GOSPEL MEDITATION #176
The Gospel of Mark
Jesus heals a Paralytic — Mark 2:1-12
- Find a quiet place without distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
- Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
- Jesus at home, question is, His or Peter’s.
- Whenever healing is reported, crowds gather.
- Jesus was preaching, not healing however.
- Four guys had a dear friend they wanted to bring to Jesus.
- With great boldness they did something unusual, they took apart a roof and lowered their friend down to Jesus.
- Jesus’ response: “My son, your sins are forgiven.” Let it be noted that the Greek simply has teknon meaning child.
- Scribes, doctors of the Law, saw Jesus’ statement as blasphemy as they knew only God can forgive sin, this only by means of a proper sacrifice.
- Jesus knew what was in their hearts, possibly by means of the charismatic gift of knowledge. (see 1 Cor. 12:8)
- Jesus wanted the scribes to know that what He said was true by healing the paralytic completely.
- To bring the point home, He asked which was easier – to forgive or heal. Of course, the idea is, well it is fine to forgive sins but that was an empty gesture at minimum.
- The man who could not walk did and also lugged his mattress home with him — no other proof needed.
- For sure, no one had ever seen anything like it. The point, the lesson, Jesus had in mind was that He was far more than a healer, He had authority, there and then, to forgive sin.