“On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
~ Mark 2:17
Hi James and Ellen,
How would you have liked to have been able to follow Jesus wherever He went while He was on planet Earth? How would you have liked to have been able to listen to Jesus teach and see Him perform miracles? How would you have liked to have been a tax collector – sitting in your toll booth on a major international road between Damascus and Capernaum collecting taxes, when Jesus walked by your toll booth and told you to follow Him? That happened to a guy by the name of Levi. Levi had his name changed by Jesus to Matthew. How would you have liked to have had the chance to hear Jesus confront the Pharisees about their dogmatic legalistic positions? The Pharisees had arbitrarily decided that it was unlawful – per what they had determined that the Mosaic Law taught, for a guy or gal to do any kind of work on Sabbath days. When Jesus’ disciples began to break off grain heads on a Sabbath day as they walked through a grain field, the Pharisees pointed out to Jesus their determination of the unlawful thing that His disciples were doing. Jesus’ response to the Pharisees was that what His disciples were doing was not unlawful. Jesus bluntly told the Pharisees that the Sabbath day had been made for man and that man was not made for the Sabbath day. Jesus also had some guys confront Him about why He and His disciples never fasted like guys and gals who were followers of John the Baptist and the guys who were Pharisees did. Guys and gals at this time fasted thinking that if they fasted that they would have a closer relationship with God. Jesus asked the guys who were questioning Him if they would fast while they were with the bridegroom at the bridegroom’s wedding. Jesus was referring to Himself as being the bridegroom. Jesus simply explained to the guys that there was no need for His disciples to fast as they were with Him – and that He was God – as God the Son. Jesus also said that there would come a day when He would no longer be there with them – at which time His disciples will want to fast.
Your grandpaa believes that Mark – who your grandpaa calls the Midnight Reporter, accumulated bits and pieces of eyewitness accounts from a variety of sources. Mark recorded the data and information that he collected in a book that goes by his name. Your grandpaa believes that Peter was one of Mark’s sources for his Mark Book. Your grandpaa also believes that Matthew was another one of Mark’s sources for his Mark Book. Your grandpaa believes that Matthew – because of what he did as a tax collector, would have meticulously written down the different places where he went with Jesus, what he heard Jesus teach, what he saw Jesus do and other pertinent, relevant things that happened during his time with Jesus. Even though Mark’s book was being circulated before Matthew wrote his book, Matthew – in his Matthew Book, would write about a lot of the same things that Mark wrote about in his book. Mark consciously made a case in his book to the Gentiles of Who Jesus was while Matthew consciously made a case in his book to the Greeks of Who Jesus was. Mark – in Mark 2, is already zipping right along – reporting on all kinds of information regarding Jesus’ actions and teachings. Your grandpaa believes that there are not nearly enough Marks today – guys and gals who are accumulating data and information by traveling throughout planet Earth to assess the universal church’s vitality and who are then reporting the data and information that they have accumulated in the same simple, succinct, unadorned yet vivid way that Mark did his Mark Book.
The incident of the paralyzed guy being lowered through a house’s roof is one of those times when Mark clearly portrayed Jesus as God – God the Son. This incident validates the importance of never giving up and of always looking for another way. As Jesus was teaching to a tightly packed crowd of guys in a house – which may have been Peter’s house, that was located in Capernaum, a paralyzed guy showed up at the house. Your grandpaa thinks that the paralyzed guy had four of his friends carrying him on a mat. When the guys realized they would not be able to get the paralyzed guy to a place where Jesus could see him and . . . the guys decided to carry the paralyzed guy up the outside staircase of the house to the roof of the single story house. The guys then dug an opening through the flat roof of the house. The houses that were located in Capernaum were not covered with ceramic tiles; they were made up of a thick layer of packed clay that was supported by mats of branches that were laid across wood beams. It had to taken a lot of hard work to make a hole big enough to lower the paralyzed guy down to where Jesus was sitting. Your grandpaa wonders how Jesus could have kept on teaching to a packed room of guys at the same time some guys were breaking open a hole in the ceiling of the room. When the paralyzed guy’s friends were finally able to lower him with ropes down through the hole that they had made in the roof to where Jesus was teaching, Jesus told the paralyzed guy that his faith and the faith of his friends who had taken him up to the roof, who had made the hole in the roof and who had lowered the guy by ropes through the roof was enough to have this guy’s sins forgiven. It was like the guy had made a decision of faith and Jesus accepted his faith. It was after Jesus had told the paralyzed guy that his sins were forgiven, that He healed Him. Jesus said in verse 17, “On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”’” It is always important to remember that a guy or gal who needs healing must first have his or her sins forgiven – which happens when he or she confesses his or her sin nature and accepts what Jesus did for him or her when He sacrificed his body and blood for him or her on a cross before He will heal him or her of whatever malady that he or she is experiencing.
Mark 2 (568)