Welcome to the eighth part of this New Testament Phronemic Study Series. Last week, you will remember, Yah'shua (Jesus) was forced to quit Capernaum (K'far Nachum) and head for the wilderness once the leper He had cleansed went and told everyone he could find what had happened to him contrary to Yah'shua's (Jesus') express instructions. This had both made the Master a celebrity overnight and made it impossible to operate in the town because his door was simply swamped. The only option left was to, first of all, find remote places, where only the most determined would follow Him and thence to villages and towns He had not visited before.

A decent amount of time must have passed before Yah'shua (Jesus) felt able to return to His headquarters in the 'Village of Comforting' both to get some rest (if he was lucky, for one night at least) and to resume His ministry there again. And that is where today's text finds us once again. So we'll get straight into that now:

"Yah'shua (Jesus) went back again to Capernaum, where after a few days, word got around that He was at home. A crowd gathered, so that people couldn't even get near the door as He was telling them the message.

"A party arrived: four people carrying a paralysed man, bringing him to Yah'shua (Jesus). They couldn't get through to Him because of the crowd, so they opened up the roof above where He was. When they had dug through it, they used ropes to let down the stretcher the paralysed man was lying on.

"Yah'shua (Jesus) saw their emunah (faith), and said to the paralysed man, 'Child (son), your sins are forgiven!'

"'How dare this fellow speak like this?' grumbled some of the legal experts (scribes, Torah-teachers) to themselves. 'It's blasphemy! Who can forgive sins except Elohim (God)?'

Yah'shua (Jesus) knew at once, in His spirit, that thoughts like this were in the air. 'Why do your hearts tell you to think like that?' He asked. 'Answer Me this,' He went on. 'Is it easier to say to this cripple, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk?''

"'You want to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins?' He turned to the paralytic. 'I tell you,' He said, 'Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.' He got up, picked up the stretcher in a flash, and went out before them all.

"Everyone was astonished, and they praised Elohim (God). 'We've never seen anything like this!' they said" (Mk.2:1-12, KNT; cp.Mt.9:2-8; Lk.5:17-26).

By the time we have finished today's lesson I am hoping you will agree with me that we have not only moved on to the next station in the metaphorical messianic 'train journey', not only that the pace of the journey has substantially increased, not only that opposition has begun, but what we have in this remarkable story is, in a sense, a little picture frame within an even bigger one. And what I mean by that is that in this incident in a little provincial town by the Sea of Galilee we are, for the first time, going to be enabled to see a much grander, cosmic picture. We're going to see that this isn't just a controversial preacher and miracle-worker stirring up excitement and resentment amongst a representative cross-section of first century Yehudi (Judahite) society in remotest Galilee but also (now, because of the healed leper returning to Jerusalem to make the appropriate temple sacrifice to get his certificate of cleansing so he can return home and be accepted back into regular society) - now we're also going to get our first prophetic glimpse into something even more marvelous that will impact the whole of mankind.

With every new miracle or teaching, the reader or listener is getting one step closer towards understanding who Yah'shua (Jesus) is. Because who He is, is mind-boggling, this revelation has to be step-wise so as not to overwhelm. We are where we are in our understanding, in large part because of our cultural upbringing, and that always means that a lot of lies and misperceptions have to be stripped away one layer at a time before the light can get in. It took the talmidim (disciples), who were with the Master every day witnessing spectacular healings and hearing new mind-expanding and heart-swelling teachings, whom they could question at leisure, three years plus to 'get' who He was, and even then, these were just the basics. It's clear that there is a maturation process of understanding at work so that by the time we get to the Johannine writings written in the 90's and 90's, there's a whole new level of intellectual and spiritual maturity.

So in the opening chapter (#1) we're told who Yah'shua (Jesus) really was (with the benefit of the hindsight of both the biographer, John Mark, and the first-hand witness, Peter, over 20 years after the events being described) and then we're we're shown how some typical words and actions of His ministry pre-supposed and revealed this identity, although, for various reasons, including deliberate concealment on the part of Yah'shua (Jesus), people at this time did not penetrate this secret - the 'messianic secret'.

However, even though men and women did not fully penetrate the secret, how is it they came to respond to it - as we know they eventually did - with such hostility, hatred and persecution? This was one of the cardinal questions about the ministry of Yah'shua (Jesus) that faced the early Messianic Community (Church). They were as perplexed by persecution as we are ourselves. Every generation of believers is equally appalled by the raw hatred hurled at it.

John Mark begins to answer this question in this and part of the next chapter (Mk.2:1-3:6) which consists of 5 stories of conflict between Yah'shua (Jesus) and the Judean authorities. There are those who believe there is some symbolic significance in the number 5 but that's something you'll have to decide for yourselves as we proceeed. One thing you'll notice is that the arrangement of these accounts is according to subject-matter rather than historical sequence. There is no reason to think these 5 incidents occurred one after the other (though, of course, they could have, and that's fine). Why has John Mark arranged them in a compact collection? For two main reasons:

• 1. They show that opposition to Yah'shua (Jesus) was initiated not by the ordinary people but came from the authorities who had religious and political vested interests to maintain; and

• 2. They made crystal clear that the true character and grounds of the opposition arose from misunderstanding and the personal shortcomings on the part of the authorities, and not at all from any fault on the part of Yah'shua (Jesus). Indeed, consistently, we see that the Master's behaviour was faultless and that there were never any grounds, ever, for accusing Him of having been a sinner, even though they did. The importance of his spotless record will become clearer as we get deeper into the text.

But there are other reasons why we have this cluster of 5 hostile incidences that show how inspired and led by the Ruach (Spirit) the writer of the Gospel of Mark was, unless he was an absolute genius (which is possible, as Paul was), until you realise that there are so many layers of 'genius' that only a supernatural Genius could have assembled it. This is one reason I like to go into such depth, to demonstrate that these scriptural writings which, whilst they bear the unmistakable signature of man, also contain the unmistakable signature of Deity. This is part of their glorious mystery! It's why they are so enthralling to the seeker-after-truth!

So what else can we see in the structure of John Mark's layout? Well, for one thing, these 'Five Opposition Stories', if I can call them that, contrast sharply with the blocks of scripture on either side, and I am speaking here of Mark 1:14-45 (which we've already studied - the calling of the talmidim/disciples, the healings and exorcisms, and the healing of the leper) and Mark 7:7-39a (which we're coming to, where we will come across more of the same). Here's the interesting thing, which critics insist is a contradiction, but which in fact represents a divine wisdom based on an understanding of the human condition: There is no command nor desire, on the part of Yah'shua (Jesus), for secrecy - in fact, quite the reverse. There is no reference to the casting out of demons, or any prohibition on them to their confessing the Messiahship of Yah'shua (Jesus). Instead, we find a constant, if indirect, emphasis by Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself on His office and its purpose, as we will see, in part, next week (Mk.2:10,17,28). What I want you to notice for now is that there is a sharp break between Mark 1:45 and 2:1. Why? Because Yahweh is introducing us to a new element in His Besorah (Gospel).

So let's unpack this one chunk at a time and we'll do that, as has become our habit now, by turning to the New King James Evidence Bible/EB (p.1390):

"And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the Davar (Word) to them" (Mk.2:1-2, NKJV).

We speculated before on whose house this was but I think Mark wants us to understand that this was Yah'shua's (Jesus') house. Let's read the next two verses:

"Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying" (Mk.2:3-4, NKJV)

When I was younger I used to imagine these five men gained access to the roof by going up a ladder but as we now know, houses in those days, which had more than one floor (and recall that roofs were flat and were used for all sorts of things uncluding building shelters, booths, or tabernacles at the Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles) in the autumn (fall) moed (apointment) or festival), the staircase was outside. It was also used for drying out grain, praying and many other functions. The staircase was not, however, inside as ours typically are, but, as I said, on the outside. So getting the crippled man onto the roof would not have been an obstacle in itself. The problem was getting inside.

There's another thing to consider. 99 per cent of all English translations of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) use Greek manuscripts (MSS) but the spoken language of the folks in the Gospels was Aramaic. When our English text tells us that the men "uncovered (moved, opened up) the roof", the Greek could well be a mistranslation of an Aramaic phrase which really meant, "they brought him up to the roof" and indeed two of the Aramaic texts that I use confirm this, and read:

"...they climbed up to the roof and lifted the covering of the place where Yah'shua (Jesus) was..." (Mk.2:4, AENT & HRV)

Now of course the roofs of poor people were not tiled or covered with metal sheets as ours are today though I never ceased to be amazed when I look at artist's paintings of this event (like the one below with slats and tiles) which often include either! In those days, and for at least six millennia in all sorts of ancient cultures, roofs were made of wattle and daub. For those of you unfamiliar with this composite building method used for both roofs and walls, wooden strips called 'wattle' were daubed with sticky material usually made from some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw. And interestingly, there's been a comeback of this technique even in developped areas as a low-impact sustainable building technique. So the four men literally ripped the roof apart and caused a dusty commotion below as they did so! The movies often portray Peter getting very upset and whilst he may very well have been, knowing what we do about his temprement, that's just Hollywood fantasy.

