As far as I know, there is one place where everyone has to go in order to be cleared to legally drive in this country. It’s a beacon of hope for 16 year olds… and it’s the bain of anyone else who has to go more than once. The Department of Motor Vehicles, or DMV. Mine was in an old pet hospital… In our society, we know that in order to drive you must go to that dreaded place and get a license. There is no getting around it… and we also know how suspect it would be if someone walked up to you away from the DMV, say, at a gas station or a Taco Bell, and offered you a driver’s license. It’s obviously fraudulent.
Something like this happens in today’s passage… In 1st century Judea, where the Gospels take place, the religious life of the Jewish people revolved around the Jerusalem temple primarily, and then the synagogue secondarily. They could go to the synagogues to learn Torah, and to pray, and to consult the law, but the big stuff… like atonement and important sacrifices… that stuff could only happen in the temple. And just like someone trying to offer driver’s licenses apart from the DMV… someone like Jesus showing up in Capernaum saying that people’s sins are forgiven is more than suspect…. It’s blasphemous. That can only happen in the temple… because that’s where God lives… and only God can forgive sins…. So to say that you can forgive sins is to claim to be…. Now you get it. Mark is trying to tell us something. Will the people in the scene see it? Can you see it?
----------REFLECT----------
1. What moment in this passage was most shocking to you?
2. What characters do you find most relatable. The disciples and people pressed in trying to listen to Jesus, the friends carrying the paralyzed man, the teachers of the law who are questioning Jesus, or man on the mat?
3. As you imagine yourself there in that house, what are your feelings towards Jesus after this miracle happens? Fear, awe, reverence, skepticism, excitement, or something else?
4. How might you need Jesus to work this kind of holistic restoration in your life or the life of someone you love?
----------GO DEEPER----------
Bible Project: Mark Overview >>
Bible Project: The Gospel >>
Bible Project: Gospel of the Kingdom >>
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