23rd Post - His Authority Con't -Mark 2: 8-11.

This passage is about what the Pharisees were thinking when Jesus healed the paralytic. Jesus read the thoughts of the Pharisees. This fact seems to have gotten lost, since no one wonders about how Jesus could read their thoughts. Maybe they just took it for granted like Balaam and his donkey (story in Numbers 22) when the donkey started to talk to him he did not think that was unusual. Any way Jesus tells the paralytic to arise and walk his sins have been forgiven him. The Pharisees took issue with Jesus when He said that your sins are forgiven. The reason they did was because according to the Jews only God can forgive sins. For Jesus to say to this man your sins are forgiven, He would have to be God. They could not believe this; or accept it. The Jews continued to disbelieve Jesus and His message. This is what caused the Jews to plot to kill Jesus. The Jews killed Jesus just like they did all the other prophets that God had raised in the Old Testament, because they did not believe what they or Jesus told them. It is this unbelief that still keeps them from accepting Jesus as the Christ (Messiah) even today. The Jews have to admit that a man named Jesus walked this earth, and was crucified by the Romans; but they will tell you Jesus was not God. Saul of Tarsus believed this, that is why he was persecuting Christians, when Jesus came to him on the road to Damascus. Saul came face to face with Jesus, then he had to make a decision. Either Jesus was not who He said He was, or Jesus was telling the truth. Saul chose to believe Jesus and became the apostle Paul. You can read his story in Acts chapter 9.