Why am I saying a lot about this detail? Because there is a hidden symbolic meaning here that's important. It's got to do with access to Yah'shua (Jesus) whose 'house' here is a picture of His very own body. You see, the roof was ruined but the emunah (faith) and determination of five men resulted in grace and healing, which is itself a picture of salvation. So this incident becomes an illustration of the kind of faith that leads to salvation which is never passive! This is desperate faith - the desperation of a crippled man and the desperate faith of his four friends on his behalf. Can I ask you again: do you think there is any prophetic significance to the number '5' here? I think so. You see, 5 is 4+1, which is 'creation (4) plus', in other words a new beginning. There is a reason why 5 symbolises grace and favour in the Scriptures which that paralytic had extended to him - it's a 'new beginning' for his life. You see, he had to have 4 people carry him since he was on a pallet or a poor man's bed. 3 bearers and the bed would likely have tipped over going up those stairs, plus they may have come a long way. There's no coincidence. HalluYah? HalluYah! This is what I mean by Divine Genius. Peter supplied the details of his reminiscence, and the Ruach (Spirit) guided John Mark to incoporate this into a prophetic narrative.

So Yah'shua (Jesus) is speaking to those of us in great need, like the paralytic, saying, "Break through My roof! Dare to do so!" And to his intercessors He is saying the same thing! "Break through the roof for your friend! Dare to!" Chances are, the ministry of the intercessors is just as important as the emunah (faith) of the one needing a miracle. But the emunah (faith) demanded of you may require something extraordinary, something unusual. Faith can be released in all sorts of ways and I guarantee there were those present who were horrified by what these men did - wanton destruction, they would have viewed it as. And it was, but to a greater end. Whatever is between you and Yah'shua (Jesus) has to go, it has to be ripped up, and that's why, for us, as we'll see, He allowed His body, on our behalf - for our sins - to be, as it were, 'ripped up' on the Cross of Calvary. This could be a sermon all on its own, isn't it?

And we've barely begun! I just hope you're hungry enough - desperate enough - for more. That was the appetiser. Now we come to the meat of what's going on here. Let's take the rest of today's passage in a single chunk because it's really one theme and I don't want to break it up any further:

"When Yah'shua (Jesus) saw their emunah (faith), He said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven you'"

"When Yah'shua (Jesus) saw their emunah (faith), He said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven you.' And some of the Torah-teachers (scribes) [and P'rushim (Pharisees) - HRV] were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 'Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but Elohim (God) alone?' But immediately, when Yah'shua (Jesus) perceived in His ruach (spirit) that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, 'Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise, take up your bed and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins' -- He said to the paralytic, 'I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go your way 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 Elohim (God), saying, 'We never saw anything like this!'" (Mk.2:5-12, NKJV).

Now remember, the 'messianic secret' has not been unravelled yet and we mustn't allow what we already know about who Yah'shua (Jesus) is, because of other witnesses like Paul, to intrude, because the object of this Bible Studies series is to always stay in the divine flow - the divine phronema - we want to relive what the ancients experienced at each moment and know why they believed what they did. This is a big shock not only to the talmidim (disicples) but to those who believe in Yahweh but who aren't talmidim (disciples). Yah'shua (Jesus) has said something 'unbelievable', 'shocking'. Remember, nobody yet knows He is the Messiah and I guarantee nobody knew yet that He is Elohim (God), even if the hints are piling up! The undeniable evidence is being presented, there's a choice whether to believe it or not, and then there's the question of rightly processing that evidence. What does it all mean?

Now we will discover as we dip into the other Gospels that not every case of illness or disease is the result of sin (Jn.9:2; Lk.13:1-5) but in this case, without being told what the actual sin was, we can be pretty sure that it was. Here we have to be careful with English translations. The King James Version's, "[may] thy sins be forgiven thee" (KJV), is not very helpful. This was not a pious wish, or even a declaration, but an authoritative action. Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself forgave the man. And it is this toqef or authority that is the crucial question in the story. You see, when the Torah-teachers (scribes) were rightly thinking and whispering to themselves, "Who can forgive sins but Elohim (God) alone?", they were challenging the deity of Messiah as so many messianics and liberals tragically do today!

