Get Up and Walk

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

GET UP AND WALK

Mark 2:6-12

6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, 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 had just started this narrative with page one, when the four friends of this man tore open the roof and lowered him, on his mat, right in front of Jesus. We know how Jesus had compassion on him and when he saw how much faith they had, by going to the kind of extreme effort to get their friend in front of Him, he said,
“Your sins are forgiven”. Of course, at this point, the man was still laying on his mat, as he had not gotten up and walked, but was just forgiven of his sin. Now, page two. It is interesting that with all the people cramming in to see Jesus, there were some teachers of the law among them, and of course, they were sitting, they were important and needed seats, while all the common folks were crammed in standing hoping to get close to Jesus. Most likely everyone was hanging on every word that Jesus spoke, but these teachers of the law were only being critical, at least in their thinking. We wonder as to how many people are silently critical of our words. We may never know, but Jesus, being divine, knew immediately in his spirit what they were thinking. So he questions them as to why they are thinking that way. There is no question from what Jesus said that he indeed has the power to forgive sin. We have taken that into our personal life and live in the truth that our sin is forgiven. All the sins of our past, the sin of the present day, and all our sins that we will most likely commit in the future are all covered by the blood of Jesus. Of course, that does not mean we should go around looking for a way to sin so that God’s grace can abound. That is not the point, but we have to know that guilt and shame only come from the accuser and not from Jesus. What we know is that not only does Jesus have the authority to forgive our sin, but he also has that authority to tell us to get up, pick up our mat, and walk. Jesus does not intend to leave us with our infirmity. From all we know reading about all the people he came in connect with, he healed them, he relieved them of their illness and their infirmities, such as a withered hand, or blindness, or lameness, or whatever other deformities they might have had. So then, what we have to wonder, did he stop doing all that when he ascending to sit at the right hand of God or is He still able and willing to heal us from all our sickness and infirmities. The answer has to be, yes he is willing and, yes He always will, if we but have the faith to believe. Many times, such as the woman with the issue of blood, Jesus told her that her faith has made her whole. He noticed the faith of these four men getting their friend down through the roof. Faith has to play an important part in our receiving healing from the hand of Jesus. It is very doubtful that we would ever hear Jesus say that because of your doubt, pick up your mat and walk. So, then as it is God who gives us a measure of faith, we need to use that faith and believe and, come to Jesus and be healed.