Sometimes we can see how
something is going to end even as it is beginning. This is certainly not true
of everything, which is why folks like sports so much. But sometimes,
especially if you’ve been around for a bit, you can see two people who start
dating, and just know it is going to end badly. This tendency he has is going
to conflict with that habit of hers, and it will just end badly. The two people
involved can’t see it yet, but almost everyone else can. Or maybe you can look
at a child, and see their disobedience, their defiance of authority and
reckless living that their future is going to have some really rough times. You
know that kid is going to have to have a major change in personality and focus
or something bad is going to happen.
Often at the beginning of a
class, I could pretty much tell you what
I was going to get as a grade. I could look at the requirements, all
that we had to learn and do, and knowing my work habits, I could often tell what
I would get for that class. There is a skill is being able to look at a
situation, examine the factors, and guess accurately how a given situation is
going to end. This is a skill used by many people, from teachers to salespeople
to you and me as we go through this life.
We talked a few Sundays ago
about Jesus having authority; having the authority to heal and cast out demons,
having the authority to call disciples and become a full fledged teacher or
rabbi. The truth is that God has even more authority than a rabbi; God calls
disciples, God does healings, but also God has the authority to forgive sin. It
is this ultimate authority that Jesus displays and Mark wants to highlight in
this morning’s text, and the conflict with the Pharisees that is a direct
result of his authority. We see the beginning of the Pharisees conflict with
Jesus that will culminate with His death on the cross. Our text this morning is
Mark 2:1ff
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard
that he had come home. 2 So
many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he
preached the word to them. 3 Some
men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus
because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after
digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said
to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now
some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that?
He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this
was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier:
to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take
your mat 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 tell you,
get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of
them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never
seen anything like this!” [1]
Let’s pray.
We’re
making our way slowly through Mark for the next while. Before we dive deep into
the text I wanted to take a second and tell you a little about Mark, the gospel
and the man. We don’t know exactly who Mark was. He wasn’t a disciple. Most
likely he was an early convert, someone very close to Peter. Scholars believe he
was close to Peter because of the tone in Mark toward Peter. Peter often looks
like he’s a little slow in Mark, which would be really insulting to the head of
this new religion, the leader of these followers of Christ. The only way that
would be possible is if Peter is involved in the writing of Mark. Only Peter
would have the permission to make Peter look a little dumb. No one else would
do that to the head of their religious sect. So that’s why we believe Peter was
looking over Mark’s shoulder as he wrote the events of Jesus life.
Mark’s
gospel was the first gospel finished, probably about 10 years before both Luke
and Matthew and 20-25 years prior to the writing of John. Mark has a tendency
to collapse time, rather than strictly following the chronological order of
events. I’ve been learning that Mark is purposely telling the events of Jesus
life in a very important order. He is writing to help people know Jesus-writing
to help them understand who Jesus really is, what He is about, why certain
things had to happen. I’m learning that Mark tends to group incidents in Jesus
life more thematically that chronologically. This is completely consistent with
the ancient Jewish way to recording events. The ancient Jews didn’t care for
exact details. Our newspapers are full of exact details as to what happened;
how many people were at a rally, what exactly they were shouting, how far they
marched and so forth. Ancient Jews want to know, instead, why something
happened. What was the reason behind a rally? Why were the people there and
what did they hope to accomplish?
Mark
is trying to answer the deeper questions-what was really happening when Jesus
was on the earth? Why was He put to death? What did He come to do? Let’s take a
look at Mark answering some of those questions in today’s passage. First,
though, we need context. Here it
is…
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard
that he had come home. 2 So
many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached
the word to them. 3 Some men
came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus
because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after
digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus
saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your
sins are forgiven.”
We
know that Jesus was gaining in popularity. His teaching in the synagogues, His
healings of all sorts of different people, we learned a few weeks ago that all
that was making it hard for Jesus to even to go into towns anymore because He
was so mobbed wherever He went. As He is here. Into the scene come 5 desperate
guys. At least 5, the 1 carried and the 4 carriers. They’ve heard about Jesus healings,
and they probably know this is the only way for their friend to be healed, the
only chance to have more of a life than begging beside the road. This is their
chance to help their friend in the way he needs most. The desperate see the
situation and understand that the only way to get their friend to Jesus to go
around the crowd, and the only way to go around the crowd is to go over them.
So they climb onto the roof, dig their way through several layers of roof
material; sticks, mud, thatch until they have a big enough hole to lower their
friend down to where Jesus is.
The
amazing thing to a first century reader would not have been the actions by
these guys, but it would have been Jesus declaration that the man’s sins were
forgiven. The priests at the temple in Jerusalem had the authority to transfer
a person’s sins onto an animal, which was then ritually slaughtered as
punishment, as the blood necessary for forgiveness. But to declare that a
person’s sins were forgiven, that is God’s domain. That is not something a
human being would say. The main reason is that all sin is ultimately against
God. To be forgiven means that the person sinned against must absolve the
sinner. We can see this clearly in Psalm 51, where King David presents himself
before the Lord after having been confronted by Nathan who brought David’s sin
before him. He says this before the Lord, Ps 51:3-4 “For I know my
transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I
sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when
you speak and justified when you judge.” The Pharisees, of course, know that
only God is sinned against, and so that therefore only God can forgive sins.
But this Jesus, He declares this crippled sinner to be forgiven, his sins wiped
away and forgotten. How can this be?
Now some teachers of the law were sitting there,
thinking to themselves, 7 “Why
does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God
alone?”
They are right. No one can forgive sins but God alone. The cripple, obviously a sinner because of his physical condition (that was how they thought in those days, and he was one according to what Jesus says…)…the crippled sinner receives forgiveness. I doubt this is what the crippled man was looking for. He is good with God now, but still unable to walk, still unable to function in society. Moreover, because he cannot move, there is no proof that what Jesus said was true. You’ll notice this is the first run in with the Pharisees who are coming to check Jesus out. They’ve heard about this new teaching, a teaching with authority, and so they are coming to make sure this Jesus guy is on the up and up. The Pharisees come around and then circle back and then around Jesus again. They have increasingly confrontative encounters with Jesus, starting with this passage. This is what I was talking about at the beginning of the sermon, the ability to see how something is going to turn out. Here something great is happening, but the Pharisees cannot see it. They only see blasphemy, they only see a man. They don’t, for some reason they can’t, see God.
Immediately
Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts,
and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to the
paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and
walk’?
This
passage is an extended chiasm, which hopefully will be up on the screen right
now.
The
Community hears the Word vs 1-2, the paralytic vs 3-5, God only forgives sin vs
6-7, their unbelief is challenged vs 8-9, Jesus has authority to forgive sins
10, the parayltic is healed vs 11, the community glorifies God vs 12. The
center of the chiasm are these two verses, Jesus confronting the unbelief of
the Pharisees. This is what the first century reader’s of Mark’s gospel would
have seen and would have focused on.
You’ll see that these
two verses, with Jesus challenging their unbelief, is the very center of what
Mark wants his readers to see and understand. Jesus challenges unbelief in all
forms, it is Him in whom believe. But these Pharisees don’t believe much of
anything. They believe in their power, they believe in what they can see. What
a small world to believe in. Do they believe, or don’t they, that something new
has happened in Jesus Christ? The readers of Mark are let in on the secret
earlier in Mark 1, this Jesus is the Son of God, He is God, and His ministry is
blessed by God the Father. This is what Jesus is going to fight the rest of His
ministry, this unbelief by the powers that be. The Pharisees are going to keep
coming around, questioning Him harder and harder, and Jesus will push back,
baffling them with His answers. It is in this relationship, this start of a
confrontation that we can see the end of Jesus life, at least a little. It is
this relationship with the Pharisees that will ultimately end Jesus life, at
least for a little while.
Immediately
Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts,
and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to the
paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat 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 tell
you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of
them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never
seen anything like this!”
To
the further astonishment of all the people; the crippled man got up, and walked
away. Healed, new and improved, ready to live life like he had not been able to
before. The people were amazed before the healing the text tells us, I bet
their eyes must have popped out of their heads afterwards. They were at least
smart enough to give glory to God. So many people in our society give glory to
the person God works through, rather than to where the praise and glory ought
to go, straight to God.
With
any new authority comes opposition. Jesus is certainly a new authority,
something new to the religious life of Israel that the people can either reject
or accept. The Pharisees are going to reject Jesus. We have accepted Him as our
Lord and Savior, as the very One who has the authority to declare that our sins
are forgiven. He accomplished that Himself. The Pharisees weren’t wrong that
only God can forgive sin; they just didn’t want to listen to God saying He
would do just that. The answer is quite simple; it is easier to say someone is
forgiven than to heal them because it requires no proof. But if Jesus can heal,
then His statement about sin needs to be reevaluated in light of who He is.
And Jesus’ actions invite the Pharisees to think again about who they
assumed Jesus was. They should have seen He was more than a carpenter’s son,
more than a preacher, more than a healer, more than human. This was the Messiah
they had waited for, but because of their preconceived notions about who the
Messiah would be and what He would say and do, they missed Him, and eventually,
they killed Him. Here at the beginning of Mark chapter 2 we can see the end of
Jesus life. This is already the beginning of the end. No one makes fools out
the religious leaders of Israel. They know what they are doing. No preacher
from Nazareth, even if He can heal people, can talk to them that way. So here
we see it, the beginning of the end of Jesus life. Why couldn’t they just see?
Pride, arrogance, God shutting their eyes to the truth, we aren’t told. The end
had to happen the way it did though, Jesus had to die on the cross for you and
for me. It couldn’t have happened any other way.
What I also want you
to see is that our end is taken care of in this beginning of the end. It is
Jesus ending that takes care of each of our endings. It is the cross, Jesus
self sacrifice on the cross that secures our ending. But in the meantime, there
is a lot of garbage that we have to go through in this life. And I’m sorry
about that. Life can be a struggle, even knowing that our future is eternally
secure in Christ, quite often our present is awful. One of the truths we can
walk away from the passage with is that God knows us, knows what is wrong with
us and desires to make it better. He healed the man who couldn’t walk and forgave
His sins. For us, I promise you that God knows you, God loves you and if you
will let Him, will work in your life.
I am still amazed at
what Jesus does. I am still amazed at the love Jesus pours out for all of us,
at the love He pours out for you and for me. I am still amazed that God cares
about us. He has an entire universe to run, and yet He loves us more than we
can imagine. I will always be amazed. We worship and love a God who knows us
through and through, a God who will do what is best for us even though we often
don’t want Him to. I ask you today to trust that God, the God who healed, the
God who heals, the God who cam to us in a form and way we could understand, the
God who hung on the cross and died for you so that you and I could commune with
God, that our end might not actually be the end, but rather the beginning of a
life in Heaven beyond anything we can ever hope or imagine.
Let’s pray.