Have you ever been amazed by the conversion of someone you thought was beyond conversion, beyond God’s power to save? This reminds me of the time when Jesus healed a paralytic man and the people who witnessed the event were amazed. He also proved to the scribes that He had the power and authority to forgive the man’s sins as well (Mark 2:1–12). A reading of the Gospel of Mark reveals over a dozen times people reacting in a similar way to the words and miracles of Jesus.
The word translated as “amazed” in Mark 2:12 means “to be astonished” and “carries the idea of being thrown into a state of surprise or fear or both01” (David McCasland). This same word is used in Mark 6:45–46 when the disciples saw someone walking on the water towards them and at first, they thought the Lord was a ghost. Verse 51 says, “Then He went up into the boat to them and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure and marveled” (NKJV). There is another example of this type of amazement when the people of the country of the Gadarenes saw a man delivered from a legion of demons by Jesus, and Mark 5:20 says, “and all marveled.” Why? Did they think the man was beyond God’s power to save? Do we feel the same way when God saves certain people?
God is not bound by our limitations or expectations. He speaks and acts with authority and wisdom far beyond ours. Isaiah 55:8–9 says: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” With reverence and awe, let us continue to live our lives each day as the people did in Mark 2 where “all were amazed and glorified God” (v.12).
