Mark 2:6

But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts.

Reasons in reserve

All true religion is located in the heart. Where the human heart goes the human life will go. The New Testament is a revelation addressed to the heart. Our Lord Jesus Christ was “set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign to be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may he revealed.” This story is remarkable for the exhibition it makes:

(1) Of enterprise in bringing a helpless soul to the Saviour: how many ingenuities-there are for reaching men when only the friends around them are in earnest;

(2) of the intimate connection existing between sin and suffering: our Lord’s action in bestowing pardon with the cure was strictly logical;

(3) of the great advantage it is to any man to have Christians for companions to become friends in his need: this palsied creature was healed because of the faith other people had;

(4) of the force of mean motives in driving men to reject Christ: these scribes were moved by arguments which they cherished, but concealed from sight. Upon this last point it seems worth while to dwell for a little while just by itself. Let us group the illustrations of the narrative around two simple propositions in turn.

I. The worst opposition which Christians have to meet in offering the gospel to men is found in the mental reservations of its rejectors, and the sullen silence of their hearts.

1. To begin with, there are unspoken objections which influence, if they do not control, one’s intellectual views. Men insist that there are discrepancies in the records of the Old and New Testaments which vitiate their truth, and, if generally known, would mock their claim to exact inspiration. Other men make great parade in private over difficulties in doctrine, and challenge attention to the fact that theologians differ in relation to almost all the cardinal points of what is called the evangelical system. Still others cavil at the inconsistencies of Church members, and rail out against them for hypocrisy, if only they can manage to secure a safe and credulous audience that dares not contradict them. Hints and innuendoes are the usual signs of this disturbed and unwholesome state of mind. Where do the young men of the present day obtain so much sceptical information? It is thrust in upon them by the public press. Doubts drop down like loose feathers wherever croaking ravens are wont to fly. But why is it that these reasons are so often held in reserve? Why does the man preserve his sullen demeanour without a word?

(1) Because he is not exactly certain he can state them: it is not everybody who can say clearly what he does not believe;

(2) because he feels a misgiving that they may not stand when someone a little more scholarly gets hold of them;

(3) and because he suspects that if he goes so far in his small infidelity, he really would have to go farther or give it up.

2. There are unconscious prejudices which arouse one’s temper. Some persons conceive a violent spite at what they assert is a continuous rebuke whenever Christian life is praised or commended. This is not a new thing in history. Classic annals tell us that an unlettered countryman gave his vote against Aristides at the ostracism because, as he frankly said, he was tired of hearing him called “The Just.” Other persons cherish implacable memories of indiscreet zeal practised upon them by those who supposed they were dutifully obeying the command, “Go, speak to that young man.” They recite the grievance of revival extravagances, which they deemed offensive and never to be forgotten. They rehearse the biographies of preachers who bullied the patient congregations, and then ran into immorality and deplorable scandal. They plead rashness as an excuse for reserve.

3. There are unacknowledged sins which sway one’s career. Come back to the story here in Mark’s narrative. Hear the comments of these scribes accusing Jesus of blasphemy! Violent clamours for moral and theological perfectness are raised by many whose sole aim is to divert attention from some secret indulgences of their own. These people reason in their hearts. Sometimes in modern life a very showy conflict with Satan is kept up before the public in order to conceal the fact of one’s friendship with him. It reminds us of plays in which the actors personate the devil fencing with some good antagonist behind the footlights, a knight, perhaps, the pink of virtue, battling fiercely with the demon clad in robe of fire. No one engaged for his soul could appear more bravely in earnest. But we are struck with a certain kind of wariness, which they both show in their hitting. Sparks fly from the weapons, but blood does not seem to be drawn. And if afterwards we were to go behind the scenes, there we should find those high-tempered combatants in a most surprising state of reconciliation; honourable knight and fiery devil seated in a friendly way at the table.

