Reflective Bible Study

Continuing moving forward in Mark’s gospel, we come to a miracle Mark includes that probably was the only one like it ever in Jesus’ ministry. One thing I find fascinating about this event is that it didn’t appear as though Jesus was actively healing people, and it is interesting who happens to be inside the home near Jesus when this event takes place.

Let’s continue reading and discover what happened. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 2, and we will read it from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us that:

¹ Jesus went back to Capernaum, and a few days later people heard that he was at home. ² Then so many of them came to the house that there wasn’t even standing room left in front of the door.

Jesus was still teaching ³ when four people came up, carrying a crippled man on a mat. ⁴ But because of the crowd, they could not get him to Jesus. So they made a hole in the roof above him and let the man down in front of everyone.

⁵ When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the crippled man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶ Some of the teachers of the Law of Moses were sitting there. They started wondering, ⁷ “Why would he say such a thing? He must think he is God! Only God can forgive sins.”

⁸ Right away, Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said, “Why are you thinking such things? ⁹ Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and pick up his mat and go on home? ¹⁰ I will show you that the Son of Man has the right to forgive sins here on earth.” So Jesus said to the man, ¹¹ “Get up! Pick up your mat and go on home.”

¹² The man got right up. He picked up his mat and went out while everyone watched in amazement. They praised God and said, “We have never seen anything like this!”

In this passage and event, we find something amazing. While those present watch in amazement as the crippled man gets up and walks out of the house, this detail did not stand out to me when reading this event this time. While this healing was amazing, a different detail in this passage stands out as being very significant.

Also significant in this passage is the faith and determination of this man’s friends. When the friends cannot get the man into the home using normal methods, they resort to something very abnormal, which ultimately was successful. But while this was amazing, it did not stand out to me when reading the passage this time.

In this passage, another detail I notice is that the crowd would not let the man’s friends carry him to Jesus. This is interesting, since the crowd would have probably liked to see Jesus perform a miracle, but they were too preoccupied with what Jesus was saying to realize the opportunity they were turning away. While this is also significant, this isn’t the big detail that stood out to me while reading this passage.

Instead, when reading this passage, I was amazed that those in the home next to Jesus were the religious leaders and teachers of the Law. While these religious teachers criticize Jesus claiming to have the power to forgive sins, the only reason they could have done this is if they were present, within earshot, and within conversational distance from Jesus. This means that some of the first people to come see Jesus when He had returned to Capernaum were the religious leaders living in this city.

While we stereotypically think the religious leaders were opposed to Jesus from the very beginning of His ministry, I think this stereotype is not entirely true. While some of the religious leaders simply disliked Jesus for His popularity because it stole from their own popularity, I believe that early on in Jesus’ ministry, everyone from the most religious and spiritual to the least religious and spiritual person took note of Jesus. With the Holy Spirit filling Jesus’ life, which happened at Jesus’ baptism, Jesus showed God’s love in powerful, miraculous ways.

Stepping back to one of the earlier details we skipped over, while the crowd did not let the crippled man’s friends enter the home with him, this was likely a God directed obstacle because it demonstrated to everyone present that these friends had so much faith in Jesus that they would stop at nothing to get their friend to Him.

I imagine the man’s friends stayed behind to fix the hole they made, but even if they didn’t, a hole in a home is less significant in God’s eyes than a healed person giving God thanks, praise, and glory, and a hole in a home is less significant than a person being forgiven of their sins.

In this event, I am amazed at the faith of the man’s friends. However, nowhere do we see any indication of the crippled man’s faith. Instead, all we see is Jesus proclaiming that the crippled man’s sins are forgiven. While Jesus might have said this because it tied into what He was already speaking about, or because He knew that it would get the religious leaders’ attention, I wonder if Jesus actually said this to the crippled man because that is what this man needed to hear.

Nothing in this event indicates the crippled man had faith in Jesus. Instead, I wonder if the crippled man believed God’s punishment was on Him and that his disability was a punishment from God because of something that he had done, because of a sin he had committed, or because of something that had happened. While being healed is nice, I wonder if the real miracle in this event was the proof that this man’s sins were forgiven, and the healing solidified this truth in this man’s mind.

In this healing, Jesus not only healed this man’s disability, He also gave peace to this man’s soul that God was not angry with Him, God was not mad at Him, and God was not judging Him. While sometimes we have to face the consequences of our own actions and our own sins, God is not mad at us or eagerly waiting to judge and condemn us. Instead, God loves us so much that He let Jesus come and take the punishment we deserved for our sins so that we can have a restored relationship with Him!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and understand that when we come to God asking for forgiveness, God has already forgiven us. While we might have to live with the natural consequences of our actions, God isn’t interested in punishing us more than our actions require. Instead, God is more interested in saving us for eternity, and bringing us home to a recreated world without sin, pain, or death.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Don’t take my word or any pastor, speaker, author, or podcaster’s word for what the Bible teaches. Instead, study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God and to discover God’s truth for yourself.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or choose to ignore where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through John’s gospel, we come to the place where John begins to shift his focus away from John the Baptist and onto Jesus. John does this by following the first two people who chose to follow Jesus, one who was known as Andrew, and the other who is not named but who could easily have been the disciple John, the author of this gospel.

