Jesus the King Life Group Study Guide - Leaders Week of January 18 th Chapter 3 - The Healing Mark 1:35 2:22 Introduction Jesus was a man of authority. His words were commanding and his commands were irresistible. Jesus has authority to heal and forgive something to be understood to be the prerogative of God alone. We also see Jesus authority to sit down and eat with sinners something which, the teachers of the law believed, was forbidden. In contrast to the Scribes, Jesus needed no authority other than His own person. Discussion Questions 1. In verses 1:35-39, what about Jesus reaction to his new popularity seems surprising? What do we learn here about Jesus personal priorities? Verse 28 told us that news of Jesus authority over body and spirit spread like wildfire, and soon there were overwhelming crowds surging forward to see him (vv. 32-34). Jesus reacts in two ways that are surprising. First, we see him get up very early to pray in a solitary place. The language indicates that this prayer was not brief and perfunctory but took up hours for he is still praying by the time Simon comes to get him. This is surprising because most of us find that prayer-time is shortened or eliminated in times of heavy schedule and business. Second, when Simon tells him that there are huge crowds gathered even now to see him (v. 37), Jesus says that they should immediately leave (v. 38 Let us go somewhere else...)! Why? One obvious reason for Jesus response is that his ministry is for all people, not just for one group. But most commentators think that Jesus may need to leave Capernaum in order to make clear that he is a preacher of the kingdom (v. 38 Let us go... so I can preach... that is why I have come) rather than just a miracle-worker (which seems to be the main concern of the Capernaum crowd v. 32-34). What do we learn of Jesus priorities? First, we see unmistakably that prayer was a priority. The powerful king leans on his father. The exterior ministry of strength is contingent on interior dependence on God. Substantial time in prayer was the basis for substantial time with people. Second, we see that Jesus wanted a balance of word and deed in his ministry. In Capernaum, the deed ministry side (giving relief from suffering and affliction) was in danger of obscuring the word ministry side (calling people to repent and believe). When he says that he wants to go and preach, he does not mean that he wants to preach rather than heal, because he of course continues to do both. (I don t think we should see Jesus choosing to do preaching rather than do deeds of compassion.) But the deeds and words must work together so people believe the message of the gospel. That balance and integration is all important.
Thirdly, we can see something that was not a priority for Jesus popularity per se. Though he was riding an enormous wave of popular support, Jesus turns and leaves it. Why? Of course, he wants to reach as many people as possible with the gospel of the kingdom. That is why he wants to move around (v.38). Yet crowds and popular support is only a means to an end. He is much more interested in the quality of the people s response to him than in the quantity of the crowd. 2. In verses 1:40-45, what is surprising about how Jesus heals the leper? What do we learn from his method? In antiquity, the term leprosy was a term used to denote a variety of deforming and often fatal skin diseases and disorders. In many societies, lepers were quarantined in to places where they could not contact others and spread their disease. But in Israel, lepers were in addition considered ceremonially unclean. Even coming near a leper often made a person unfit for worship. If a [leper] stands under a tree and a clean man passes by, the latter becomes unclean. If a clean man stands under a tree and an unclean one passes by, the former remains clean. If, however, the unclean stands still under the tree, the former becomes unclean. Rabbinical literature quoted in The Gospel According to Mark by W. Lane, p. 85 A leper approaches Jesus asking for healing. Jesus gives him healing, but does so not only with a pronouncement, but with a touch (v.41). This is a surprise. First, it is surprising because it is unnecessary for the physical healing. As we will see in a moment, Jesus can heal with just his mind he does not need to physically touch someone (cf. Mark 2:10-11). Second, it is surprising because Jesus lays himself open to the charge that he is now ceremonially unclean (see the quote above). It seems an unnecessary risk. But upon reflection, we see that the touch is significant for two reasons. First, the touch must have been a response not to the physical, but to the emotional suffering of the leper. It was unnecessary for his body s healing, but the experience of leprosy was just as ravaging spiritually and emotionally. Lepers were outcasts, and thus were relationally starved. This man had not likely felt another human being s touch for a long time. It was an unheard-of act of compassion (Lane, p. 87). So first we learn that Jesus does not only consider the physical side of this man s problem. He approaches the man wholistically. Jesus is not above noticing and meeting a purely emotional need. Jesus gives the man more than he asked for. Secondly, the touch is a declaration that Jesus himself cannot become unclean. He does not need to be made or kept fit for the presence of God. There is no indication that he now went to do the washings and the ritual purifications that someone did at that time who had become ritually unclean. This at least is Jesus declaration that he has come to make the ceremonial laws and even the sacrificial system obsolete. But even more, he seems to be claiming that he is the source of clean-ness, of fitness for the presence of God. 3. In verses 2:1-5, how is Jesus treatment of the paralytic surprising? What is Jesus teaching us?
