Mark 2:1–12 (NKJV): And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. 2 Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. 3 Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. 4 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.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
6 And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, 11 “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 12 Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
As He is once again found in Capernaum, Jesus is committed to preaching the word. As I mentioned previously, this was His mission, and yet even after the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension, the mission is the same. But does our mission today resemble the mission of Jesus? He told us to follow Him, He empowered us, gave us an example, and yet we have short changed those that come to hear. How? Why? One would say. Because we preach a powerless word. We talk about the Holy Spirit power but preach a Spiritless message. Please don’t misinterpret what I’m saying here. We may preach good sound Biblical messages, but some people that come, come because they are hurting and suffering, and we do nothing to alleviate their pain. Just look at our text: they brought a man to Jesus to be healed and Jesus healed him during His preaching service. “But I’m not Jesus!” Some would say. No you are not, but you have the power and authority of Jesus to heal through prayer. Did not Jesus say to us, that greater works than His we shall do? (John 14:2). Did He not bestow that authority and power upon us when He commissioned us to go make disciples? (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). Our church has witnessed many miracles in people’s lives, from spiritual healing to distinctive physical healings. Are these to be categorized as the exceptions, or are these to be expected as the norm? I suppose the answer lies in our faith. We have entered into the body of Christ that we may serve in the mission of Christ. Some today limit the mission of Christ to a simple didactic teaching of the scriptures, ministering solely to the mind. This abstract understanding of the mission of Christ leaves people incomplete when we think about God’s healing balm of wholeness. He gave people an example to follow in His earthly ministry and He asks us to join Him in it still today. I’m afraid we are too academic and anemic in our ministries today. What we need is a return to the supernatural expectations of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those we minister, which will never happen as long as we limit the Spirit by our narrow thinking.