Amazed

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

AMAZED

Mark 2:11-12

11 "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home."  12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

NIV

We have already considered the words of Jesus, but we did not deal with two other issues. First, the man on the mat. Let us remember that he was a paralytic, that he was paralyzed, he could not move. We do not know the extent of his paralysis other then we are sure he was not able to walk, so we would have to believe his legs did not work, he could not move them and because he was on a mat and had to be carried, he was not able to move himself about by his arms, dragging his paralyzed legs behind him. Thus it would make sense that he was completely paralyzed, except that perhaps he could talk, and eat. The Greek word carries the meaning of having the nerves of one side relaxed, so then he may have had one side working the other side not, either way, he had to be carried on a mat by others. Nevertheless, at the command of Jesus, he simply got up, took up his mat, and walked out of the house in full view of everyone. Certainly, he had some expectation because he and his four friends must have discussed getting him to see Jesus. He must have expected to be healed, he was hoping to be healed. Then he could walk and live a normal life being a productive member of the town. It would make sense that he did not want to be carried about by others, and cared for by others. So then when Jesus told him to get up, he had to experience feeling in his limps immediately and knew that he was healed, and he got up. We are not told if he thanked Jesus, or gave praise to God, or said anything at all. However, the crowd praised God, there must have been a great cheer of jubilee throughout the crowd, amazement that this man, who could not walk but was carried on a mat, now walked carrying his mat. Praise God, we have never seen anything like this before. This Jesus has the power of God, for only God could do something like this, but they had never ever seen God do anything like that. The fact is many who believe have never seen someone healed from some debilitating disease, yet they believe. Many believe simply through having faith in Jesus without any evidence that Jesus is real. These people were Jews and believed in God because of having been told what God did for their forefathers but have not seen any evidence themselves until they saw Jesus heal this paralytic. Many say that Jesus is their hope. It is said that faith is the substance of things hoped for, yet not seen. Why did Jesus give them evidence of the reality of God? The fact is we do have evidence, we have all the first hand recorded evidence of the reality of Jesus and in addition to all that, we have actually experienced his healing power, on various occasions, in our own body, I speak of myself here. In addition to that, we have had miracles that can only be explained as the hand of God at work in our lives, again I speak of myself here. There is no doubt, Jesus heals, the question is when he does, why are people amazed?