1 The Incomprehensible

Christ

How can we understand someone who is both the lion and the lamb.
2 In Mark 2, Jesus says and does things which cause the people, particularly the

scribes and Pharisees to question His motives and claims.

2a (7) 'This Man speaks blasphemies. Who can forgive sins but God alone?
2b (16) 'How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?'
2c (18) 'Why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast, but Yours do not?'
2d (24) 'Why do You do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?'

Because they found him incomprehensible, they declared Him to be a sinner.

3 Winston Churchill once said that the Soviet Union

was a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

In other words, it was hard to understand!

That is certainly how most of the Jewish leaders viewed the Lord.
He was a curiosity to them,
They certainly did not understand Him.
He was incomprehensible to them.
Things are really no different today.
The world does not understand Him.
For most of the world today He is still,
a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Sadly, because the Jewish leaders could not understand Him,
because they couldn't explain Him,
because He was incomprehensible to them,
they rejected Him and eventually murdered Him.
But the people loved Him, at least, in the beginning.

Followers, believers and fulfillers

4 Mark 2:1-2 ESV

1 And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that
he was at home.
2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not
even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.

5 The house they were in was probably Peters, for Simon (Peter), Andrew, James

and John were fishermen (Mar 1:16-20) who lived in Capernaum.

Matthew was working in Capernaum as a tax collector when he was called by the
Lord (Mat 9:9-13), so he probably lived there as well. (Note the synagogue)
There were 3 distinct groups of people who followed Jesus:
6 Mark 3:7, 13-14 ESV

7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from
Galilee and Judea
(same incident)
13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired,
and they came to him.
14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they
might be with him and he might send them out to preach
(v7) Multitudes of people (followers)
(v13) Many disciples (called believers)
(v14) But just the 12 apostles, (appointed (chosen) fulfillers)
(Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.")

How many disciples were there?

7 Mark 4:10 ESV
And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about
the parables.
This was probably as close as He got to being alone. (except in prayer)
7a Luke 10:1 ESV

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them ahead of him,
two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.

There may have been more than seventy two but there were not thousands.

How many followers were there?

8 Mark 3:20 ESV
Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not
even eat.
8a Luke 12:1a ESV

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered

together that they were trampling one another . . .

9 Mark 6:32-33 ESV (Luke 8:40 waiting for Him)

32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on
foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

They sailed across the lake, the people ran around the lake and beat them.
9a Mark 1:33 ESV

And the whole city was gathered together at the door. (Capernaum ~1,500)

10 Mat 15:38 (Mar 8:9) A multitude followed Jesus around for three whole days in a

desolate place - without food.

4,000 men plus women and children - possibly 8-12,000 people.

10a Mat 14:21 (Mar 6:44, Luk 9:14, Joh 6:10) Earlier, the Bible says they were in a

desolate place with no food.

5,000 men plus women and children - probably between 10-15,000 people.
(Population at that time, about 3 million)
Where were all these followers and believers when things got tough.
At the cross, even the apostles fled, either deserting Him or denying Him.
Rejection
Despite the love of thousands of people, Jesus experienced rejection throughout
His ministry.
11 Mark 3:20-21 ESV

20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not
even eat.
21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were
saying, "He is out of his mind.

His family thought He was nuts.

In verse 22 the scribes reject Him:
11b Mark 3:22 ESV
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed
by Beelzebul," and "by the prince of demons he casts out the demons."
They said that He was demon-possessed.
In chapter 4, we have the parable of the sower.
This parable basically teaches that the majority of people who hear the Word of
God will not receive it as they ought.
Being ill prepared they reject the gospel and reject the Lord.
In chapter 5, we have the story of the demon-possessed Gadarene man.
Jesus freed him from the Legion of demons which tormented him,
12 Mark 5:15-17 ESV

15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who
had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they
were afraid.
16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the
demon-possessed man and to the pigs.
17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.

They rejected Him.

Even His disciples, at one point, started to doubt His sanity, and, in a sense, were
beginning to reject Him.
Surrounded by people pressing in on every side, a woman, in healing faith,
reached out to touch the hem of His garment.
Immediately Jesus said, Who touched me?
13 Mark 5:31 ESV

And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet
you say, 'Who touched me?'
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Who touched you??? Only everyone within an arms length. Dhhh. Youre nuts.
They didnt understand what He meant.
Jesus knew that this womans touch was a touch of faith, not adulation.
In Mark 5 we have the story of Jairus' daughter who died of a sickness.
13a Mark 5:39-40 ESV

39 And when he had entered, he said to them, "Why are you making a
commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping."
40 And they laughed at him.

