How can I forgive 2 1-17 042207
“How Can I Forgive?”
Mark 2:1-17 Pastor Bruce Dick – BEFC
Pt. 5 of “Who is Jesus…?” April 22, 2007
Thanks (Bob) for reading that for us this morning. Now before I tell you where we are going this morning, let’s see where you have been. I gave you a challenge – to Stop, Look, and Listen – this week for 10 minutes, to stop what you are doing, to look for God in nature and his word, and to listen to what he is saying to you through either or both means. I said that if you would do that, I would give you some time to tell me what you heard. So there are individuals with microphones positioned on each side and through the middle; if you are willing to share what God did, then raise your hand and the one nearest you will give you a microphone so we can all hear what God did. Who will share? (Will take whatever time is needed to hear what they heard – 2-8 minutes?)
That’s great; thank you and praise God for what he did in and through you this week. Jesus gave us a great example to follow when in the middle of those two “bookends” of activity, he got away with his father because he longed to be with him but also to stop, look and listen to what his father had to say. After that time out, he proceeded to heal a leper, which I said was to them what AIDS is today – you didn’t touch it with a 10’ pole. It was further thought that only God could cure leprosy and thus it must be a matter of internal sin working its way out to the skin of the body, not unlike what many think about AIDS today. So when Jesus heals him, he is once again declaring his authority – his s’mikhah – and getting dangerously close to actually forgiving someone’s sin.
Well, if you read ahead this week, he finally crosses the line. He has another opportunity to heal, which he has done hundreds of times by now, but speaks to something deeper than the physical need; for the first time, Mark goes to the person’s deepest need – forgiveness of sins.
I want you to just consider that term for a moment – forgive. We use that word, forgive, so loosely. We tell our kids that when they are mean they are to say that they are sorry and then we instruct the offended one to reply, “I forgive you.” And sometimes it is heartfelt and sometimes it is just something they have to do so they can go play again.
But this week on a national stage, at Virginia Tech University, the ability to say “sorry” and the resultant, “I forgive you” were put to the extreme test. Young college student, Cho Seung-Hui shot and killed 32 individuals and wounded a number more before turning his weapon on himself. And once again America is left to ask itself, “Why? Who could do this kind of thing?” But in all the discussion and articles written, I have not heard anyone say, “I forgive him.” I suppose one of the main reasons is that there was no one to say “I am sorry.” Could I forgive a man like that?
But I am also reminded of one of Jesus’ most profound statements on the cross; do you know which one I am talking about? Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) That’s profound. How would you and I forgive like Jesus did?
It made me think of another recent shooting last October in Nickel Mines, PA. You remember that one, don’t you? I milk delivery man walked into an Amish school, separated the girls from the boys and then took aim at 10 girls, killing 5 and injuring 5. What amazed the world was not the shooting but the response of the Amish. Do you remember how they responded? They put their faith into action. Their hearts were broken just as much as these folks at Virginia Tech were. But almost immediately, forgiveness was offered to this man and his family. As they were preparing funerals for their children, they were also ministering to the family of the shooter. The media was dumbfounded; “What is this? How can they do this? I s this some cult? Do they mean it?” The grief in both cases was no less for any of the families affected; but the sound of forgiveness was deafening in only one of the cases. I’m not saying that those families now won’t forgive, but the response in October was so quick that we have seen nothing like it in our recent memory. Forgiveness; they forgave like Jesus did.
What Jesus is going to show us in Mark’s gospel today is that man’s deepest need is forgiveness, whether that person is paralyzed or the scum of the earth – a dreaded tax collector. It doesn’t matter whether that person is a president or a prostitute, a professional athlete or a T-ball player, an alcoholic or a pastor. The Bible says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). As a result, our only hope is that what Jesus did on the cross was enough to forgive our sins and give us the promise of eternal life in heaven. If we’re wrong about all of this and the world is right, that this is all a crock, we’ve lost nothing but an attempt to live right and make the world a better place. But if the world is wrong and Jesus was right, then eternity hangs in the balance for each and every one of us.
So what Jesus does in this story is show us the extent of his authority – his s’mikhah. And he does it in two very unusual ways. In neither case do we expect him to do what he does. In one case, the one comes to Jesus and the other Jesus goes to him. But both end up being about faith or trust and forgiveness. Two very different individuals are presented with a choice to trust or have faith in this rabbi, Jesus from Nazareth, the son of man. And in both cases, their lives are forever changed. The question we’ll be left with is whether we are willing to trust Christ and whether we can forgive like Jesus did.
