Lesson 46

LESSON 46 – Mark 2:5-12

Mark 2:5-12 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. 6But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 7Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? 8And 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? 9Whether 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? 10But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) 11I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. 12And 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.

Let's look at this same passage from the last lesson again. "When Jesus saw their faith" is an important phrase. Faith has to be present for healing to occur. Much of the time Jesus used His own faith to heal, but here these four men's faith was the catalyst for healing.

These four men not only supplied the much needed faith for the man's healing by Jesus, but they also acted as intercessors for the sick man. They were determined to bring their friend to Jesus. They knew if they could get him there, Jesus would heal him. They did not quit. They did not give up. They didn't let the crowd conditions deter them. They didn't let obstacles stand in their way. They didn't see the situation as impossible. Their knowledge of Jesus, Whom they knew had a mandate from God to heal people...

Luke 4:18 And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Their hope--expectations in God--Psalm 62:5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.--led to their faith, (Heb 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for—healing--the evidence of things not seen); the man walking led to the man being healed. Faith always must be seen in some kind of action/work/demonstration of that faith. (James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.)

These four men were a picture of how we should be when we pray for seemingly impossible things. We should have confidence in Jesus as the Answer to our prayers. We shouldn't give up. We shouldn't quit. We shouldn't let the situation become bigger in our eyes than our God and His power to change things. God specializes in changing impossible situations. There is nothing too hard for Him...

(Jeremiah 32:17 17Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:) We must not let any doubt come in. James 1:6...let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed...for let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord...

Mark 11:22-24 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have the faith of God. 23For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Now let's look at the other group of people in this story, the scribes who were already in the house, listening to the teachings of Jesus, when the four men brought their friend to be healed.

Scribes were scholars of the scriptures. They studied the Old Testament and made copies of the scriptures, which took a long time. They were considered learned men. In this passage we see that they were bothered by what they heard Jesus say to the paralyzed man. They thought that Jesus shouldn't say that the man was forgiven, because "only God can forgive sins."

By the Holy Spirit revealing to Jesus what the scribes were thinking in their minds, Jesus is able to address their thoughts and show them a truth they did not know. He asks them a question: is it easier to say to this palsied man your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk? The obvious answer is that it is easier to say something that cannot be verified. No one can see sins removed but all who are present can verify if the paralyzed man who cannot walk at all, suddenly gets up and walks. To prove to them that He had the power to forgive sins of the spirit of the man, He does what to them seems the harder thing; He heals the paralyzed man's body.

In the Old Testament disease and death were viewed as the consequences of man's sinful condition and healing was a result of God's forgiveness.

Ps 41:3-4 The Lord will help them when they are sick and will restore them to health. I said, "I have sinned against you, Lord; be merciful to me and heal me."

Ps 103:3. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; ...

Isaiah 19:22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.

However, we know that sickness is not always a result of the person's sin. That is evident by this passage in John 9:1-3, And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents.

There were four reactions to the healing of the paralytic man. Some said they had never seen such things (2:12). Some were filled with fear and called what they had seen "strange things" (Luke 5:26). Others marvelled and glorified God Who had given such power to men.(Matt 9:8). What do you think the healed man and his friends' reactions were?

The healed man went home, probably to "show and tell" what had happened to him. His four friends probably stayed to repair the roof they had damaged.