They laughed at Him, they ridiculed Him, they thought He was foolish.
They did not understand Him so they rejected Him.
They were human, they knew what death was, they knew it was permanent.
But Jesus was God, He knew death was sleeping, He restored her to life.
When Jesus went to Nazareth, His home town, the people also disparaged Him.
14 Mark 6:2-3 ESV

2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard
him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things? What is
the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?
Webster says the word 'astonished' could be translated as flabbergasted,
i.e. 'They were completely flabbergasted'. (struck dumb)
Their problem was not that they did not know who He was, their problem was
that they knew him too well.
They grew up with Him, they had been close to Him, they were too familiar with
Him to see His greatness.
14a Mark 6:3 ESV

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and
Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took
offense at him.
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That word 'offense' is a word that means 'stumbling block', and it's the word from
which we derive our English word 'scandal'.
In other words, they were scandalized by Him!
Past remembrances did not compute with current experiences.
Ultimately, His rejection was completed and climaxed at the cross.
His rejection culminated in total aloneness when even His heavenly Father
forsook Him on the cross.
But through all of this the Lord Jesus was teaching His disciples, including us, that
they must be prepared to be rejected just as He was.
15 John 15:18 ESV

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Rationalization
God the Father is incomprehensible, and by extension, so too are the Son and the
Holy Spirit.
Mere flesh cannot hope to understand infinite spirit.
Mortality cannot begin to comprehend immortality.
The temporal must always be inferior to the eternal.
If it were otherwise, God would not be God.
There are many things we cannot fully know.
Like the divine Trinity,
or the relationship between God's sovereignty and human responsibility,
Predestination, election and freewill,
The word says that Gods peace passes all understanding,
I think, so too does His love, His grace, His compassion and His mercy etc.
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We cannot fully understand God because our faculties are insufficient.

Our brains and our minds are both finite and fallen.
But that should not prevent us from thinking things through.
16 CS Lewis says, You must think things through, right to the end, right to the

absolute ruddy end.

We need to use our brains and reason things out as far as we can.
16a Proverbs 15:28 ESV

The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the
wicked pours out evil things.

You cant do that unless you have really thought things through.
When you come up against the world, you have to know what you believe and
why you believe it, and you have to be able to verbalize it.
CS Lewis challenged the theologians of his day to translate their theological tomes
into language a child could understand.
17 He said, If you cant do that, then you dont really understand the things you

are writing about.

17a Einstein said, If you cant teach your theory to a 6 year old child, you dont

understand it yourself.

So we need to think through our beliefs until we know them thoroughly.

And once we are sure, we need to be gentle in our responses.
18 Proverbs 15:1 ESV

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

But soft does not mean timid.

18a 2 Timothy 1:7

God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound
mind.

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We are to be fully prepared and then enter the fray boldly and confidently,
18b Proverbs 3:5 ESV

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own
understanding.

We are not called upon to understand and explain every aspect and characteristic
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we are called upon to believe and trust in Him.
So we can
19 2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the
knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient
to Christ.
We dont need to reach university professor levels but we do need to use
whatever gifts and abilities God has given us
19a 2 Timothy 2:15 PDS

Study to show yourself approved of God, a workman that has no need to feel
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Study and understand those portions you are able to understand and trust that
God will reward your faithfulness.
So lets take a look at the questions Jesus was asked in Mark 2 and His reply to
them.
As we go through these, it is interesting to note that Jesus was being deliberately
provocative.
He knew that what He was doing and saying was controversial and would evoke
anger in the hearts and minds of the community leaders.
But that did not stop him from saying and doing what He knew was right.
The scribes and the Pharisees were scandalized by His behaviour and they
challenged Him on the grounds of Jewish tradition.
But the most important point we need to understand is this:
They did not judge the Lord on the basis of Gods law,
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They judged Him through their interpretation of Gods law.

They judged Him through their ignorance of Gods law.
They judged Him according to the man-made additions to Gods law, not Gods
law itself.
So when God started to work outside of their understanding, they were
confounded.
They could not think outside the box of their own accepted wisdom, or their own
values, or their own authorities, or their own traditions.
Jesus ignited the hatred of many people but he never did anything wrong.
This has enormous implications for us, as Christians, today.

1. Who can forgive sins but God alone? (Mar 2:7)

20 Mark 2:2 ESV

And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even
at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.

Jesus was preaching the Word to them, in a house, probably Peters, and the
scribes are present.
They are witnessing His authoritative teaching first hand.
He was surely preaching about the kingdom of God, sin and forgiveness.
Four young men with a paralyzed friend couldnt get in so they broke through the
roof and lowered him down.
20a Mark 2:5-7 ESV

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are
forgiven.

Now Jesus knew exactly what the paralytic wanted, he wanted to be healed.
Instead, Jesus proclaimed that his sins were forgiven.