So take a look at the first incident: Forgiving & Healing the Paralytic. Mark 2:1-13. Jesus has kept his promise that we heard about last week; he knows his mission is first to preach the gospel – the good news – and that his healing ministry is only a validation of the things he preaches. So to accomplish that, he had to leave his adopted home town of Capernaum, along the Sea of Galilee, and head for some of the other 200 towns and villages throughout Galilee.
But he’s back. Verse 1 says that after some days – how long, we do not know – he came back to his adopted home town along the shores of the Sea.
But notice what Jesus was doing and what he was not doing: he was, in verse 2, PREACHING the word to them. He didn’t have to wait for Sabbath and the synagogue; this was great; they could listen to the greatest rabbi they had ever heard right in their home! One little note about his preaching is that the word here for “preach” is not just proclaiming a message in a loud voice. This word has to do with the sound and manner of his speaking rather than its content. Jesus is speaking in a conversational tone; there is a charm and tenderness in the words he speaks. One writer likened it to an old hymn called “In the Garden,” which says, “He speaks and the sound of his voice is so sweet, the birds hush their singing.” Jesus has all these people crowded in the room and doorway and he’s not shouting; his tone is one that they are hanging on every word; they’ve no doubt never heard anything like it.
But here’s where it gets interesting; in one of the most famous stories in all of the gospels, 4 men come to the crowded house carrying a paralyzed man on a kind of mattress or bed. Mark records that when they get to the house, it’s already full and if they are going to get close enough to Jesus to heal their friend, they have to take some drastic steps. Most Jewish homes were one-story homes built w/o foundations whose walls were made of basalt, which is kind of like a volcanic rock. The roof was somewhat sloped to allow water to run off and was reached with a staircase on the outside of the house. The typical Syrian roof was constructed of timbers laid parallel to each other about two or three feet apart. Then crosswise over the timbers, sticks were laid close to each other, thus forming the basic roof. Upon this was laid reeds, branches of trees, and thistles. The whole thing was overlaid with about a foot of earth, which was then packed down to resist water. All told, the roof was about two feet thick. During the spring, grass flourished on these primitive roofs. And each fall it had to be replenished and rolled before the onset of the winter rains.
So what these guys did was lug their friend up the outside steps, onto this thick roof and begin digging through the compacted dirt and grass, making a whole big enough for a full body-sized mat and man to come through. Imagine the looks and howls from the people below as this was happening. I was talking last week about distractions; how in the world did Jesus continue to teach and preach? I was trying to imagine a bunch of guys on our roof during a Sunday service trying to cut a hole through our roof while I was preaching! Do you think you’d hear anything I said? I didn’t think so!
But they did it; I don’t know how long it took or how dirty it was below, but they got this wide hole made and began to let their friend down in front of Jesus, the room jam-packed with people.
For these four men, it was their friend who lay motionless on that mat. But it wasn’t their desperation that brought them there. It wasn’t panic or fear. It was faith. Look at verse 5: “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘My son, your sins are forgiven.” (v. 5) Well, that must have been quite some faith!
“Now hold on there; that wasn’t what we were looking for! Can’t you see Jesus? This man can’t walk! We didn’t say anything about his sin! Look at him.” Why in the world did Jesus say this? Well there are some possible answers. First, physical suffering MAY have a moral basis. I said “may.” It is not always the case. I do not believe that my liver disease that led to my transplant had a sin basis behind it. But that does not mean that sometimes our spiritual failure do not have a physical consequence. In fact, in Jesus’ day, it was more often than not felt that sin and illness were connected, especially with paralysis. Too often today we dismiss the link between the spiritual and the physical.
Second, no matter his physical condition, the spiritual condition of his life was more important. Jesus himself once said in Mark 9:43, “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.” (Mark 9:43) Now please, do not leave here today saying Pastor Bruce told you to go home and cut some part of your body off; Jesus is making a point; the place you spend eternity is more important than the condition of your temporary body.
I remember in March 1993; Trudy and I had finished an incredible trip to Lithuania w/ the Campus Crusade group from UND; it was so fresh and raw there; the Soviet Union had fallen only 1.5 years earlier and their economy was in the tank, but their hearts were open. It was unbelievable. On our flight home, I got up to stretch and stood by one of those gaps where the emergency exit was with the little port hole window in it and began to talk to a woman who I believe was from Germany. She asked in broken English why we were there and I told there that we were there to encourage them and to tell them about Jesus Christ. She reacted to that; she said, “Those people need food and heat; why didn’t you rather try to help them first before you tried to give them your God?” It took me back a bit, but Jesus gives the answer here. Yes, we of all people, should lead the humanitarian charge to meet people’s needs; but giving them a meal or lending a hand and not telling them about the life to come is no help at all. Jesus displayed that right here.
