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Jesus, speaking to the paralytic, said, “'I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.' Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, 'We never saw anything like this!'”(Mark 2.11-12). Today we look at the fourth and final lesson from this biblical 4X4, Never Like This.

Never Like This

Luke closes his account of this same event with this commentary: “And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, 'We have seen strange things today.'” (Luke 5.26; emphasis mine, jb). The phrase strange things comes from a single Greek word that is used only here in all of Holy Scripture; if this Greek word were spelled out in equivalent English letters it would appear as p-a-r-a-d-o-x-o-s. It takes little imagination to see the original word from which we get out English word, paradox!

There were, in fact, several things that were strange about which the crowds could have been speaking; let's list a number of them. They had seen a man made whole who came to Jesus in an absolutely helpless physical condition. They had seen a prophet speak for God and demonstrate His authority by the miraculous. They had seen the learned scribes “put in their place” by a man with no formal recognition as a member of the religious in-crowd. They had seen a false charge of blasphemy miss its mark and boomerang to inflict harm on its proponents. They had seen a being clothed in human flesh successfully defend His claim to be God!

The fact that the appearance of Jesus in the midst of this crowd was seen as paradoxical is somewhat typical of His entire ministry. He had been expected to come as a king sitting and reigning on David's literal throne; He came rather to be a spiritual King reigning from heaven. The religious in-crowd assumed that He would arise from their midst and support their political and religious agendas; He came from an obscure family, region, and political alliance. It had been thought that He would “take on” the Roman machine and deliver His countrymen from oppression and persecution; rather, He came announcing that those who followed Him would continue to be persecuted, even hated, for His namesake!

Perhaps the greatest paradox concerning Jesus is the manner in which He takes nothing and makes something out of it. Consider how He transformed ordinary fishermen into fishers of men. Consider how He made wine out of water. Consider how he took a small lad's meager lunch and fed thousands with it and yet had food to spare. Consider how He gave spiritual backbone and leadership to a vacillating and frequently mistaken man like Peter. Consider how He took ordinary unleavened bread and wine and transformed it into a meaningful feast that faithful followers yet observe every first day of the week. Consider how He took an instrument of shame and suffering (i.e., the cross) and turned it into a symbol that is recognized the world over for goodness, mercy, and forgiveness. Consider how He took the images of the union of marriage and created an eternal spiritual entity, the church of Christ!

We could be envious of the crowds who saw strange things that day about two millennia ago. Or, we could open the Book and discover the same Jesus as they did. We could stubbornly resist Him as did the scribes, or we could submit to His commands and go our way cleansed from all unrighteousness as the paralytic did. The choice is ours! Perhaps the greatest paradox of all is why this is even a question!

Questions:

1. Do you sense that there was surprise among the crowd when the paralytic walked away? What words in the story show that this is true?

2. Why would the people have wanted a king who would deliver them from Roman rule?

3. How do we know that Jesus now reigns in heaven while sitting on David's throne (read Acts 2)?

4. Why might Jesus still be considered somewhat of a paradox today? How can the true Jesus be discovered?

"God's Words For US" from Cecelia Lester

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