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 Today's VOD (Yes, this is a longer passage than I usually share, but it is SO powerful. Please, take the time to read). 


Mark 2:4-12

And when they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and after digging an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralyzed man was lying. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking it over in their hearts, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God alone?” Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were thinking that way within themselves, said to them, “Why are you thinking about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —He said to the paralyzed man, “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home.” And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”


These verses says a lot more than our limited English language really implies.  I absolutely love this.  At this point in Jesus' ministry, He had recently rescued a man from demonic possession and thus His fame had spread out throughout the entire region. He attracted huge crowds everywhere He went.  Crowds back then didn't have 6 feet social distancing rules.  You literally couldn't get through a crowd, especially if you were say..carrying a paralytic man on a make shift stretcher that required 4 men to carry. That's what was happening here.  There was no way these four men were going to get through the crowd with their friend while Jesus was preaching to the crowd.

So, here is, in part, where the English language didn't quite get the point across as much as it could.  They didn't just remove the roof.  (Some translations say uncovered).  The actual force of the original language implied that they broke it up, tearing up the very fabrics of the roof, because they were determined to get their friend to Jesus so he could be healed.  But there is even more implied here if you think about it.  Once they dropped their friend down through the roof, which was the "easy" part, it would have been a LOT harder to get him back up THROUGH the roof if Jesus didn't or couldn't heal him.  But you know what?  They COUNTED on Jesus healing their friend.  They COUNTED on their friend WALKING out of the room. Jesus saw their faith and the fact that they just knew He could heal their friend. But what happened next surprised and upset the 4 friends. Instead of healing them right then and there, He forgave him of his sins.  

What?  Can't you almost imagine the friends on the roof saying, "No.  You got it wrong.  He's paralyzed.  We wanted him to walk, not to be forgiven!" But Jesus knew what his greatest need was.  What good is it if we have two legs that we use to walk right into Hell? 

This caused a controversy with several of the scribes, saying that things like "Only God can forgive sins" and calling Jesus a blasphemer. Again, what the verse doesn't say, but the context and history does...Jesus met these scribes on their own scholerly ground for the Jewish Rabbis had a saying, "There is no sick man healed of sickness until all of his sins have been forgiven him."  In other words, to the Jews, a sick man was a man with whom God was angry. Please note that Christian doctrine does NOT in any way give merit to the Jewish saying, however, Jesus was likely making a point here by asking if it's easier to forgive sins or to heal that man.  At that point, the scribes started to reason that perhaps He was truly the Son of Man as He claimed.  

After this point was made, Jesus did, in fact, heal the man, telling him to rise and take his make shift stretcher with him. Everyone around was completely in shock, having never seen anything like that before.  


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