Today is Mark 2.

I’m actually preaching Mark 2:1-12 this Sunday at Graceland Church, specifically our New Albany campus so this passage has been on my mind.

There is one observation that floods my mind whenever I read Mark 2 and it’s this: What should be MORE amazing is NOT the fact that Jesus told the guy to get off his mat and start walking BUT the fact that Jesus looked into the guy’s heart and saw that he had faith and then pronounced that his sins were forgiven.

If I’m being honest (probably the best posture right 😁😁) I know that I would be awestruck if I walked into the local hospital and saw Jesus healing people from seemingly unhealable diseases and probably more so than if He looked at someone and said, “your sins are forgiven.” What does that tell me? First, I need to be regularly reminded about the supernatural work of Christ bringing about forgiveness that was accomplished through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Second, it tells me that my eyes are still too fixated on the physical realities in front of me over against the spiritual realties that lie beneath the surface of a man/woman’s outward appearance, namely, that we need to receive and experience forgiveness for our sins. Jesus, the authoritative one, came to do just that: forgive.