)
Which is easier, to make a theological pronouncement about the forgiveness of sins or to provide empirical proof that the man’s sins have indeed been forgiven by virtue of his ability to get up and walk away?”
Well it is easy to mutter a few words “your sins are forgiven.” Anyone can say that. There are consequence to saying something like that, but to actually accomplish the removal of someones sins proved to be rather difficult and impossible…just ask the messy, bloody OT priests who worked so hard just to cover sin and not completely remove them and how can you verify sins being taken away?
It is also rather easy too say, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” But can you actually pull it off? To say this was one thing, to actually do it was another.
But, if Jesus could actually perform this bodily miracle in front of the massive crowd of onlookers, then He would be claiming to possess the authority to perform the spiritual miracle as well without actually saying what the religious leaders would say was “blasphemy.”
With all this in mind, Jesus continues to speak and says...
10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—
And to further help you decide what to think about Jesus, this is what the paralyzed man does.
Mark 2:12 (ESV)
12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all……
And this is how that crowd of onlookers responded.
12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
They were “amazed” and “glorified” God. And Mark uses some creative writing to get his point across here. The Greek really puts a heavy emphasis on “never saw anything like this.” In our modern vernacular it would be, “we have never, never ever, under any circumstances ever, witnessed anything ever remotely close to what we have just witnessed.” We are amazed and God is to be praised because we think He is standing right here before us saying things and implying things like the OT priest of old merely eluded too.
Unlike the OT priests, Jesus made it clear that He is pronouncing divine forgiveness by his own authority, therefore He Himself was divine. And that is hard to dispute when the man who was once laying on a mat and was lowered from the ceiling, takes up that mat and walks out the front door to walk in a way that he was never able to walk before.
The Gospel of Mark ((a) The Authority to Forgive Sins. Ch. 2:1–12)
Consequently every healing is a driving back of death and an invasion of the province of sin.