February
13th Mark
2 Jesus heals a cripple
1:
And again he entered into Capernaum, after some days; and it was
noised that he was in the house. 2: And straightway many were
gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them,
no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto
them. 3: And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy,
which was borne of four. 4: And when they could not come nigh unto
him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when
they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the
palsy lay. 5: When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of
the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. 6: But there were certain
of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 7: Why
doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God
only? 8: And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they
so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these
things in your hearts? 9: Whether is it easier to say to the sick of
the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up
thy bed, and walk? 10: But that ye may know that the Son of man hath
power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
11: I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into
thine house. 12: And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went
forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and
glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
Jesus
calls Levi
13:
And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude
resorted unto him, and he taught them. 14: And as he passed by, he
saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and
said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. 15: And it
came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans
and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there
were many, and they followed him. 16: And when the scribes and
Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his
disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and
sinners? 17: When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are
whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Now
we have a very interesting occasion. Christ is in Capernaum, his
centre of ministry in the north. The News goes out that Christ is in
the house and straight away a huge crowd gathers together. When we
turn to Luke’s record we find that – there were Pharisees and
teachers of the Law sitting by, who had come out of every town of
Galilee Judea and Jerusalem. The Jewish Authorities had arrived to
begin their ten day investigation! According to their custom they
had not come to speak but to listen, so Christ engages them in
discussion without them having to speak. Christ turns to the man let
down through the roof and says to him, ‘Son, your sins are
forgiven’. Now they began to think, What! who does he think he is?
Who can forgive sins but God only? Now Christ knew what they were
thinking and so he proceeds to answer their unspoken question. Christ
says why are you thinking these things! Then he proposes a question.
He says, which is it easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say
Get up and walk? Well obviously its easier to say Your sins are
forgiven because nobody can see it. Its an invisible thing. However
if Christ says get up and walk that is much harder to say, because
within a few minutes it will be obvious to everyone whether your
words are true or false. Now Christ is going to prove for ever that
he can forgive sins by doing something that is much harder to
achieve. If he can do the harder thing then the easier thing is
obviously able to be done. So Christ takes him by the hand and cures
his lameness and everyone was completely amazed and went out Praising
God. The Religious leaders went back to Jerusalem with the news that
this pretender to the Messiahship was very significant. Christ’s
ministry was not carried out in a corner away, from prying eyes.
- Why were so many religious leaders gathered in this one place?
- How did the Lord get over their unspoken questions?
- What did Jesus mean by – I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance?
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