Jesus the Forgiver

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Good morning Chapel family. We are taking this winter to walk through the Gospel of Mark, which is the first Gospel written; it’s also the shortest and most action-packed of the four Gospels. We’re calling the series “Servant King,” because in these pages, we encounter a leader who is utterly unique. He presents himself as a king, but unlike most other powerful, king-type leaders, he never gets arrogant. And he carries himself like a servant, but unlike other humble, servant-like people, he’s never weak or passive. He’s unlike anyone else who’s ever walked the earth. And that’s why we said last week that the key to life—the missing puzzle piece of life—is to follow him.

So last week we looked at chapter one, where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist; he spent forty days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, and he started calling his first disciples. We’re skipping over the end of chapter one, but the main thing that happens there is that Jesus goes out and starts teaching people and healing people. And people were amazed with his teaching, but they were blown away by his healing. So his reputation and his fame were rapidly building. It’s amazing how—before social media or any kind of technology—word could spread incredibly fast, and that’s what was happening: everyone was talking about Jesus the healer. And that’s where we’ll continue the story today.

So—Mark chapter two, and we’ll read the first 12 verses. Let’s hear God’s Word…

1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers 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 paralyzed man, 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 by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “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 this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 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!” This is the Word of the Lord.

At least once a year, somebody tells me a version of this story: “I had this terrible cough, so I went to the doctor to get some prescription cough medicine. But when he examined me, he suspected something else was going on, so he sent me for an MRI, and it turns out I have a growth on my lung.” Or, “I had this strange ringing in my ear, so I went to the ENT to get it checked out, and it turned out I had a brain tumor.” Has that ever happened to you? You have some kind of physical issue, and when you go to the doctor, you find out the problem you’re having actually isn’t the main problem, because there’s something deeper and more important happening. That’s really common on a physical level,

but it’s even more common on a spiritual level. So in this passage, the guy who gets brought to Jesus thinks he knows what his problem is, but Jesus has the wisdom to discern there’s something far deeper, and far more important going on. I would say it like this:

We think we know what we need, but Jesus drives us deeper. We think we know what we need, but Jesus drives us deeper. And if we can learn to trust him as he drives us deeper, it will change the way we live.

So today we’re going to talk about The Wisdom of Jesus and The Authority of Jesus. The wisdom of Jesus and the authority of Jesus.

So first: The Wisdom of Jesus. So word spreads that Jesus is in this particular house. And here come the crowds. They cram into the house; the people who can’t fit in the house stand outside and try to listen through the door and the windows. Why all the excitement? Because they wanted to see a miracle—either for themselves or even just seeing someone else get healed would be amazing, wouldn’t it? And it’s possible there was a little disappointment, because in that house, on that day, it seems like Jesus wasn’t focusing on miracles. Did you see what he was doing? Preaching the word. He was talking about spiritual things, like the kingdom of God being near—like a WiFi signal, which you can’t see, but it’s real, and you can connect with it and walk in its power. The crowds wanted miracles, but Jesus was preaching the Word.

Meanwhile, up on the roof, something’s about to go down—literally. Houses back then were usually simple, one-room buildings with wooden beams to make the structure of the roof. And they would lay the roofing material across those beams. In this case, we find out in Luke’s Gospel that the roof had clay tiles laid across the beams. And so these four guys show up at the house, carrying their paralyzed friend. You have to be impressed with that level of friendship, right? These guys obviously care about their friend. But when get to the door, there’s such a mob of people, there’s no way they’re getting in. So they find a ladder, they climb up on the roof and lift their friend up—maybe with some help from the crowd. And they start pulling off the roof tiles. Somebody has a rope, so they hook up the rope on the guy’s mat, and they carefully lower him down into the room.

Can you imagine if I were standing here preaching (look up…), and some guy came down through the roof? There’s a rule in public speaking—if there’s significant disturbance in the room, as the speaker, don’t just ignore it and go on with your speech. Everyone in the room is noticing it, so you should acknowledge it as well. So of course everyone in the room notices the guy coming through the roof, and Jesus—as the best public speaker who’s ever lived—turns his attention to this man who’s now lying on his mat right in front of him.

