Early one morning I curled up in a big leather chair with a cup of tea and my Bible. I wanted to see what Jesus was up to in the book of Mark that morning and started reading in chapter 2. This is where Jesus forgives and heals the paralytic man that had been lowered into the temple. Later on in chapter 3, Jesus enters the synagogue on the Sabbath and heals the man with the withered hand despite the Pharisees judgment.
Two points really stood out to me in my reading. First, that the paralytic man was forgiven because of the faith Jesus saw in him – not because Jesus was trying to put on a show. When the crowd questioned His authority to forgive sins Jesus then healed the man’s paralytic condition to show that He indeed was who He claimed to be. Christ deals with us according to our faith. I want a great faith, don’t you?! I want to see miracles, answered prayers and for demons shudder when I wake! I want the awesome power of God to burn in my heart and in my bones so that I can not keep silent (Jeremiah 20:9 ) because of my faith.
In chapter 3 the Pharisees are testing to see if Jesus will break the commandment by healing someone on the Sabbath. I can just picture Jesus with his heart full of compassion for this deformed man and looking at the Pharisees like “are you kidding me?!” They were more concerned with keeping the law than with extending a helping hand to someone in need. It says in verse 5 that Jesus “after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart”. My eyes stopped on that phrase and I reread it to let it really sink in. Jesus grieved at their hardness of heart.
He grieved at what they could not see, what they could not understand – he knew they were blinded by the law and completely missing the point. I wondered to myself; what do I do that grieves Jesus? And do I grieve over the hardened heart of the people around me? Do I intercede for those who are blinded to the freedom of Christ? Do I even allow the reality of a persons’ hardened heart to affect me enough to get angry, do I get angry enough to grieve and does that grieving force me to take action?
A tear came to my eye. Forgive me, Lord.
Jesus grieved at their hardened hearts.
Check out some of my team’s blogs for more about our experiences in Thailand:
