Mark 2:1-12
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What was mentioned last week with Tiffany? Anybody remember?
We have now read through Mark chapter 1 and we’re beginning Mark chapter 2! Great job everybody!
1 And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” 12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
This is a crazy scene isn’t it! Could you imagine being somebody in this house???
How could somebody tear through the roof of a house??
I’m Glad you asked!
The house… like many in first century Palestine had an outside staircase leading to a flat roof. NOW, the roof was made up of branches, thatch, sod and mud. The roof was often used as a deck is now days. For families to be able to go up onto the roof to get relief from being down below in the small quarters. SO, to make an opening in such a roof was not difficult.
BUT COULD YOU IMAGINE??? Being in this house… listening to Jesus teach with His awesome wisdom and teaching that we have never hear before… you then begin to feel some dirt hit your shoulder. The pieces of dirt keep getting bigger and bigger… you look up just in time for a huge piece of dried mud to hit you right in the face as a whole opens up in the roof!
TELL STORY OF HITTING ROZLYN WITH MUD DURING A RACE.
That hurts!
And then… it’s interesting that the friends lower their paralyzed friend down from the roof right in front of Jesus… and what does Jesus tell him...
We say, “If only!” Jesus says, “I FORGIVE & FULFILL. (V. 1-5)
We say, “If only!” Jesus says, “I FORGIVE & FULFILL. (V. 1-5)
5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Now there are a few things I could bring out of this text… the fact that Jesus say’s “their faith”. Showing us that the faith of the paralyzed man as well as the friends is what is being seen by Jesus.
Student there are often times when somebody else’s faith can and will be pushed by your own.
We also see this illustration from James where it says...
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
Jesus saw the actions of the friends. He saw the proof!
BUT… what I decided to really take some time on tonight is something that Tim Keller brings up in his book. The fact that you have a paralyzed man being lowered to this healer… or so they just thought. Jesus says to the man… “your sins are forgiven.”
Isn’t that interesting?
I don’t know about you, but if I were paralyzed, being lowered down to this man whom everybody says will be able to heal me… the first thing I’m thinking in my mind that he may say to be isn’t really… “your sins are forgiven.”
PARALYZED MAN: um… sir. I sincerely don’t mean to be rude but you see... I have a more immediate problem here Jesus… You see, i’m paralyzed. I can’t walk.
JESUS: But Jesus says to the man… no i know you can’t walk… i understand your problems. I have seen your suffering. But please know and understand… that you have a much DEEPER PROBLEM than your current sufferings. It’s actually the MAIN PROBLEM in your life. And that’s SIN.
NOW… this is where many in our culture would be offended wouldn’t it? Well I don’t have as much sin as so and so down the road. My biggest problem is this at hand!
And then that’s where Jesus shows us that SIN… is not just things we do wrong, or the rules that we break. It’s our nature in how we think we can live in this world without Him. It’s the rebellion that’s associated with our hearts. Living this life without reference to HIM. That’s SIN.
Keller says this… Jesus is confronting the paralytic with his main problem by driving him deep. Jesus is saying, “By coming to me and asking for only your body to be healed, you’re not going deep enough. You have underestimated the depths of your longings, the longings of your heart.”
WE HAVE ALL HAD THAT ONE THING IN OUR MIND BEFORE… WHERE WE SAY TO OURSELVES… “IF ONLY I COULD DO_____”. “IF ONLY I HAD _____.” THEN MY LIFE WOULD BE FULFILLED.
Keller tells us the that most rotten joke God could play with us is giving us everything our heart desired.
JESUS KNOWS.... that the longing of our hearts can only be fulfilled by God. And for us to have a relationship with GOD… then we must be forgiven. (I’ll get to that in a moment.
First I want to drive home this point a little further.
READ about C.S. Lewis book “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” Starting on pg. 30.
JESUS: The Son of God with the AUTHORITY to heal & forgive. (v. 6-12)
JESUS: The Son of God with the AUTHORITY to heal & forgive. (v. 6-12)
6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” 12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
So we see here that the scribe thought Jesus was “blaspheming”. Now this can be a word we tend to read over and maybe think we know but not exactly know! that’s ok!
But what does it mean?
Expressed in various forms in the Bible, blasphemy can include flagrant actions and disdain for God’s Word, His promises, and His people. Scripture bears consistent witness to the severity of the offense. In the Old Testament, a member of the Israelite community would be put to death for it; in the New Testament, condemnation is said to await one who blasphemes the Holy Spirit.
Here in verse 7 we see it in the form of Jesus claiming to do something ONLY GOD CAN DO.
Jesus is claiming to be GOD!
Only God can forgive the sins that we have committed against him. And here is this man who is forgiving me for something I did against God...
IMAGINE: if (pick three in the room) _______ punched _______. _________ was also in the room and goes to forgive the one who punched so and so. The one who got
punched would be like… you can’t forgive him. Only I can.
Right? That is why it’s odd to the scribes and a serious offense to them that Jesus is saying He can forgive. He’s saying He’s God.
Again and again during the life of Jesus the same dilemma was to reappear. If He were not divine, then He was indeed a blasphemer: for He must be either God, mad/crazy, or a lyer.)
C.S. Lewis says He’s either a liar, lunatic, or God...
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
–C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity
Jesus then ask this odd question in v. 9 which has baffled commentators for centuries.
I have to read to you another part of the book called King’s Cross.
Read from pg. 34-35.
We see here “the shadow of the cross falling in the path of Jesus.”
Jesus has the power to give us what we want right here and right now. BUT, He knows that what we NEED is something much deeper than that. What we NEED is to be with our creator again. To have a right relationship with Him again and to continue to live in the right relationship.
YOU WANT YOUR DISCONTENTMENT TO GO AWAY. BE FORGIVEN OF YOUR SINS BY REPENTING AND MAKING JESUS LORD. AND LIVING IN RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR GOD.