Jesus comes back to Capernaum (v. 1) and they crowded in to see him (v. 2a). Though we last saw that this town had a deep desire to see more miracles and healings, Jesus is preaching the Word (v. 2b) to them. Again we see Jesus insistence on word and deed. Though it is an absolutely crucial and necessary part of spreading the gospel of the kingdom doing good is not the whole of Christianity. If it was, then Christianity would be like all other religions. It would be a matter of following examples of virtue and fulfilling ethical standards. But in Christ we are saved by faith in what he has done. So we need to hear the message of what he has done in order to believe in it. This lesson is brought home in the particular case of the paralytic. Verses 3-4 show us that this man and his friends were extremely persistent and resolved to bring him to Jesus. But (again) when this man is set down before him, Jesus acts in an unexpected and surprising way. First, almost certainly, Jesus behavior was surpassing to the paralytic and his friends. Surely they expected Jesus to heal him. Instead, Jesus forgives his sins! Jesus is therefore vividly showing that there is something more radical and basic and necessary than physical health namely, being right with God. The practical application is very striking. When we suffer physical illness or material distress or any trouble, the most important result would be to make us right with God, closer to God that is the main healing we need. Jesus shows that the physical/external is not insignificant, but not primary. The only disease that can really kill you is sin the one medicine that will really cure you is forgiveness. So to be right with God is the real miracle. But not only is Jesus action surprising to the paralytic and his friends, it is also deeply surprising to us, the readers. A question that immediately arises at this point is: how could Jesus forgive someone who hasn t repented? Isn t it both Biblical (cf. Luke 17:3-4) and common sense that you can t forgive someone who is not repentant? Perhaps, you can forgive an unrepentant person in your heart in the sense that you will not take personal vengeance on them (cf. Mark 11:25). But here Jesus apparently tells the man his sins and guilt before God are wiped away. How can this be done if he hasn t repented? But 2:8 shows that Jesus could read motives of the heart very well, and that means that he probably perceived in the paralytic a heart attitude of repentance, even though it was not articulated. How encouraging! Jesus is so tender, sensitive, and willing to give grace that he responds to the man s inner attitude, to his inner cry as it were. He doesn t ask outloud for forgiveness, but there can be no forgiveness before God without repentance, so there must have been a humble, inarticulate yearning for mercy and grace. And Jesus responds to that! We don t have to say things just the right way to be forgiven! We don t have to follow some set of steps. We just have to have a heart of dependence and to desire to get near him. He reads your heart, brings you in. He is aggressive in granting forgiveness. Amazing. 4. In verses 2:6-12, why do both Jesus (v. 10) and the teachers (v. 7) say it takes authority to forgive sins? Here we have a third group of people who are surprised by Jesus unexpected behavior. The religious leaders immediately realized that Jesus statement presupposes an enormous claim
about himself. That claim, if untrue, was blasphemy (vv. 6-7). Blasphemy was to take upon yourself the rights of God. In other words, they saw Jesus action as tantamount to being a claim to be deity. Why would they see it this way? Common sense gives us a clue. When someone sins against you, they have cost you something. To forgive them means that you do not hold them liable for the cost as a debt, but instead you absorb the cost yourself. (For example, if someone breaks your chair, and you forgive them, it means that you will pay to replace the chair yourself.) Now you can only forgive a debt if it is against you, OR if you are willing to pay (make good) someone s debt to another party. What, then, did Jesus assume when he said your sins (all your sins!) are forgiven? 