Chapter # 2 Paragraph # 1 Study # 2
May 28, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: Jesus' confrontation of the false "T"heology of the synagogue attracted "four" who were bringing a paralyzed man to Him as an indication of their rejection of that "T"heology.
Introduction: In our first study of this paragraph, we saw that Mark was "setting the stage" for another confrontation of the "T"heology of the synagogue by his references to a second "Capernaum"/"house" event, by his use of "synagogued" (the verb translated by the Authorized Version as "gathered together": sunechthesan from sunago), and by the focus upon the size of the crowd as an indication of His "popularity" as
the sore point with the "theologians of the synagogue". That "T"heology was not about Jesus' "authority" as an indication of His representation of "God", but about His "compassion" as an indication of the critical "glory" of "God". The "T"heology of the synagogue was, fundamentally, "legal" and, therefore, "lacking in compassion" (there is no room in the law for compassion simply because any "compassion" is going to frustrate "justice"). Jesus' purpose in His confrontation was to bring together the issues of "authority" (with its judicial overtones -- "Law" is the underlying force of "authority") and "compassion" (with its intense concern for the plight of the "unjust" -- the "just" have no "plight"; "they that are whole have no need of a physician").
This evening we are going to pursue what Mark told us and why.
- I. He Told Us That Jesus "...Was Speaking The Word to Them".
- A. Mark's verb is both "weak" and "historical narrative".
- 1. Its "weakness" is in the fact that it means "making noise" rather than "communicating crucial content".
- a. This "weakness" is deliberate on Mark's part; he does not yet wish to reveal exactly what the crucial content is.
- b. At this point, it is his "focus" that Jesus was "swamped" by both His "authority-popularity" and His "compassion-popularity".
- 1) In the order of causation, it was His "compassion-popularity", as demonstrated by both exorcisms and healings, that created the huge crowds (the root of Jesus' command to the leper).
- 2) Within that larger cause was the more significant, but less sought-after, "authority-popularity" as revealed by His "new" doctrine regarding the near proximity of the Kingdom of God and its foundation in "forgiveness of sins".
- a) John was spectacularly "popular" on the basis of his message of "forgiveness" without exorcisms and healings (and he was likened unto a kind of ascetic whose appeal rested in the promise of "forgiveness" while exemplifying self-denial which appeals to the innate legalism of mankind: Matthew 11:18).
- b) But Jesus' "popularity" exceeded John's because of the benefits He extended (Note the complaint of John's disciples against Jesus in John 3:26) and He was likened unto a kind of libertine whose appeal rested in the spectre of a "Kingdom" of exultant freedom, which appeals to the innate self-indulgence of mankind: Matthew 11:19.
- 2. Its nature as "historical narrative" is a "norm" that is set up as the contrast to his very next choice of verb tense.
- a. Historical narrative is typically "past tense".
- b. Using a present tense within historical narrative intensifies the author's presentation in terms of what he wishes his readers to visualize: "they are coming".
- B. The ambiguous "He was speaking to them The Word" has a two-fold impact.
- 1. First, it is ambiguous because he omits any "content" so that his readers have to "import" it from the previous context.
- 2. Second, it is forceful because it inserts the umbrella of the omitted content: The Word.
- a. Mark's first use of this term was in 1:45 where the leper is presented as disobediently "holding forth" regarding his cleansing with great specificity and Mark presents his "detailed presentations" as "The Word".
- 1) The verb Mark used to describe the leper's "great detail" is a very obscure word (used once in the New Testament, never in the Septuagint, and only a half-dozen times in Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon.) that seems to mean "to explain with great detail".
- 2) The conclusion we draw is that "The Word" focused upon Jesus' "compassion" (that the leper took as a basis for his disobedience).
- b. Thus, this second use is highly likely to be "in the train of" the first use; i.e., "the sounds of "compassion".
- 1) This is the heart of "The Gospel" which introduces a "new" doctrine which displaces "Justice" as the "final value" with "Compassion".
- 2) This is reinforced in that, like the leper, the paralytic's case is "hopeless" without "compassion".
- II. He Told Us That Four Are Coming to Jesus, Bearing a Paralytic.
- A. This is where the focus is identified by the "tense-switch" from "historical-narrative" to "visual-immediacy".
- B. There are two attending participles.
- 1. The unidentified "they" are "bearing" a paralytic.
- a. This is the verb used in the initial record of 1:32 where people from all over town are pictured as "bringing" all manner of diseased people to the "house" with the notable qualification that "the sun had set".
- b. The idea of this verb in Mark is that "they" were on their way to "present" the paralytic to Jesus with the expectation of "powerful compassion".
- 2. The paralytic is "being taken away" (from his place of suffering) by "four" (also left unidentified).
- a. This is Mark's first use of this verb, but he uses it often afterwards with the idea that a person/thing is "taken away from its resting place".
- b. The narrative clearly indicates that this man has been removed from his normal setting by "four" who expect that he will never return to that specific setting.
- C. The particulars are instructive.
- 1. First, the nature of the problem.
- a. The Authorized Version incorrectly identifies the man as afflicted with "palsy" (uncontrollable tremors that nullify the ability to use the parts that are afflicted).
- b. The word, itself, is the root of our word "paralytic" and signifies an inability to take action.
- c. The uses of the word in the New Testament typically assume the readers' ready awareness of the nature of the problem (it is used nine times with seven of them repetitions of this account and one of them giving us a significant insight: Matthew 8:6).
- 1) According to this single use, there is "grievous torment" associated with the condition.
- 2) The strong implication is that "movement" creates significant pain.
- d. Thus, we conclude that the man's "four" friends are "bringing" and "carrying" because the man is painfully incapacitated.
- 2. Second, the "borne of four" (Authorized Version) is not just a miscellaneous reference without import.
- a. Mark's only other use of "four" is 13:27 where we are told the angels will "synagogue" the elect "from the four winds" meaning "from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven": the meaning of "four" is "the totality of places to which the elect have been dispersed".
- b. When we link that use to the original reference by Mark to "four" (without actually using the word "four") in the calling of "four" disciples to "fish" and "mend", we see that these "four" are "bringing"/"removing" the paralytic so that he may receive the benefit(s) of the powerful compassion of Jesus, who sounds forth "The Word" in contradiction to the "T"heology of the synagogue and its scribes (who teach without authority and are present in the "house").
- III. Mark's "Point": This Record Is Going To Be The Critical Pivot Point Which Moves "Legalism" into "Grace".