Let’s read about what happened and discover what we can learn from these first followers of Jesus. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 1, and we will read from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 35, John’s gospel tells us:

³⁵ The next day, John was there again, and two of his followers were with him. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Here is the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ John’s two followers heard him, and they went with Jesus.

³⁸ When Jesus turned and saw them, he asked, “What do you want?”

They answered, “Rabbi, where do you live?” The Hebrew word “Rabbi” means “Teacher.”

³⁹ Jesus replied, “Come and see!” It was already about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him and saw where he lived. So they stayed on for the rest of the day.

⁴⁰ One of the two men who had heard John and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” The Hebrew word “Messiah” means the same as the Greek word “Christ.”

⁴² Andrew brought his brother to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, “Simon son of John, you will be called Cephas.” This name can be translated as “Peter.”

^43-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.”

⁴⁵ Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶ Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Philip answered, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, “Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn’t deceitful.”

⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

⁴⁹ Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see something even greater. ⁵¹ I tell you for certain that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man.”

In this passage, I am amazed at how this early group of followers grew. In these few verses that conclude chapter 1 of John’s gospel, we see Jesus’ first followers going and telling those they know about Jesus and inviting them to come and see Jesus for themselves.

This is incredibly significant in my mind because Jesus has done no miracle, Jesus hasn’t really said anything wise, and Jesus is from a less-than-reputable location. This group of early followers has three things in common: They heard about Jesus from someone else, they believe the testimony they heard, and they accept the invitation to come and see Jesus for themselves.

About the only amazing thing Jesus says is the statement to Nathanael about seeing him under the fig tree, which doesn’t mean that much to us today, and the greater declaration that the disciples would see even greater things than this.

It is also amazing, but to a lesser extent, that when Jesus meets Simon for the first time, Jesus gives him the name Peter. While this could be an official new name, Jesus could also have given him what we might call in today’s culture a nickname. However, far from being a nickname that is based on what Peter had done in the past, this name signaled what Peter would do in the future and how instrumental he would be when standing up for God.

The way this passage shares about Jesus’ first followers I suspect is a model that we are called to apply. When Jesus has done something for us, or when we have found Jesus, the best thing for us to do is share Jesus with those around us. Specifically, when we have been invited to experience Jesus, we should intentionally invite someone else to come and see too.

In our own lives, sometimes we might be afraid of what other people will think of an invitation to church or to a Bible study. Sometimes these fears are valid concerns. There are definitely times and places where sharing Jesus would not be welcomed or wise.

However, if Jesus is the answer we know would solve the pain, anxiety, or stress in a friend, family member, neighbor, or coworker’s life, it would be cruel to keep Jesus from them. These first followers intentionally shared Jesus with those in their lives, and their invitations early on, before Jesus had entered the public spotlight, speak volumes to how their faith in Jesus was not based on miracles or on fame, but on the understanding that Jesus had a solution their lives needed. While each of Jesus’ early followers may have had different reasons for accepting the invitation and sharing it with others, they all knew early on that following Jesus was important.

While we might feel fear about following Jesus or inviting others, intentionally push past the fear because what Jesus did for us is more significant than the worst response we could receive when inviting someone to come to Jesus. The worst response we could receive is anger, hostility, and/or rejection. The response we receive when inviting someone to Jesus doesn’t say anything about ourselves; the response we receive when inviting others to Jesus reveals their hearts and their state of mind.

It is normal to feel a little nervous at times about sharing Jesus with others, but we should push past this fear because we might be surprised how God steps in and shifts the conversation in ways you might be surprised to discover. Jesus’ early followers didn’t try to impress their friends with what Jesus had done, they simply invited them to come and see Jesus for themselves. When we share Jesus with others, the focus is not on us and the conversation isn’t about us. When we share Jesus with others, focus on sharing Jesus. We share what Jesus has done for us, we invite others to come and see, and when the focus stays on Jesus, God moves in amazing ways.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue seeking God first in your life. If you are unsure or fearful about inviting someone to church or to a Bible study, pray for strength, an opportunity, and the opening to share. Trust that God will bring an opening into your life to share. However, also know that God may be waiting for you to make an opening for Him to step into. When inviting people, keep the focus on Jesus and on what Jesus has done for all of us!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and discover what God has done for us. The Bible is God’s story of history, and it is our story of redemption through what Jesus accomplished for us. While critics and skeptics can try to discount the Bible based on passages or events they dislike, look past the critics and onto the cross. Look past the skeptics and into the face of Jesus, who came to give His life for you and me. In the pages of the Bible, discover how much God loves humanity, and lean on God’s love for humanity when looking for the strength to invite others to Jesus.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or let fear paralyze you out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!