- Welcome new participants.
- Review the themes of Marking Your Mark (see website: http://make-your-mark-study.blogspot.com: Goals)
- Did you have a chance to experience Jesus’ authority this past week? How?
- What impacted you from Lou’s sermon about the leper and paralyzed man?
- Ask some who enjoys reading aloud to read these verses.
Discussion Questions: 1.40-45
- How does the leper approach Jesus? What is his question? Does the leper doubt Jesus’ ability?
- What normally happens when the clean comes into contact with something unclean? What happens in this story when Jesus touches the unclean man?
- Why does Jesus tell the man to go through the official priestly cleansing certification? What does the man do instead? How does this affect Jesus’ stated purpose of ‘going to the next towns and preaching there’?
- Have you ever felt so unclean that you wonder if Jesus wants anything to do with you?
- Who are the lepers here in Chico? How could we show Jesus’ pity and compassion to these people?
- Jesus ‘saw their faith’: what exactly did Jesus see? List exactly what the friends did. Does this match your definition of faith? Why or why not? Do you think the paralytic demonstrates faith? How?
- List all the results of faith Mark describes in this narrative.
- Describe Jesus’ words and actions in this story: just what does he say and do? What authority does Jesus claim he has? How does he demonstrate this claim? Is his proof convincing?
- Why do the scribes have these questions? Are they legitimate questions? How does Jesus answer these questions? Do you think the scribes are convinced?
- What is the most important thing Mark wants us to understand about Jesus and the Kingdom of God based on this story?
- Application Reflections
- Are you convinced that Jesus has the authority to forgive your sins? How can you, like the paralyzed man, ‘pick up your bed and walk’ as a demonstration of your faith in Jesus?
- What are ways that we, like the faithful four, can bring our sin-paralyzed friends into Jesus’ presence?
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