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Monday 18 March 2019

Mark 2:6-8 - Who can forgive sins but God?

2:6,7
This is the first confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders recorded in Mark. Many of the later confrontations occured because Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath. This time no healing has yet happened. What has offended the teachers of the law is that Jesus has pronounced forgiveness. What right has He got to do this? This is just one of the many instances that implicitly state that Jesus is God. For as the teachers said, who can forgive sins but God? He was blaspheming for He was assuming rights that only God could exercise.

2:8
Jesus knew in His spirit what they were thinking. This could be just general awareness of what the teachers of Law were like and being able to tell from their faces and mannerisms what they were thinking. Or it could be insight given by the Holy Spirit. Jesus asks them why they were thinking such things. Now Jesus had not heard what they were saying, so the fact that He asked them this should have made them sit up and think. We all sometimes have thoughts that are ungodly or unworthy. When this happens we too should ask ourselves why we are thinking that way. This can help us to recognise the wrong presuppositions that lie behind the wrong thoughts.

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