Some Citations of Jesus on Healing in Mark's Gospel
| Mark | ||
| Chapter | Verses | Citation |
| 1 | 12 - 13 | And at once the Spirit drove him into the desert and he remained there for forty days and was put to test there by Satan. He was with the wild animals and the angels looked after him. |
| 1 | 23 - 26 | And at once in their synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he shouted, 'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.' But Jesus rebuked it saying, 'Be quiet! Come out of him!' And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him.' |
| 1 | 29 - 31 | And at once on leaving the synagogue, he went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed and feverish, and at once they told him about her. He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to serve them. |
| 1 | 32 - 34 | That evening, after sunset, they brought him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding around the door, and he cured many who were sick with diseases of one kind or another; he also drove out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was. |
| 1 | 40 - 45 | A man suffering from a virulent skin disease came to him and pleaded on his knees saying, 'If you are willing, you can cleanse me.' Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him, 'I am willing . Be cleansed.' And at once the skin disease left him and he was cleansed. And at once Jesus sternly sent him away and said to him, 'Mind you tell no one anything, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your cleansing prescribed by Moses as evidence to them.' The man went away, but then started freely proclaiming and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but stayed outside in deserted places. Even so, people from all around kept coming to him. |
| 2 | 1 - 12 | When he returned to Capernaum, some time later word went round that he was in the house; and so many people collected that there was no room left, even in front of the door. He was preaching the word to them when some people came bringing him a paralytic carried by four men, but as they could not get the man to him through the crowd, they stripped the roof over the place where Jesus was; and when they had made an opening, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic lay. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, 'My child, your sins are forgiven.' Now some scribes were sitting there and they thought to themselves, 'How can this man talk like that? He is being blasphemous. Who but God can forgive sins?' And at once, Jesus, inwardly aware that this is what they were thinking, said to them, 'Why do you have these thoughts in your hearts? Which of these is easier; to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven" or to say, "Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk"? But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins on earth' - he said to the paralytic - 'I order you: get up; pick up your stretcher, and go off home.' And the man got up, and at once picked up his stretcher and walked out in front of everyone, so that they were all astonished and praised God saying, 'We have never seen anything like this.' |
| 3 | 1 - 6 | Another time he went into the synagogue, and there was a man present whose hand was withered. And some were watching him to see see if he would cure this man on the Sabbath day, hoping for something to charge him with. He said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and stand in the middle!' Then he said to them, 'Is it permitted on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill?' But they said nothing. Then he looked angrily round at them, grieved to find them so obstinate, and said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and began at once to plot with the Herodians against him, discussing how to destroy him. |
| 4 | 24 - 25 | He also said to them, "Take notice of what you are hearing. The standard you use will be used for you - and you will receive more besides; anyone who has, will be given more, anyone who has not, will be deprived even of what he has." |
| 5 | 1 - 20 | They reached the territory of the Gerasenes on the other side of the lake and when they disembarked, a man with an unclean spirit at once came out from the tombs towards him. The man lived in the tombs and no one could secure him any more, even with a chain, because he had often been secured with fetters and chains but had snapped the chains and broken the fetters, and no one had the strength to control him. All night and all day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he would howl and gash himself with stones. Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and fell at his feet and shouted at the top of his voice, 'What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? In God's name do not torture me!' For Jesus had been saying to him, 'Come out of the man, unclean spirit.' Then he asked, 'What is your name?' He answered, 'My name is Legion, for there are many of us.' And he begged him earnestly to not to send them out of the district. Now on the mountainside there was great herd of pigs feeding, and the unclean spirits begged him, 'Send us to the pigs, let us go into them.' So he gave them leave. With that the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand pigs charged down the cliff into the lake, and there they were drowned. The men looking after them ran off and told their story in the city and in the country round about; and the people came to see what had really happened. |
| Mark's Gospel seems to have a lot of the same stories as
Matthew's, but in different order and with different emphases,
explanations and justifications. If people
choose to be very particular about examining the accuracy of these
stories they are likely to conclude that they aren't easily seen as
consistent in every detail. The truth is, this doesn't particularly concern me other than when people get very picayune about their own interpretations with some passages and ignore others. But this is one of many reasons why I try to focus on not being hypocritical in my own spiritual efforts and try to not get too wrapped up in citations and interpretations to justify what I want. We also get a fairly major difference between the sources since there is not the repeated use of the "faith" word as a description of why certain things occur. While it definitely appears in Mark, it doesn't have the prominence. Though we get some statements that someone's ill health is related to their sins, but nothing terribly specific about how. But we get an even more _____ portrayal of how Jesus was pressed by crowds. It also helps us to understand why so many of the people seeking healing assistance needed to be so strident in their efforts. I think it also says very much about the "healthy" people that surrounded Jesus. Even at the beginning they don't seem to show hardly any sensitivity to Jesus' feelings or the suffering of others. We also see how some people, particularly some of those associated with authority in the current Jewish religious establishments, were terribly comfortable with the suffering of others.
|