But there’s a 3rd reason: Jesus is setting a trap for the Pharisees. He’s not using this paralyzed man per se, but he is about to show the Pharisees gathered there, sitting smugly, ready to pounce, that he is indeed ready and able to not only heal but to forgive sins as the Son of God and Son of Man.
And sure enough, Mark, in verses 6-7 says that these guys are sitting there thinking just that: “He’s blaspheming! He’s crazy! He can’t forgive sins; only God can do that! He’s slandering the very name of our God!”
Jesus knows what they’re thinking, even if they didn’t say it out loud and in verses 8-9, he calls their bluff with this question: “What is easier to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk?’” Now think about this; which is easier to say? It’s easier to tell a man his sins are forgiven, because who can know for sure if that really happened? It harder to tell a paralyzed man to get up because you’d know instantly if your word was good or not.
So Jesus has set his trap set and he springs it. Verse 10: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he said to the paralytic – ‘I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” Now is the point of truth. If he doesn’t get up, Jesus’ reputation is seriously damaged. But of course you know what happened; he did exactly what Jesus said; he rose and immediately picked up his own bed roll, weaved his way through the stunned crowd and went out. The people? They were amazed; they were out of their minds! And they turned their praise, as they should have to God himself, glorifying him saying, “We never saw anything like this!” They get it! Jesus has step-by-step shown that he has authority given to him by God. They have seen him cure a fever, cast out demons, touch and heal a leper (which was real close to forgiving sin) and then he did it – he forgave a man for his sins and allowed him to walk again. No wonder they were out of their minds!
Before I leave this man, I want to show you something about the word “forgive.” If you were here last week, you may remember that Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a severe fever. When he took her hand and lifted her out of her bed Mark wrote that the fever left her. Do you remember what I said about that? When that fever left her, it got up and ran away, so to speak. It was so gone that it took all the effects away with it. That’s why Mark wrote that she got up and made them all a meal; she wasn’t dragging at all; she was back to normal and out of health, strength and gratitude, she makes supper; why? Because her fever has been sent away so far and fast that it would have made your head spin.
Guess what? When Jesus told the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven guess what happened? The word for “left” in 1:31 and the word for “forgiven” in 2:5 are the exact same word! The fever that left, flew away with consequences in tow is what happened to this man’s sins! They were thrown away, farther and any man can throw them. In Psalm 103, it says this: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Ps. 103:11-12) His love is eternally high and great; his forgiveness is eternally wide! And this man’s sins are gone!
But there is something else; honestly, we take the word “forgive” too lightly. We say, “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you” so easily that we lose the depth of what God does when he forgives us. When we forgive, we mean that any feeling of animosity we may have had, has changed to one of renewed friendliness and affection. We do not hold the wrong done us against the person anymore. But so far as the act itself is concerned, we cannot do anything about it. It has been done, and it cannot be removed from the one who committed the wrong.
But that’s where God’s forgiveness is so amazing. He doesn’t just remove the feeling of animosity; he doesn’t just replace it with some fuzzy feeling of affection; he doesn’t just stop being mad at us. Rather, he took the sin itself and the guilt that went with it and removed it. He did something with it that we could not. But even better, he replaces it with his righteousness. He doesn’t remove it and leave a vacuum; he puts his own character, his own righteousness in its place.
Maybe this will help us see what that looks like. In a sense, it is like a computer; now I’m no techie, but let’s suppose that there is a component of your computer that has been corrupted and is not allowing your computer to work properly or maybe not even at all. You turn the computer on and it’s either terribly slow or just has funny characters running across the screen. Well, one part of the solution is to remove the corrupt piece of hardware. You isolate the problem, you remove the side of the computer and take out the bad component, maybe the mother board or the hard drive or some other major part. But you don’t remove it and then leave it empty; the computer still won’t work! You have to get the new piece that is perfect and you plug that in there, reboot the computer, reinstall the necessary drivers and the computer is back up and running. God removes our sin, throws it as far as the east is from the west and puts his own character of righteousness in us. The guilt is gone and a new and improved connection with him is established that helps us function far better than we ever could have before. That is what forgiveness is all about.
So the next time someone asks you to forgive them, don’t just give them forgiveness and hang on to your pain and bitterness; you replace the bad components with God’s love and watch what happens to the relationship.
Now let me quickly show you one other instance of faith and forgiveness on display: Forgiving and Recruiting the Tax Collector. Verses 13-17 of chapter 2, where we left off. Mark doesn’t tell us how that day ended but somehow, later, Jesus ends up walking alongside the sea, and of course whenever and wherever people found him, crowds follow. And as usual, he was teaching them as he walked. They were continually coming and he was continually teaching.
