Surprise

We have never seen anything like this (2:12)

I was privileged many years ago to visit Morocco. Against expectation, Casablanca is dull. Marrakesh by contrast was mind-blowing, with its ancient main square, the Jemaa el Fnaa, bordered on one side by the labyrinthine souk and on the other by a five star hotel. One evening we took ourselves out for street food and to take in the atmosphere. Sheep eyes were being eaten and snakes charmed. I even got involved, juggling for the snake so it wove in and out of the flying balls. We were two narrowly educated school boys and we had never seen anything like it.

Jesus' watchers had just such an unexpected scene brought to their door. They were at home in their own town and in a moment all that they thought to be true was turned on its head. Here was a man who could forgive sins at a word and heal the sick in an instant. Nothing could have prepared them. Sadly, we are so familiar with these stories that they no longer have this effect on us, but I rather suspect if we saw it now we would still say, with them, 'We have never seen anything like this before'.



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