4. There results an unsubdued will sullenly closing one’s lips. Many men live a double life; they mean to be courteous, but on religious matters they cultivate a cool, proud reserve. It often surprises us to find our Christian endeavours so ineffective with apparently kind, open, intelligent people. What is the real reason? Because the heart is what governs, and logic is not addressed to the heart. Arguments are made and meant for the intellect, and lose weight in the tenuous atmosphere of the feelings. It shows no difference whether we drop down feathers or dollars through the vacuum of an air pump.

II. Thus we reach our second proposition: all these reasons in reserve avail nothing to men the moment the contest is seen to be, as it always is, a contest with god and not man.

1. Look at the facts here; first, see verse 8. Jesus understood those scribes

(1) divinely-He “perceived in His spirit.” He understood them

(2) thoroughly-He saw what was “within themselves.” He understood them

(3) at once; note that old word “immediately.” God knows all our surmises and suspicions.

Jesus peremptorily challenged those scribes in their logic.

(1) He announced His discovery. They were “amazed;” literally, thunderstruck.

(2) He accepted their condition. They looked on while He healed the man by miracle.

(3) He defeated them utterly. We read that “they all glorified God.”

2. Now let us draw a few final inferences from the whole story. This scene is repeated every day in the full sight of a patient God. Human nature is always the same along the ages.

(1) There cannot possibly be any reasoning in one’s heart which our omniscient Judge is not able instantly to perceive and to answer. Once a French soldier fell asleep on his post, and was brought up for trial by court martial. The first witness called was the Emperor Napoleon. “I was visiting the sentinels’ outposts,” he said; “I saw this soldier myself.”

(2) True prudence consists in outspoken candour. “Come, let us reason together.” Sometimes objections vanish with the statement; for they seem so insignificant when expressed. Mere articulation of difficulties often clears them of confusion.

(3) Sullen reserve surely runs to swift ruin. The difference between an ignorant prejudice and a wilful conceit is shown in this: ignorance stands with its back to the sun, and so if it advances moves on in the line of its own shadow only a step deeper; but churlish conceit walks straight away into a forest of doubts, till its own shadow is darkened with other shadows gloomier still. Hence, a confessed ignorance is altogether more hopeful for good because all it has to do is to turn to the light. Sullen obstinacy has to retrace its path, and so journey clear back to where it started. It was considerations of this sort which forced the bright remark that “an ingenuous intellect is often better than an ingenious one.”

(4) Reasons in reserve have really nothing to do with actual life or eternal prospects. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

I. An important aspect of human power. Secrecy and mental reservations.

II. A startling instance of Divine insight. Our silence is as loud as thunder to God! Our heart talk is overheard!

III. A splendid manifestation of Christ’s fearlessness Be need not have answered more than was spoken.

IV. A solemn example of the confusion which will fall upon all Christ’s objectors. Enquiry: What is your unspoken objection? Doctrinal? Disciplinary? Philosophical? Ethical? Grammatical? (J. Parker, D. D.)

Human reasonings about Divine forgiveness

I. That human reasonings are busy with the fact of the Divine forgiveness. “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God only?”

1. Some men question the ability of Christ to forgive sin.

2. Some men seek to understand the process by which sin is forgiven. They wish to understand the mental philosophy of forgiveness, and because they cannot they deride it as a delusion. Is it to be expected that men shall be able to trace the Divine action in its method of forgiveness upon the human soul? Can men infallibly submit the subtle influences of heaven to their rude and vulgar tests, as they would the thoughts and mental actions of men? No! Who, by searching, can find out God? And certainly in His forgiving influence upon the human soul He is an unsearchable mystery.

3. Some men repudiate the evidences of the Divine forgiveness. They ask, how do we know that a man is forgiven; and what is the difference between him and any unforgiven individual? The evidence of it is in the hatred of sin, and in the purity of life which it inspires. And this witness is true. The world should receive it as such.

II. That Christ refutes the mental reasonings of men in reference to the fiat of Divine forgiveness. The reasonings of these men were refuted:

1. By the test of consciousness. The palsied man knew that his sins were forgiven in response to the Divine voice.

2. By the miracle of healing. Forgiveness heals the life.

Lessons:

1. Not to cavil at the method of the Divine forgiveness.

2. To receive it with adoring gratitude.

3. To attest it by a holy life.