Somehow as he is walking, he happens across Levi, the tax collector, sitting at his tax booth. No one expects Jesus to stop, let alone give this guy the time of day. These guys were on the same social ladder as a prostitute. They were Jews who had sold out to the Romans, in the eyes of their fellow Jews. They were like the mafia, the Gambino family. They collected the variety of taxes that the Romans required and they got their jobs by bidding for them. The Romans had a set amount that they required to take in and these guys bid for the right to collect the taxes. They made their money by taking whatever they could over and above what the required amounts were. And there were lots of taxes: the POLL tax was for being a live body between the ages of 14-65 (if you were breathing and between those ages, you paid taxes); the GROUND tax was to take 10% of the grain you produced and 20% of the olive oil and wine and fish you took in; the INCOME tax was another 1%. Then there were DUTIES to be paid on imports and exports; if you used the harbor for docking your ship, that was a tax; if you used the road, that was a tax; there were sales taxes and import and export duties. If you had a cart to transport your stuff, there was a tax based upon the number of wheels on the cart. It was unbelievable and these tax guys had horrific reputations. In fact, in the Jewish religious writings called the Talmud it was taught that it was righteous to lie and to deceive the tax collector b/c that’s what a professional extortioner deserved. That was hatred! How could you and I forgive a man like that, whose whole life was to cheat you out of as much money as he could and become rich at your expense?
So Jesus is walking along and simply commands, not just says to him, “Follow me.” Walk the same road as me; be my disciple is the implication. Just like the paralytic, Levi, gets up and follows him. This is amazing, not only because he’s such a scumbag. It’s amazing because this is a “take it or leave it” deal. The think with guys like Peter is that if this disciple thing doesn’t work out, they can always go back and fish. When Levi leaves, he doesn’t get to come back. Someone would have been there almost immediately to take his place as a tax collector and if this disciple thing doesn’t work out, well, tough; he has to find a new line of work.
The crowd would have been stunned. You didn’t get close to a leper for fear of contamination. But you spit on a tax collector if you had a chance. Could you and I forgive a man like that?
Worse, Jesus goes to his home where a banquet has been laid out and it wasn’t just Levi; it was MANY tax collectors and sinners reclining at couches at this feast. A “sinner” was a technical term for people whom the Pharisees felt were inferior to them and who had no interest in what was most important to them – their traditions. And here’s Jesus eating with the scum of the earth.
Well, the Pharisees are all up in arms about this and this time they don’t just think it, they say it, but not to Jesus, but to the disciples, “Why does he eat with those tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus heard it this time and has the perfect reply: Those who are well have no need of a doctor but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous but sinners.”
I love that analogy. Imagine this; Russ Petty decides that he wants to start a new clinic in Devils Lake but this one is not for those who have fevers and colds and broken bones; this one is just for those who are healthy; maybe they need a back rub or a massage to make them feel a bit better! But that’s what the Pharisees were doing and to be honest, isn’t that what many churches are today? You see, it wasn’t that Jesus enjoyed hanging out with these tax collectors and sinners; he didn’t; there was sin all around him and his sinless righteousness shrank back from that. But he was there because they were in need of what he had to offer; he didn’t need what they had to offer. Someone wrote, “We sing ‘Amazing grace…that saved a wretch like me,’ but we have in mind only our kind of wretches!” (NIVAC, p. 118). Jesus is taking his faith to the place where it was needed.
It doesn’t say it explicitly here, but this man named “Levi” was also nicknamed “Matthew,” which means “gift of God.” It was this Matthew that we believe not only became one of Jesus’ 12 disciples but wrote the Gospel by his name. This Matthew was not dumb; he was trained in the OT; he quoted it often in his gospel; he wrote his gospel to the Jews and he knew those Jews inside and out. He would have known three languages – Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. But more than anything, this Jesus went to where he was and saved a wretch like him. The paralyzed man had been brought to Jesus; Jesus went to Levi and offered him the same forgiveness and freedom he gave to the paralytic. All that remained for Levi was to trust that what Jesus offered was real. And you and I get the same deal. We too can be forgiven for all that we have done with our lives. If Jesus can forgive a man like Levi and make him part of his inner circle, he can forgive us.
But you know something; I haven’t answered my original question: How can I forgive? Every one of us who sits here today sits with hurts that others have caused us or that we have done to ourselves. Some of us here today have trouble forgiving others – like parents or kids or bosses or friends or spouses or ex-spouses. Let me correct that; we say we have forgiven them but we’ve only gone half way. We told them we’d move on and not hold it against them, but we never let Christ replace that hurt with his healing and his righteousness.