Yah'shua (Jesus) dealt with this by, first, replying to their unspoken thoughts directly, showing that He who knows the hearts of men can also pardon their sins. Second, He provided a test. The claim to forgive sins could not, of course, be substantiated by any concrete result - you can't 'measure' forgiveness with a thermometer - there's no practical, quantitative or medical way to check whether it's happened for real. But the power to heal as well as reading their hearts could be demonstrated at once. If therefore the Master can cause the man to walk, then He can let them "know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins".

We have hitherto, in the first chapter, seen the messianic power of Yah'shua (Jesus) - it proved its authenticity in being able to drive out demons and deal with illness of every sort (he left no one who came to Him for help go unhealed, so we're talking a 100 per cent success rate), so really we should not be surprised that this self-same power can also forgive the sin and guilt from which, according to first century Yehudi (Judahite) thinking, the illness and demon-possession arose. And even if those religious authorities present couldn't bring themselves to admit that it was Yah'shua (Jesus) in and of Himself doing the forgiving (and let's be honest, this can't initially have been an easy question for them to process), but at the very least they were capable to admitting and confessing that Yah'shua (Jesus) had the delegated authority to declare that Yahweh-Elohim had forgiven the sin - they could have managed that! At least those who were already converts reading this passage in the Gospel Mark in the 50's and beyond would have been familiar with forgiveness through Christ in their own experience. The problem was convincing the Greco-Roman listeners and, of course, non-messianic Yehudim (Judahites).

Up until this moment in time, for thousands of years, the Israelites and the Patriarchs before them had understood that Elohim (God) alone had the prerogative (right) to forgive sin, so anyone hearing what Yah'shua (Jesus) said would have been shocked. They would have reflexly called a human being claiming the right and ability do this to be guilty of blasphemy. However, upon digging further, the text leaves us in no doubt that the Torah-teachers (scribes) were without excuse. None - or very few - of the religious leaders of the mid first century AD had read the signs of the times properly, for which the Saviour would roundly rebuke them, as we shall see. And their reaction wasn't just honest theological confusion - there was a very dark spirit in their reaction. They referred, in our translation, to Yah'shua (Jesus) as "this man" or houtôs in the Greek which really should be translated "this person" which in those days implied contempt, the same way were I to refer to someone as 'this thing'. The error of these religious leaders in their regarding Yah'shua (Jesus) as just an ordinary person when He has already clearly demonstrated the messianic signs of the Kingdom within Him was inexcusable.

In other words, though they haven't openly said it yet - though they will later - they are implying that the power He possesses is demonic. Therefore they are denying the evidence of their eyes that the Kingdom of Elohim (God) is breaking into their little world and starting to shake it. Oh yes, they can feel the shaking, but because they don't know Elohim (God), they're denying it's His power, just as false believers have done in every age and will continue to do so. When the power of Elohim (God) breaks into the world you either go with it or you oppose it. It without fail brings about a sharp division, leaving no grey areas, no justification for neutrality. Indeed, neutrality is actually rejection. Making no choice is a negative choice.

Something else is new here in this second chapter - Yah'shua (Jesus) gives Himself a title which he hasn't used before. Can anyone tell me what it is? Yes, it's "the son of man" (v.10) and that is something that must be explained very carefully because it's a title that appears nearly 200 times throughout the Bible of which 14 of these are in the Book of Mark. I'm going to cheat a little and jump all the way to Mark 14:62 towards the end of the Gospel where Yah'shua (Jesus) declares that "you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mk.14:62, KNT). And I can 'cheat', as it were, in breaking my own phronemic rule by telling you its meaning was well known in the Tanakh (Old Testament). In the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) it is a title used exclusively of the Master Himself and originates, as far as we know, in the very important messianic passage in Daniel 7:13 which is where we're going to go now (EB, p.1211):

"I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Bar Enash (Aram. for 'Son of Man') (Yah'shua/Jesus),
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days (Yahweh the Heavenly Father),
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an æonian (age-long, 'everlasting') dominion (the messianic reign),
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed" (Dan.7:13-14, NKJV).