Everybody must have thought, “Here we go! Here’s the miracle! Get out your cell phone—video mode!” And Jesus says to the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Wait…what? If this guy were really honest, he probably would have said, “Um, thank you. But I’m not sure if you noticed—I can’t walk. And that’s really the reason I came to see you. I don’t know if you’ve met my friends—up there?—but that’s why they brought me here—they heard you could fix this.” That’s what he would have said if he had the guts, but he just kind of sits there, silent.

So did Jesus miss the obvious problem? Of course not. Jesus knew the guy was paralyzed. But he also knew the guy had a bigger problem. There was something broken in him that was actually more serious than his non-functioning legs. His sin. Which could sound very offensive, couldn’t it? Almost like you’re kicking a guy when he’s down: Like, “Not only are you paralyzed; you’re a filthy sinner, too!” But Jesus wasn’t insulting him; he was just speaking truth. He wasn’t saying the guy’s physical condition was caused by some particular sin in his life. But Jesus knew that even though every person

has different kinds of brokenness on the outside, we all have something in common on the inside: we sin; we try to do life without God; we selfishly hurt others; we fall short of the way we know we’re supposed to live.

See, this guy thought he knew what he needed, but Jesus was driving him deeper.

In his book Jesus the King, Tim Keller talks about this passage. And he says that this man on the mat, in his heart, is probably saying, “If only I could walk again, then I would be set for life. I’d never be unhappy, I would never complain. If only I could walk, then everything would be right.” And Jesus is saying, “My son, you’re mistaken.” Oh, he’d be really happy for a few months. Finally walking and running like everyone else. But the novelty would wear off, and he would realize, “I’m still the same person. There’s still a distance between me and God, and there’s a darkness in my heart that I don’t know what to do with.”

And Keller talks about an article he once read in the Village Voice, by an author named Cynthia Heimel. Secular author; secular magazine. But in the article she talked about all the struggling actors and actresses she had known, hoping to make it on Broadway. So they were working in restaurants, and odd jobs trying to pay their bills. And then some of them made it—they became famous. And she said when they were struggling, they said, “If only I could make it in the business…I’d be happy.” So they were like so many other people—they were stressed out; they were driven. But she said when they finally got the fame they longed for, they became horrible. They were unstable and angry and manic. And she said they didn’t just become arrogant, like you might expect—it was worse than that. They were now unhappier than they used to be. She said it like this:

“I pity [celebrities]. [They] were once perfectly pleasant human beings . . . but now . . . their wrath is awful. . . . More than any of us, they wanted fame. They worked, they pushed. . . . The morning after . . . each of them became famous, they wanted to take an overdose . . . because that giant thing they were striving for, that fame thing that was going to make everything okay, that was going to make their lives bearable, that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment and . . . happiness, had happened. And nothing changed. They were still them. The disillusionment turned them howling and insufferable.”

Then Heimel added this one last line, which is so poignant: “I think when God wants to play a really rotten practical joke on you, he grants your deepest wish.” Thank God he doesn’t play practical jokes on us. But he also doesn’t function like a Genie who just gives us what we think we need; he always drives us deeper.

I like how it says in verse 5 that Jesus saw their faith. He could it see by their actions, and he was Jesus, so he could perceive in their hearts that these guys—including the guy on the mat—had faith in him. Salvation and forgiveness are always by faith—so Jesus saw the guy’s faith, and he forgave his sins. His deepest need was met.

So many times, don’t we come to God thinking we know what we need? If I could just find a wife! If I could just make varsity! If I could just pass the bar exam! If I could just make partner. If I could just…(you fill in the blank)…then I’d be happy. Then I’d be complete. And Jesus says, “No, you wouldn’t. You have a deeper need, and it’s a spiritual need, and I’m the one who can fill it.”

I wonder: is there something in your life that you want so badly, that you’ve placed it ahead of God? And God may or may not want you to have that thing, but he’s using this teaching of Jesus to show you, “I’ve made this thing like my God! And I need to allow Jesus to drive me deeper.”

