Jesus: The Man Who Changed HistorySample

If we were being really honest with ourselves, what would we say is our deepest need? In Mark’s gospel we see Jesus come face-to-face with all sorts of human needs: relationship breakdown, facing illness or physical storms. Jesus speaks into these needs and people are amazed because he speaks with authority, and not like their religious leaders. As he showed his authority over nature, evil spirits, illness and death, Jesus became somewhat of a celebrity figure in first-century Palestine. He drew flocks of people to him wherever he went. But in this next account that is recorded in Mark 2, Jesus seems to diagnose and cure a human need even deeper than physical paralysis. We see that a huge crowd blocks the doors to a house where Jesus is teaching. A paralyzed man’s resourceful and desperate friends lower him into Jesus’ presence through the roof. Within minutes of meeting Jesus, this man who was paralyzed walks out into a totally transformed life! But the surprise in this story is that this was not the most amazing transformation. The true miracle was that this paralyzed man was leaving a forgiven man. Jesus did a visible miracle – healing the man’s paralysis - to show that he had the loving authority to do the invisible, to forgive sins. Jesus knew that what the man most needed was to have his sins forgiven. Our relationship with God is far more important than our physical health. The religious leaders looked for every opportunity to discredit Jesus; they would have exposed him as a fake if they could. But the evidence for the uniqueness of his power and authority was both too strong. Jesus was claiming the power and authority of God - at which many religious people then (and still today) were enraged. After considering the evidence about Jesus’ identity, do you feel drawn to explore his life more, or are you drawn away from him?