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21 Mark 2:6-8 ESV

6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,
7 "Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive
sins but God alone?"
8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned
within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question these things in your
hearts?

Notice that they did not voice their objections

but Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking.
Jesus knew that his salvation proclamation would inflame them against Him.
But that did not stop Him from teaching the truth.
These scribes were questioning Jesus AUTHORITY
Placed in the same position, we should do as Jesus did, and proclaim the truth.
The reactions of the hearers should not be our concern.
They are not railing against us, but against the word of the Lord.
Now these scribes had obviously heard about His preaching
And come to see for themselves.
22 Earlier, in Mark 1:21-22 ESV we are told:

21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he

entered the synagogue and was teaching.
22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who
had authority, and not as the scribes.

As well as His authority over the spiritual realm.

The same passage continues:
23 Mark 1:23-27 ESV

23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.
And he cried out,
24 "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to
destroy us? I know who you arethe Holy One of God.

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24 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!"

26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice,
came out of him.
27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves,
saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even
the unclean spirits, and they obey him."

25 Mark 1:28 ESV

And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region
of Galilee.

But Mark goes on:

26 Mark 1:29-31 ESV
29 And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon
and Andrew, with James and John.
30 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told
him about her.
31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left
her, and she began to serve them.
But thats not all:
27 Mark 1:32-34 ESV
32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or
oppressed by demons.
33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door.
34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out
many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because
they knew him.
So now the scribes are in Peters house listening to Jesus preach.
They knew that He preached with authority, and they were witnessing that for
themselves.
They knew that He had authority over sickness and disease.
They knew that He had authority over evil spirits
And they knew that the evil spirits knew who He was.
They had all the evidence they needed to prove He was divine,

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Yet still they dared to question His authority to forgive sin.

Now, the scribes were theologically accurate, to some extent.
It is only God who has the authority to forgive sin.
But with all the evidence they have, they still come to the wrong conclusion.
They say, This man is a blasphemer. He is claiming for Himself, authority which
belongs only to God.
Jesus decides to demonstrate His authority to them, He says:
28 Mark 2:9 ESV

Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise,
take up your bed and walk'?

Notice the way Jesus begins this demonstration.

Everybody present knows that no man can do either of these things, only God can
do them.
But Jesus says: Which of these things is the easiest for a man to SAY?
Let me ask you: Which is easiest?
Your sins are forgiven.
Why is that the easiest?
Because no evidence would exist to prove whether it happened or not.
But if a man says, Rise up and walk. The paralytic must get up and walk.
If he doesnt get up and walk, the man is a liar and a charlatan.
But if he does get up and walk, the man must, at least, have the authority of God.
So Jesus says
29 Mark 2:10-12a ESV
10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
forgive sins"he said to the paralytic

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11 "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home."

12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them
all,
Jesus proved to them that He had Gods authority to heal in the physical realm.
I hope that the reaction of the scribes was to say:
This man does have the authority to do things that only God can do.
Maybe He is the Messiah, maybe He is God, maybe He can forgive sin.
Maybe we had better listen to what he has to say.
But I doubt it.
To them He was way outside their theological comfort zone.
He was incomprehensible, and they hated Him for it.
I love the post-script John has in his report of a similar incident.
Jesus goes to Bethesda where he finds an invalid who has been lying beside the
pool for thirty-eight years.
30 John 5:8-10 ESV

8 Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk."
9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now
that day was the Sabbath.
10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and it
is not lawful for you to take up your bed."

These Jews had just witnessed a man, lame for 38 years, get up, roll up his bed,
tuck it under his arm, and with joy unbounded and a few heel clicks thrown in,
head off home to his wife and family.
All they can say is, Carrying your bed on the Sabbath is a no, no!
Hey, who cares right, lets party.
What was the reaction of the people in the house when they saw Jesus heal that
young man?
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31 Mark 2:12 ESV

And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all,
so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw
anything like this!"

I think there was a party, not only here on earth but in heaven as well
31a Luke 15:10 ESV

Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who
repents.

Our God is a God who loves to shower His people with love, joy and peace.
Even in the midst of persecution and rejection we can have all of these pressed
down and running over.
Jesus suffered rejection many, many times and He still does from the majority of
mankind.
But He has also proven His divine authority many, many times as well.
And we can hang on to that.
And believe in that,
And take joy in that,
And we can go forward in that,
32 C.S. Lewis said:

What more He may be, we do not know; we know only that He must be more
than we can conceive. It is to be expected that His creation should be, in the
main, unintelligible to us as well.

Just as our Lord was incomprehensible to the scribes, so He is for us as well.

But we can take strength from that
Because He knows everything that is going to happen to us in the future,
And Hes already got it covered.

Amen

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