Sermon Tone Analysis

*“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!