1) If Jesus forgives someone their sins, he is claiming that ALL their sins are against him that every sin violates HIS rules and crown rights and thus he is saying he is God the Creator. (In a sense, we are all his possessions, and all sins against any human being or against God are thus against him.) 2) It may also mean that Jesus is claiming that he can pay for these sins. (I can only for give Mr. X for breaking Mr. Y s chair if I have the money to pay the debt.) That, too, is virtually a claim to deity, for who could offer to pay for the sins of the world? When Catholic priests forgive sins they do so only as representing God and by telling you you are forgiven. Jesus, however, uses a Greek aorist tense: At this very moment, you are forgiven. He does it in his own authority (as he claims in v.10). The religious leaders, then, are confounded because, although they expected the Messiah to be a figure of great power and might, they had no concept of a human being having divine authority to forgive. This was beyond any conception of a Messiah that they had. 5. In verse 2:9, what is the answer to Jesus question? What is his point in asking it? When Jesus says, which is easier? He could be meaning: Anyone could say you are forgiven but not have the true power and authority to do so. However, no one could say rise up and walk without the power and authority to do so. So to prove to you I have the authority and power to do the first, I will now do the second. OR, it is possible that the religious leaders may have believed (like Job s friends did and like most people at the time cf. John 9:1ff) that all sick people were sick as a punishment for sin. So to prove to them that he had forgiven the man, he raised him! Even if this latter reason was true of Jesus, this does not imply that the Bible teaches that sickness is always the result of sin. Job s friends were roundly condemned for that view. Sickness in general comes because we are all sinners as a race. But particular cases of sickness are not necessarily due to particular sins. Jesus teaches that sickness is not necessarily the result of personal sin (see John 9:1-3). However, research and common sense shows that the body and the mind are bound up closely together. Often, physical wasting and weakness is due to guilt and anxiety or fear or anger. Numerous studies now show that people who pray and sense a relationship to God have better recuperative powers after surgery or a major illness. James 5:13-16 indicates that a sick person should look
for both medicine and spiritual forgiveness. Strengthening the spiritual strengthens the physical. The point is the same in any case. Jesus is saying if I can raise him, I can forgive him, you must admit I have more than a human authority! I will demonstrate with external healing the internal healing. 6. In verses 2:13-17, what do the terms sinners and righteous mean as used in these verses? How is this unexpected and surprising? What is Jesus teaching here? When Jesus says he is not for the righteous, does he mean that some people don t need him? No, this is actually a slam to the self-righteous. The clue is his reference to himself as a physician. When do you go to a doctor? Only when you have a health problem which is getting beyond your control only when you feel you can t get better through self management. What do you want from a doctor? Not just advice but intervention. You don t want a doctor to simply say, Yes, you sure are sick! You want some medicine or treatment. What does that mean? Jesus calls people righteous who are in the same position spiritually as those who won t go to a doctor. Righteous are people who believe they can heal themselves, make themselves right with God through following ethical teaching. They don t feel the need for a soul-physician, someone who intervenes and does what they can t do themselves. To them, Jesus may be an example or even an instructor, but he is not a Savior a physician. Jesus is teaching us that he will only help those who know they are morally/spiritually failures, unable to save themselves. Only people who admit their sin, their spiritual bankruptcy, and their inability can have any connection to Jesus. The real pre-requisite for meeting Jesus is not a good life, but the admission that you are not good. And not just advice and teaching, but a new life is what you must ask from Jesus. Jesus is not merely a teacher, but a doctor. It means he doesn t just tell us how to live, but gives us power, comes in, does something to us. The Bible says no one is righteous (Romans 3). Self-righteousness is in some ways the only fatal sin, because it blinds you to your need of a doctor. So here is the surprise. The very people that most people think would be the most interested in Christianity the moral and religious are always the least interested in real Christianity (once it is explained to them). The very people that most people think would be the least interested in Christianity the big sinners are always the most interested in real Christianity (once it is explained to them). 7. In verses 2:13-17, how does Levi and his calling differ from the earlier disciples and their callings (see 1:16-17)? What similarity is there? What does that teach us about Jesus? About us? Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen. That meant they were respectable blue collar people. Matthew, on the other hand, would have been very wealthy, moving in high circles, but also despised and an outcast from general Jewish society. The dissimilarity is striking, because it teaches us that there is no religious type. Jesus call is to any and all. The only person who is excluded is the religiously proud (v.17, the righteous.) Jesus can reach and transform anyone, if he can reach and transform a Levi. And his call is not merited; it must be all of grace. The