Well, in that room, not only were there curious people looking to see a miracle. There were also religious experts who, when they heard Jesus say what he said, their blood pressure immediately went up. Which leads us to point number two:

The Authority of Jesus. We find out in verse 6 that in that crowd were some teachers of the law. These were men who specialized in the Hebrew Scriptures. They worked very closely with the Pharisees, and some of them may have been Pharisees. They were extremely suspicious of Jesus, and they came that day hoping to find fault with what he was teaching—hoping to find some inconsistency or biblical heresy in his words. So when Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven,” that’s exactly what they were waiting for.

So before they even say anything, it says they were thinking to themselves: “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And you know what? They were exactly right about that last part! Only God can forgive sins.

Once again, Tim Keller gives a great illustration here. Many of you know Brandon, our Tech Director (by the way, congratulations to Brandon and Savannah on the birth of their son, Finneas, last Thursday). So imagine if I go up to Brandon, and I say something really mean to him—something harsh and hurtful, and he’s rightfully offended. So they next day, Pastor Paul comes up to me, and he says, “Hey—I heard about what you said to Brandon, and I forgive you for saying that.” If Brandon overheard that, what would he say? He’d say, “Paul—you can’t forgive him! Only I can forgive him. He didn’t wrong you; he wronged me!” Because you can only forgive a sin if it’s against you! So think about this—and I’ll quote Keller here:

…when Jesus looks at the paralyzed man and says, “Your sins are forgiven,” he’s actually saying, “Your sins have really been against me.” The only person who can possibly say that to a human being would be their Creator. Jesus Christ, by forgiving the man, is claiming to be God Almighty. The religious leaders know it: This man is not just claiming to be a miracle worker, he is claiming to be the Lord of the universe—and they are understandably furious about it.

So far they haven’t said a word…but that’s what they’re thinking. What they don’t realize is that not only can Jesus forgive sins, he can read thoughts. Verse 8: 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? That must have been a little unsettling. Jesus goes on: 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? Which is easier, do you think? Well, it’s easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” right? Why? Because you can’t prove you’ve done it. You can prove it if you heal a guy; you can’t really prove you’ve forgiven a guy. So Jesus is acknowledging it would be harder to pronounce healing, because you’d have to back up that claim with visible proof.

So, verse 10: 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 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!” And the physical healing is amazing and miraculous and life-changing! But remember, the miracles of Jesus were always signs that pointed to something deeper. So Jesus does this visible thing—healing the guy—to prove that he also has the power to do the invisible thing—forgiving his sins. One Bible commentator said it like this: “He did the miracle they could see so they would know that he had done the other one that they could not see.”

See, Jesus doesn’t just have the wisdom to drive us deeper and show us our biggest need; he has the authority to meet that need.

So let me ask you again: is there something in your life that you think is your biggest need, or something in the life of someone you love that you think is their biggest need…and so that’s what you pray for—that’s what you come to God for. But is it possible that it’s really not their biggest need? Because it may be an important thing—physical health or a job or a spouse—good things, but secondary things. Will you allow Jesus to change what you prioritize; change the way you pray; change the way you find contentment? Will you allow Jesus to drive you deeper?

Tony Campolo once spoke in a church in Oregon, and when he was there he prayed for a man with cancer. A few days later, he got a call from the man’s wife. And she said, “You prayed for my husband—he had cancer.” And when she said “had cancer” instead of “has cancer,” he was expecting to hear great news. But then she said, “He died.” And Campolo’s heart just sank.

But the woman said, “No, no—don’t feel bad. When he came into church that Sunday he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to die soon, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn't take away his sickness. He would lie in bed and curse God. And the more angry he got at God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him” But she said, “After you prayed for him, a peace came over him like I’ve never seen. Tony, the last few days have been the best days of our lives. We've sung. We've laughed. We've read Scripture. We prayed. They've been amazing days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing.”

And then she said something so wise. She said, "You know, he wasn't cured, but he was healed."

See, when that guy came to church, he thought he knew what he needed. And somehow, through that prayer; through the Holy Spirit; Jesus drove him deeper. And Jesus met his deepest need.