In Aramaic, which is what this part of Daniel was written in, the 'Son of Man' is Bar Enash which is equivalent to Bar Enosh in Hebrew. You will remember that Enosh was the grandson of Adam, the son of righteous Seth who replaced the murdered Abel. Enosh literally means 'mortal'. When in Hebrew (or the Aramaic equivalent) someone is called Bar Enosh or 'Son of Man', this simply means 'mortal' or 'human being' but in later Judaism - and this is important to know - it came to mean 'I' or 'someone like me'. The Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) make a very clear link between 'Son of Man' and Daniel 7:13 where, as we just saw, "one like a son of man" is brought on the clouds of heaven to "the Ancient of Days", being vindicated after a period of suffering, and is given kingly power. Though Daniel 7 itself interprets this as code for "the people of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart) ones of El Elyon (the Most High)", by the first century some Yehudim (Judahites) understood it as a messianic promise.

Some of those in Jerusalem, and perhaps even some of His listeners in Capernaum, would have known this, and drawn their own conclusions that Yah'shua (Jesus) was claiming to be the Messiah, but what with so many false messiahs having plagued the country already, they would have had a mechanism for checking this out carefully. As we shall see in the other 13 passages where Yah'shua (Jesus) uses this title of Himself, He developed this thought in His own way in certain key sayings which are best understood as promises that Yahweh would vindicate (justify) Him, and judge those who had opposed Him, after His own suffering (as we just saw in Mark 14:62). So Yah'shua (Jesus) used the phrase 'Son of Man' as a cryptic self-designation, hinting at His coming suffering, His vindication (justification), and His divine authority.

And it is as the Son of Man that He exercises the divine power to forgive! And there's one other important truth to note early on and it is this: that Yah'shua's (Jesus') possessing the power to forgive on earth meant that He had not, by incarnation - by becoming the Elohim/God-Man - been emptied of divine prerogatives. So the Messianic Community (Church), when it years later looked back to events like this, could rightly conclude that Yah'shua (Jesus) was both man and Elohim (God). This is one of the many ways that we know He is Elohim (God) and therefore part of the Elohimhead (Godhead). And even without the rest of the Gospel of Mark, or the other three Gospels, or the testimony of the apostles, we have enough to go on to be able to conclude that the Messiah is Divine. That makes today's segment of chapter 2 vitally important.

There is also one beautiful piece of assurance that we can take with us from this miracle of the healing of the paralytic, and it's this: when the forgiven man was enabled to rise and walk, it was proof that divine forgiveness is always accompanied by power to discontinue sinning, what Paul would later describe as "walking in newness of life" (Rom.6:4). So in other words, there is more than one gift that's been given by Heaven. Divine healing - miraculous healing - also means forgiveness of sins, and maybe you can think of some other passages of Scripture that confirm this. It also means that in being thus healed and forgiven, we receive the power - the 'spirit', if you like - to discontinue the sinning that may have led to the illness in the first place. But it is our choice whether we exercise it or not.

How much power and authority Yah'shua (Jesus) has actually been given by the Father at this stage has not been told us. We will have to wait until the end of His ministry when He will emphatically declare that "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Matt.28:18, NIV) which is a pretty important statement. But for now we have to work that out as we go along, as the talmidim (disciples) did. Nevertheless, Yah'shua (Jesus) knows that He is in a subordinate rôle to the Father for He tells us, amongst other things - He urges all men and women - to make teshuvah (repent) in order that Yahweh may forgive them (2 Sam.12:13). And just as He forgave the paralytic of his sins, so later, we learn, He forgives the woman who washes Him with her hair and tears of her sins and tells her that it is because of her emunah (faith) (Lk.7:44-50). I think it was His brazenly forgiving sins as only Elohim (God) can do that infuriated the religious leaders more than anything else.

There is one other error of the religious leaders of the day, something which unfortunately modern Jews and many messianics influenced by them believe, and that was this: though they rightly believed that Elohim (God) had the ability and willingness to forgive, they did not believe that He would do so until after the Final Judgment. Therefore for them there was no such thing as forgiveness in the here-and-now. Yah'shua's (Jesus) teaching that forgiveness could happen as a present reality here on earth went against the theological grain of their false belief and would have been another reason they were enraged by His actions.