similarity is that Jesus call is totalitarian. It comes with tremendous power, with no conditions or negotiation. It also comes right in the middle of their previous work. It interrupts everything. This is just a way of Jesus showing that his authority is absolute, unparalleled. There can be no competition in our hearts with Jesus. He cannot have any rivals. Allegiance to him comes over any other allegiance: familial, vocational, economic, social. On the one hand, his call means there is no one who he cannot reach and change. On the other hand, his call means there is no compromise or half-way measures when it comes to relating to Jesus. 8. What is the theme that binds 1:35-2:1-17 together? Also, make a list of what surprising things we learn about Jesus himself. After a wonderful survey of Jesus power and authority, we now have a survey of his enormous compassion. He depends on his Father, he touches the leper just to heal him emotionally, he senses the inarticulate, embryonic spiritual humility of the paralytic and rewards it, he reaches out to the outcasts of society. What a king a king who is filled with compassion (1:41). But this compassion is always counter-intuitive and surprising. It doesn t come in the way we expect; Jesus salvation by sheer grace breaks the world s molds and patterns. Thus the very persons that (by the world s standards) should be interested in Jesus are not, and the very persons that should not be interested are. The people that (by the world s standards) would be most useful recruits for Jesus organization are left behind, and the (supposedly) useless recruits are taken. People who come to him never get quite what they expect! They come for physical needs and get emotional and spiritual needs healed that they in ways they didn t expect. Again, and again, Jesus grace shocks and surprises. He is always coloring outside the lines. He is not a tame lion. He is iconoclastic, continually breaking the mold and traditional categories. What else do we learn about Jesus? a) He delighted to find the hard cases, to show he could do his healing work on anyone! b) He had no built in prejudices. He saw all people as sick, but the sinners who know they need a doctor are closer to the kingdom than the righteous who don t know they are sinners. c) Jesus is only available to people who know they are moral failures. d) As a physician, he does not just teach us and tell us how to live. He puts his hand on us, gives us power, the Holy Spirit, the new birth. Other religions only give us teachers who tell us what to do. Praise God he did not just send us another teacher! e) His forgiveness really changes us look at Levi! He immediately begins to bring his friends to Jesus. He is already becoming someone who helps and cares for his friends. f) Jesus is not just a doctor of bodies. The Messiah as popularly conceived was concerned to bring political freedom and deal with external problems of oppression and poverty and so on. So a Messiah who healed bodies fit the popular image but Jesus shows that he is here to do something far more radical! Forgiveness of sins pardon and cleansing of the soul! And to do that, he must be more than a dynamic human prince; he must be God himself! g) It is possible to get excited about Jesus and yet miss the reality of who he is. (v. 1-2 so many gathered that there was no room left ; v. 13 A large crowd came to him. ) Yet in Acts 1, when all the followers of Jesus gathered, there were only 120 after 3 years. What s it mean? That it is possible to be fascinated with Jesus and to seek material and emotional and external things from him, but not really get converted or enter his kingdom. Before we are sufferers needing help, we
are sinners needing pardon. If you don t think you are a moral failure, you are not a Christian. Christianity is only for those who know they are moral failures. 9. What were the implications for Mark s first readers? What does this passage imply about how we should live and think now? Summary Who Jesus is: He s the Christ, the King and the Son of God. He has authority to heal sickness, forgive sin. Why Jesus came: He preached and in doing so, called sinners to repentance. How should I respond? Jesus hearers experience amazement. They can t keep quiet about him (1:45) and have never seen anything like his miracles before (2:12). Jesus also provoked a following. Jesus can call anyone, however bad (2:12-17). We also know that repentance (1:15) and faith (1:15;2:5) are involved. We begin to see that this involves admitting that we are sinners in need of forgiveness. The emphasis here is on what Jesus does, not on what we do.