MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St. Mark

St. Mark 2:1-12

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VERSE 10 of this passage is the crucial verse. It reveals Christ's purpose in this whole incident. Jesus was engaged in his primary work of preaching the Gospel and a great crowd was gathered around him. Because the crush was so great, the paralysed man had to be let down through the roof in order to get near Jesus for healing. The people were familiar with the power of Jesus to heal the body, and Jesus could have simply healed the man as he had healed so many others before, but instead he goes much deeper and gives a deeper healing, the healing of the soul. Verse 10 tells us why Jesus made this act of forgiveness so public - "that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins".

Jesus was adding to the revelation of his deity and his saviourhood. His healing and teaching testified to it, though the people really did not see that it did. Now he forgives sins, and shows his authority to forgive sins by his evident divine authority and power. This was seen as a positive and distinct claim to deity. As God he could as easily forgive sins as he could heal the body. The healing of the body was an act of his divine creative power, and the healing of the soul was an act of his divine saving and recreating power. He further reveals his authority as God by reading the criticism in the minds of the teachers of the law. It must have been quite a shock to them to find Jesus knew all their thoughts.

We are meant to have our faith strengthened and made more firm by the testimony Jesus here gives to himself.

Let us learn the great blessing of forgiveness which Jesus came to provide for us. He is our Saviour by bearing our sins in his body on the cross, and so because of this he is able, and has complete authority, to justly forgive our sins because he has borne the guilt and punishment in our place. Thus he saves us from death which is the consequence of our sins, and as a result reconciles us to God. Although we do not always in this life feel how much greater this gift is than any temporal blessing, it is the greatest blessing of all. Because the needs of our bodies and the needs of this life are immediate to us, they become very pressing. If we are suffering in some way, such is the pain of that suffering that relief in this direction is all important. But all temporal blessings are just that, temporal. They are but for a little while as compared with eternity. The forgiveness of our sins secures for us the blessing of joy and love with God for all eternity. We shall be so grateful for this great blessing when we arrive in glory, and the needs of this temporal life press us no more. Then we shall understand how Jesus has blessed us, and how gracious he is to give us this blessing when we are so earthly minded in this life.

Let us notice how Jesus rewarded the faith of the paralysed man and his friends, when he recognized their great earnestness for a blessing. Jesus particularly mentions this. We read that it was through seeing their faith (verse 5) that he then responded with blessing.

There is blessed instruction here for us all. We read in Jeremiah God's promise to Israel when he speaks of their restoration after their seventy years in exile. God promises in Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek for me and find me, when you seek for me with all your heart." This promise is proved so right in the case of these four men and their paralysed friend. They sought Jesus so deeply that nothing was going to stop them getting to Jesus to receive his healing blessing. How many of us would have been put off as soon as we saw the crowd so that we could not get through the door. How many would have feared the opposition of the crowd if they sought to gain access through the crush. Who would be ready to dismantle the roof in order to get to Jesus. No doubt access to the roof in those days was easier than today, and the roof was flat, but it was still an act of great determination to come to Jesus.

The great ingredient of seeking Jesus with all our hearts is mentioned hear. It is faith. These men and their paralysed friend had faith in Jesus' power to heal, but this would not be enough. They needed an addition to their faith, and that was the belief in the good will of Jesus towards them so that he would give his attention to them and bestow the desired blessing. Faith that seeks with all the heart is that faith that believes in the good will of Jesus towards those who come to him seeking his grace and salvation, as well as belief in his divine power to heal and save.

The promise in Jeremiah is the promise we must never let go. It is this promise that gives us the determination to go on seeking his grace and salvation in every detail of our lives, even when circumstances seem to be telling us something different. There are times when the difficulties in life, and the sufferings or the problems we are experiencing, seem to contradict in us any idea of the goodness and kindness of God towards us, telling us that it is a waste of time to come to a God who seems to allow all these afflictions to overwhelm us. We must never in these difficulties doubt the grace and love of Christ towards us, and persevere seeking his grace in spite of the problems, just as these men did with their paralysed friend.

There is one last ingredient which we can learn in the approach of these men to Jesus which is implied rather than explicitly expressed. That is their willingness to place themselves in the hands of Jesus totally. This is an essential element in true faith. It is the element of obedience. Faith does not seek Jesus for a blessing simply in order to receive a gift and then forget the giver. Rather true faith seeks the blessing with the desire to belong to and obey the Saviour. Seeking Jesus for some blessing simply to leave him after the blessing is received, is not seeking the Lord with all the heart, and is not true faith.