Let me finish up today by explaining something I said at the beginning today. I talked about a 'picture within a picture', remember? Everything that Yah'shua (Jesus) has been doing in today's passage has been 'different' to everything that has ever happened before. New ground is being broken and in a dramatic and exciting way! This forgiveness that He is doing went deep into the soul. He spoke with a quiet authority - no yelling, screaming or jumping up-and-down like these demonised clowns you see play-acting in some charismatic circles, no theatrics of any sort. He spoke quietly and with such power that it went down into the paralytic's innermost being. This made everyone who was not experiencing this power UNEASY - really uneasy. And the less they believed, the more they doubted, the more uneasy they felt. Only the cohenim (priests) could declare ritual or ceremonial forgiveness in the Name of Yahweh is what they had been taught and Yah'shua (Jesus) was, in a way, bypassing them, or so the religious leaders felt. Yet, as we saw with the leper, Yah'shua (Jesus) always told them to carry out the prescribed offerings of the Mosaic Law, and did so all the way up to the Cross. They felt - the legal experts, the Torah-Teachers (scribes) and P'rushim (Pharisees), that is - that the friends of the paralytic should have taken him to the Temple in Jerusalem, not to a wandering preacher.

There's a bigger picture, bigger than this incident of the healing of the paralytic which is a signpost pointing to a yet distant event at which, by various twists and turns, we shall eventually arrive. It points to the Gospel Story - the Good News or Besorah Story which we still haven't fully explained because we haven't got there yet, a story that will take us all the way to Yah'shua's (Jesus') trial before Caiaphas. This story - today's story of the paralytic who was healed - is a tiny version of the whole Gospel! It's all about Yah'shua (Jesus) teaching and healing, it's about Yah'shua (Jesus) condemned for blasphemy, and it's about Yah'shua (Jesus) finally vindicated. The paralysed man's healing points to the New Life that Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself will have in the resurrection, and will share with everyone who wants it.

And the key to all of this is the statement in verse 10: "The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (KNT). This Son of Man is first the representative of Yahweh's true people, Israel - Messianic Israel, the Messianic Community (Church), the Body of Christ, and first and foremost the especially set-apart Bride. So His first order of business is collective, communal, or corporate which, as you know, is what the summer and autumn (fall) festivals signify and are all about. This isn't just about us individually but Christians are apt to forget that. And on an even bigger scale, this is about the whole planet, and indeed the whole Creation, which is why we call this 'New Life' or 'New Creation'. Yah'shua (Jesus) is opposed by the forces of evil, but Yahweh vindicates Him, rescues Him, proves Him to be in the right, and gives Him toqef (authority). Here, in a fascinating twist, He has toqef (authority) to dispense Yahweh's forgiveness in the here-and-now. The saying points forward to Yah'shua's (Jesus) answer to Caiphas when the latter will ask Him if He is "the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One" to which He will reply:

"I am...and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power ('the Mighty One' - NIV, 'Almighty God' - Barclay), and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mk.14:61b-62, KNT).

This was the shock-wave that the Saviour was sending through Israel and the whole world. The hole in his own roof was nothing compared with the hole He was tearing through an entire way of life. And if there is one message I want you to take away with you today above all else, it is this: FORGIVENESS IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING IN THE WORLD but because it is so costly most people prefer to settle for second best. In Mark 2:1-12 Yah'shua (Jesus), well and truly on His way to paying the full price for mankind's sins, offered nothing less than the best. We, in our turn, have to give our best for Him too. Forgiveness changes individuals, families and even nations. It can, as in this case of the paralytic, go down in the hidden roots of the personality, gently healing old, long-buried hurts. Often people think healing and forgiveness is impossible but that's not true. People find Elohim (God) distant and uncaring, but that's not true either, and true emunah (faith) will never be satisfied with that. So this story is also a picture of prayer and what that can do. So, don't stay on the edge of the crowd. Dig through Yahweh's roof and find yourself in His presence and you will get far more than you bargained for. Every one of us is helpless on a stretcher of some sort, and that is not a pleasant feeling. Equally, one on a stretcher doesn't have many responsibilities, and that's not how it's supposed to be either. Once you've met the living, forgiving Elohim (God) in Yah'shua (Jesus), you'll find yourself on your feet, going out into the world in the power of Elohim's (God's) ahavah (love).

May Yahweh bless the remainder of your day. Thank you for joining together with us, I hope you were blessed in some more way. So until next time, may the grace and shalom (peace) of Yah'shua (Jesus) go with you. Amen.

Acknowledgements