Sunday, February 01, 2015

Mk 2:6-22

A good question to see if we have heard the point Jesus makes in Mk 2:9-10 is this: does the fact that Jesus says to the man to pick up his pallet, and go home, enough to convince them (and us) that Jesus has the authority on earth to forgive sins (and us)?  If we were there, would we have not gotten it (2:8)?

Similarly, in Mk 2:14.  We're "kind of" aware, especially if we were brought up on Genesis 1, that God does things by fiat: that is, that He speaks, and it occurs.  But we don't apply it much to other things.  (That's a good thing, in general!  Awful difficult to cause things by fiat!)  So, when Jesus says to Levi "follow Me!" does it occur to us that Jesus is doing anything by fiat?  Or, do we just say that it was the normal command / obedience instance, or maybe invitation / response, or opportunity / enlistment?  But notice the verbal parallel Mark "sneaks" in to 2:14.  What did Levi do?  He "got up and followed Him."  What did the paralytic in the previous story do?  "He got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone."  Hmm.  In 2:17, Jesus uses the word "call" -- we must remember, that God uses "calls" for things like that (Is 45:4), forming, and causing, and doing (Is 45:7).

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