The crowds welcomed Jesus because of his miracles, only demons recognized him as the Son of God – Mark 3:7-12.
The third chapter of Mark describes several incidents that occurred while Jesus was proclaiming the gospel in Capernaum. At one point, eager to see his healing powers, the crowd thronged him to the point it became necessary for Christ to speak from a boat along the shoreline. But in the middle of his preaching, demons began to declare that he was the “Son of God.”
Continue readingIn response to Jewish leaders, Jesus demonstrated that he is Lord even over the “Sabbath Day” – Mark 2:23-3:6.
On one occasion. a group of religious leaders objected to his looseness to their Sabbath traditions. But Jesus used the opportunity to demonstrate that the “Son of Man” is “Lord” even over that day. God did cease His creative activities on the seventh day, but its formal establishment as a regulated day did not occur until the Torah was given (“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”).
Continue readingForgiveness links the call of the tax collector to the preceding story, the authority of Jesus to discharge sins – Mark 2:13-17.
When Jesus pronounced the paralytic’s sins “discharged,” he offended the religious sensibilities of the scribes and Pharisees. In this next story, he alienated the men from Jerusalem further by associating his ministry with “sinners,” men who were considered especially ritually unclean by many of the more religious leaders of the Jewish nation.
Continue readingJesus healed a paralytic, demonstrating the authority of the Son of Man to discharge sins – Mark 2:1-12.
The present literary unit consists of five stories that highlight Christ’s authority and the conflicts between him and the religious authorities from the Temple, primarily over issues of ritual purity and Sabbath regulations. And there are parallels between the present story and the preceding one about the cleansing of the leper.
Continue readingThe touch of Jesus cleansed a leper, and the forbidden contact did not render him “unclean” – Mark 1:40-45.
His touch cleansed a leper from ritual impurity, restoring him physically AND religiously. Remarkably, Jesus touched the man BEFORE he was cleansed of his ritual impurity, let alone its confirmation by the priests. Any concern over contracting “uncleanness” did not stop the Messiah from healing one of the sons of Israel.
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