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Notes

What is your greatest longing, the thing you desire the most? What does that longing tell you about what you think your deepest need is?

We tend to believe we would be happy and fulfilled if only Jesus would give more to us: more friends, a better job, or whatever else we long for. Mark 2:1-12 challenges that by revealing our true, deepest need — what we really need in order to be filled with satisfaction and joy.

Saving Faith

In Mark 2, four men with a paralyzed friend hear that Jesus is in town. They become determined to do whatever it takes to bring their friend to Him for healing. They encounter an obstacle when they realize the house is too crowded to bring their friend in, but rather than giving up, they get creative and dig a hole in the roof. After much hard, sweaty work, they are finally able to lower the paralyzed man down through the hole to Jesus.

But surprisingly, healing this man was not the first thing Jesus did. When he looked down at the man, His first thought of compassion was not, “This man needs to walk.” Instead, it was, “This man needs a relationship with Me. He needs to understand that his wildest longing should be for Me.”

Jesus knew that the man’s greatest problem was not actually anything physical but something inward: his guilty standing before God. He gave him what he truly needed most, saying, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Skeptical Faith

In the front row before Jesus were some scribes who had come as skeptics — not because they loved Jesus but because they wanted to criticize. They didn’t like how Jesus was speaking with such authority, and they accused Him of blasphemy in their hearts.

Jesus, knowing this, asked them which was easier: to say the man was forgiven from his sins, or to say he was healed from his paralysis. The scribes probably assumed it was easier to say his sins were forgiven, but in reality, only God can forgive sins.

When Jesus forgave the man’s inward sins, he showed that He is God. He then performed the amazing outward act of healing the man’s legs physically. We each must make up our minds about who we personally believe Jesus is. Either He is God or He’s not — there is no middle ground. And if He is God, we must live like it, talk like it, and commit our lives to it.

Our Response

Our response to this passage is fourfold:

• First, we must look to Jesus. He is the greatest gift.

• Second, we must long for Jesus above all else. �㽶ֱ��greatest longing indicates your heart’s posture.

• Third, we must lean on Jesus with every need. Bring Him your deepest desires.

• And fourth, we must lead people to Jesus, no matter the cost! Let us be like the paralytic’s friends, who stopped at nothing to bring him to Christ.