Digest: What It Shows About God, and About People — You Can Study the Bible

The first two questions. Answer them from the story in front of you, not from what you already believed this morning.

Now you’re holding the story, so you can Digest it. Digesting is four questions. Here are the first two.

1. What does this show me about God?

Look only at Mark 2:1–12. Not at what you’ve heard about God before — at this. What does Jesus do when the mat comes down through the ceiling? What does He say first? What does He seem to care about? Say one thing you can point to in the story.

2. What does it show me about people — and about me?

Same story, different direction. Four friends went up on a roof with a shovel for someone who couldn’t walk. A crowd filled a doorway so completely that nobody else could get in. Some men sat there thinking that Jesus had gone too far. That’s three very different kinds of people in twelve verses — and you can probably find yourself in one of them.

Then check both answers the same way: go back and find the line they came from. If you can put your finger on it, it came from the story. If you can’t, it came from something you already believed this morning — which isn’t a crime, it’s just not this passage. Read it again and see what is actually there.

Answer from the story, not from your memory.

Try it: Write one sentence for each question. One about God. One about people and you.