For others of us here, we can forgive others much more easily than we can forgive ourselves. That’s me; I am harder on myself than most any one of you can be; and there are others of you like me out here today. Forgive? Well, sort of. We know God loves us but just how far, we really can’t say.
Some of us are operating like that computer I told you about before; we removed the corrupted hardware but we never replaced it with the new parts, the full love and acceptance that Jesus Christ offers to us.
At the end of the Lord’s prayer, Jesus added more that was not part of his prayer, but part of his explanation when he said this: “For IF you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt. 6:14-15) Boy that bites! We often say that God’s forgiveness is unconditional, but here is a condition; if we can’t forgive someone for what they have done to us, how can God forgive us for what we have done to his son? Well, how many times do I have to forgive that person? I think Jesus answered that too; the law required 7 times back then; Jesus said 70 x 7 would be just about right (in other words, more times that you can count or keep track of, because that’s how many times God forgave us.
Let me ask you a question: Do you think God could have forgiven that young man who killed those 32 and wounded all the others? One of our kids asked me that the other night; if there was a time when he would have sat down and confessed his sin, could God have forgiven him? The answer is “absolutely yes!”
And in that is the answer to my question of how can I forgive. I can forgive because Jesus forgave me. My sins put him on that cross. My sins caused the Father to turn his back on his son. Yes, I may not have gunned anyone down, but my sins had the same consequence for God’s son. And God forgave me and I had to trust that what he did was enough and that for the rest of my life he would transform me to become more and more like him.
How can I forgive? I can forgive because he replaces the hate in my heart with love. I can forgive because he gives my life meaning and purpose. I can forgive because my life is changed because he forgave me. I can forgive those who break my heart because I broke his. I can forgive those who were unfair to me because my sin was unfair to him.
Forgiven does not mean perfect. Forgiven means freedom to be who he wants me to be. Forgiven means we can be a church that sees people come into our doors to meet Jesus and we can be a church that goes to where the sinners are and introduce them to Jesus.
How can I forgive? I can forgive ONLY when I live like I have been forgiven. If you need his forgiveness today, then don’t wait any longer. Don’t just say you’re sorry; let him replace your sin and guilt with his character and integrity. Allow the growth process to begin. But it begins at the cross and it can begin today. Now it is up to you. What will you do with his offer so that you can offer it to someone, anyone else? Let’s pray.
“How Can I Forgive?”
Mark 2:1-17 Pastor Bruce Dick – BEFC
Pt. 5 of “Who is Jesus…?” April 22, 2007
Introduction:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
Ø _______________ and Healing the Paralytic (Mark 2:1-12)
“And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘My son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:5)
o Why does Jesus forgive his sins? Possible answers…
§ Physical suffering ________ have a moral basis.
§ No matter his _____________ condition, the _____________ condition of his life was more important.
“And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.” (Mark 9:43)
§ Jesus is setting a _________ for the Pharisees.
o What does “forgive” really mean?
§ The link between Peter’s mother-in-law (1:31) and the paralytic (2:5)…
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Ps. 103:11-12)
§ What God does when he forgives…
Ø ___________ and Recruiting the Tax Collector (Mark 2:13-17)
“We sing ‘Amazing grace…that saved a wretch like me,’ but we have in mind only our kind of wretches!” (NIVAC, p. 118)
Ø How can I forgive?
o Can I forgive those who have hurt me?
o Can I forgive myself?
“For IF you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
o I can forgive because…
“How Can I Forgive?”
Mark 2:1-17 Pastor Bruce Dick – BEFC
Pt. 5 of “Who is Jesus…?” April 22, 2007
Introduction:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
Ø _______________ and Healing the Paralytic (Mark 2:1-12)
“And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘My son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:5)
o Why does Jesus forgive his sins? Possible answers…
§ Physical suffering ________ have a moral basis.
§ No matter his _____________ condition, the _____________ condition of his life was more important.
“And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.” (Mark 9:43)
§ Jesus is setting a _________ for the Pharisees.
o What does “forgive” really mean?
§ The link between Peter’s mother-in-law (1:31) and the paralytic (2:5)…
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Ps. 103:11-12)
§ What God does when he forgives…
Ø ___________ and Recruiting the Tax Collector (Mark 2:13-17)
“We sing ‘Amazing grace…that saved a wretch like me,’ but we have in mind only our kind of wretches!” (NIVAC, p. 118)
Ø How can I forgive?
o Can I forgive those who have hurt me?
o Can I forgive myself?
“For IF you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
o I can forgive because…