The Life of Jesus Series:
How Jesus interacted with
others.
Mark 2:1-12
(Use the link below to
read the verses.)
My
eight year old granddaughter is playing in her 4th year of soccer.
After a recent game, I made the comment that one of the players on the other
team was a “force to be reckoned with”. She asked what that meant. I explained to
her that the girl was really good and because of that, she changed the course
of the game.
Even
though Jesus was in the early stages of his ministry, he was a force to be
reckoned with. Included in the large crowd in this story in Mark were a
paralytic and his friends. As the story goes, the paralytic’s friends carried
him to the roof, dug a hole in it and lowered him down, right in front of
Jesus.
Of
course they did this for the paralytic to be healed. It was obvious. The
paralytic was handicapped and his friends had gone to a great deal of trouble
to get him in front of Jesus who they thought could do the job. After all,
Jesus was a force to be reckoned with.
But,
what if Jesus had only forgiven the sins of the paralytic? What if he didn’t
heal him so that he could walk out of the house as a physically whole person? Would
his life have been changed forever?
I’m
reminded of Joni Eareckson Tada
who suffered a diving accident at the age of seventeen resulting in her being
paralyzed from the shoulders down. Jesus didn’t heal her physically, but he did
forgive her. Because of this, she used her disability as an opportunity to
minister to others. As a result, she became a force to be reckoned with.
What
about you or me? Jesus has forgiven us. Have we become a force to be reckoned
with?
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