The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Mark 2:1-12 (day seven)

“[…] there came one like a son of man […]
 And to him was given dominion
    and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
    should serve him;” Daniel 7:13-14

Rick, you got the Re:Verse wrong! Daniel was the passage in Spring of 2020. Okay, okay some of y’all are still recovering from the apocalyptic literature overload, but that study laid a great foundation for our Mark passage. Look at what happens here: The pharisees ask “who can forgive sins but God alone?” (vs 7b) and Jesus responds “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” (vs 10) Jesus is pointing the scribes back to the prophets. Specifically, Jesus is referencing where Ezekiel and Daniel called this coming Messiah, the Son of Man. Jesus is saying that He is that Messiah! He is God! What caught the scribes so off guard was in their perception of what this Messiah would do. They thought He would have come and make the world bow down and serve Him (them). Instead this Son of Man has come to forgive, heal, and teach. He came to serve!

Re:Verse passage – Mark 2:1-12 (day six).

Jesus reveals something new. Up to this point he has shown that his mission is to bring renewal and restoration to a sin wrecked, spiritually oppressed and broken people; he has come to beckon his people to turn toward God. In this story he makes the connection between forgiveness and renewal. Eternal renewal, or healing, comes through forgiveness.

Another way to think of this, is that forgiveness, or avoiding God’s judgement, is not the end of salvation, it is the means through which we experience abundant life and fullness of joy.

Forgiveness is the way, thus Jesus is the way…the truth and the life.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 2:1-12 (day five).  And Jesus seeing their faith *said to the paralytic, “ Son, your sins are forgiven.”

It’s a beautiful picture. All 5 of these men have faith that was recognized by Jesus.  What was it that they believed?  I think they believed that Jesus could and would meet their friend’s deepest need. They were right, and they were wrong. They were right in the sense that Jesus could meet His deepest need. They were wrong in understanding what his deepest need actually was.  Jesus was very clear and understood completely what his biggest need actually was- the forgiveness of sin, to be in a right relationship with the Living God. Jesus at that moment looked past the circumstances and met the paralyzed man’s greatest need- forgiveness of Sin.

Will you ask Him to do the same for you?  Lord- Look past our circumstances and meet our greatest need!! (Help us be in a right relationship with You, Lord)

Re:Verse passage – Mark 2:1-12 (day four)

Not everyone who comes to church is there because they want a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Here in our passage…even though there were honest seekers of Jesus wanting to get in…there were seats up close that were occupied by scribes who wanted to discredit Jesus.  Their hearts were cold to Jesus and they wanted to find reasons to reclaim their authority over the people.

The people had recognized that Jesus “taught as one having authority and not as the scribes…” (1:22). Now, Jesus’ authority was exemplified by His forgiveness of the man’s sins and the healing of his paralyzed body.  Also, His authority was demonstrated when He told the man to go home.  Suddenly, the crowd that had been too dense for the man to approach Jesus before, found room to create a pathway for his exit at Jesus’ command.

There are many motivations for people to go to church.  What motivates you?  We cannot answer for others, but we are responsible for our own responses.  Are we seeking Jesus for a relationship with Him?

Re:Verse passage – Mark 2:1-12 (day three)

“Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

There’s a perverse logic at work in the kind of reasoning that claims the act of forgiveness is above one’s pay grade. If forgiveness is the domain of God alone, you don’t have to bother with cancelling the moral debt of people who’ve wronged you. Let ‘em take it up with God. But Jesus doesn’t just show us what forgiveness looks like. He tells us that unless we forgive those in our debt, no life with God is possible (see Matthew 18), and that the way we treat one another has eternal consequences (“Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven” – again, see Matthew 18). To say “some things only God can do” is often a very clever way to dodge the kind of life that our Lord calls us to live.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 2:1-12 (day two)

Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. vs. 4

What would you do to get near Jesus; climb a tree, push through a crowd, walk to the next town, leave your dying relative? Are these familiar stories of people doing whatever they could to get near the savior are becoming, well, familiar? It seems we are comfortable reading these magnificent stories, but, in reality, we do little to emulate them. Perhaps it is because any one of those stories includes a bit of humiliation. Each of them were willing to risk something to get near Jesus, and that may be a bridge too far for us. It was good for a tax collector, or a bleeding woman, but not for a 21st century average Joe/Jane. What’s missing? Did they recognize Jesus more fully than we do? Were they willing to throw all caution aside for a chance to be near this teacher, this healer, this Jesus? One thing that hasn’t changed over time is Jesus. So what we are left with is a choice to follow the examples of some first century sinners and do whatever it takes to get near him today.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 1:36-45 (day seven) 

Jesus could have (and according to the law, should have) turned away from the leper and went about his plan to preach and teach, but Jesus was about to teach a lesson the disciples would never forget through his actions. Watch what He does,

“Jesus reached out with His hand and touched him.”

Jesus didn’t have to touch him. We see other miracles of Jesus where His words were enough. The touch was as important as the words in this instance. Touching this man would make any normal person ritually “unclean,” but Jesus is not only still clean, He has made the “unclean” clean. Jesus’ touch is physically life giving. This was also the first touch this man has presumably had in years. It was love. It was compassion. It was raw emotion. The touch of Jesus was spiritually life giving! No wonder the man couldn’t contain his joy…

“He touched me
And oh, the joy that floods my soul
Something happened and now I know
He touched me and made me whole” – Gaither

Re:Verse passage – Mark 1:36-45 (day six) 

 Moved with compassion (anger), Jesus reached out and touched him. Mark 1:41

Some early greek manuscripts replace compassion with anger. It makes for an easier scene when we see Jesus respond to a broken man with compassion. It’s the Jesus we want.

What if Jesus responded in anger? How would that equally make sense?

Anger is an emotion that can forcefully tell us things are not as they should be. At its best it moves us to act for the good of others. We see it when Jesus enters the Temple courtyard and turns over the money changers’ tables saying, “You have turned my Father’s house into a den of thieves!” Or when we get angry at cancer, or a son’s drug addiction.

Jesus wasn’t angry at the man, but the man’s condition, his brokenness and isolation. It shouldn’t be like this! And busting through every social norm, he touched him, and the leprous man was made well.

Both compassion and anger should move us to act for the broken. Be angry and act (and sin not)!

Re:Verse passage – Mark 1:36-45 (day five)

“He said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.” Mark‬ ‭1:38‬

Jesus’ mission has been made clear from His first night as a human. “For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  Would have been easy for Jesus to stay with the crowds and heal and minister. Yet, He keeps His mission clear (result of His prayer life- discipleship). There was a subtle but dangerous thing happening in the hearts of the people. They were beginning to seek the “hand” of Jesus rather than the “face” of Jesus. Leads to confusion of what our biggest need actually is. It’s why salvation and then regular repentance are so powerful. They keep us focused on our spiritual need. “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

We need, more than anything, a savior and a right relationship with the Living God.

This year, will you seek the Lord’s face rather than His hand?  Three ways that will help-  Repent Witness Disciple.

Happy New Year!!