Cleansing and Renewed Vision

As I was reading a passage of scripture I’ve read many times before this morning I feel like I saw something new.  I’ve even taught this scripture over and over and may have come at it from a different angel in the past.  Now I see something different.Its the passage of scripture in Mark 2 where Jesus heals the paralyzed man.  You remember.  His 4 friends desired so badly to get him in front of Jesus that they dug a hole in some poor dude’s house to lower him down to Jesus.  That’s pretty crazy.  But rather me focus on the 4 men, and their faith to believe Jesus could heal.  I want to focus on “the teacher’s of the law.”  If you remember Jesus tells the paralyzed man on the mat “your sins are forgiven.”  He doesn’t say “get up, walk, take your mat, and go home” at first.  He says your sins are forgiven. This is where I begin to observe what may have happened or why Jesus decided to say what he said before He said ‘get up.’ Maybe he chose to say this because he knew how the teachers of the law would react. He knew they may take deep offense to this new teaching.  My thought is… maybe he wanted to change a life long perception that the teachers had about God, the Law, Moses, and the Messiah.  Maybe they had gotten so wrapped up in the law they had forgotten the coming of the Messiah. (Great picture of you and me, we get so wrapped up in being C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N, good, Ned-Flanders, nice, loving, etc., that we forget the coming of Jesus and the 2nd coming).  Well, I feel that these guys always get the bad rap in the story. Oh course their initial reaction was going to be “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” I mean wouldn’t you react in this way if all you ever knew was the law, teaching the law, and keeping the commandments.  I don’t certainly believe that the teachers of the law are as bad as spoken about, or preached about.  Jesus cared for their hearts just as much as he cared for the hearts of the downcast.  I believe this is a beautiful picture of Jesus exposing their hearts to what was really only found in himself.  Salvation in the Messiah, right before your eyes.  I think Jesus had to say “your sins are forgiven,” to the paralyzed man so he could also expose the new covenant to these teachers.  You see, they showed up didn’t they? They showed up to hear Jesus teach the law didn’t they? they were eager to hear the Word.  They wouldn’t have come if they were this judgmental, holier than thou type of people. They came because they wanted to see what it was all about.  What Jesus was all about.  Jesus exposes their false perceptions about the partial truth they were just believing, so that “they may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” The end of the story ends like this… “This amazed everyone (including the teacher’s of the law) and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”  Wow! Jesus exposes himself to many.  If you’ll read Acts you’ll also see a many Pharisee’s convert to THE WAY and follow Jesus.  It s beautiful picture of God even caring for the religious.A Pastor friend of mine, Scott Hare, once told me that if you really study scripture and the history of the times you’ll note that there were two kinds of Pharisee’s.  I forget the different names of each group.  But I do know that one was interested in the new teaching Jesus brought.  Next time you read scripture remember that Jesus did speak to those teachers of the law who needed correction.  He did rebuke them.  He did call them out as a a bunch of snakes.  But I love the care he gives these guys in this story.  He exposes their hearts, and then leads them to the truth. We always see Jesus as ‘punking’ the Pharisee’s.  I don’t think He was always in the business of ‘punking’ them.  I think He was in the business of even calling them to the Father through himself.Isn’t that a beautiful picture of what God does in our hearts everyday.  He exposes our hearts, removes the things that are false and un-godlike, and leads us to the truth.  It is a beautiful display of compassion, and real caring for the heart of his creation.  He doesn’t have to care for us in this way but He does.  May we be good at laying down, allowing the Lord to search our hearts for anything false or preconceived so that He can come in and realign our hearts with the truth! What a beautiful picture.