The Book of Mark #9 chapter 2:1-12
The Book of Mark
Jesus’ Authority to Forgive Sin
Mark 2:1–12
 
What would you say is the most distinctive and important benefit Christianity has to offer the world? There are a lot of possible answers.  Some would say it is a moral code of ethic.  Others say it is sacrificial love.  Others say peace and happiness.
 
And I would agree that all of those are tremendous benefits.  But there is one benefit of the Christian faith that transcends all others and in fact, it leads to all others and that is forgiveness of sin.
 
The greatest need man has is the need to escape the wrath and judgment of God and  only the Christian gospel offers that benefit to lost mankind.
 
Think about it this way:  What sends people to hell? Most people would say sin. But it's not sin alone that sends people to hell. It is unforgiven sin. Hell is occupied by people whose sins have never been and will never be forgiven. Heaven, on the other hand, is occupied by people whose sins have all been forgiven.
 
Therefore what causes people to escape the wrath of God in eternal hell is the forgiveness of their sins. That is man's greatest need and only Christianity e offers that benefit.
 
And we find God throughout Scripture presenting Himself as a God who is willing and eager to forgive.  He is, by nature, compassionate, kind, loving, merciful and seeking to save sinners.
And when you think about it, that is absolutely amazing because there's nothing more offensive to God than sin.  He is absolutely holy and yet He finds within Himself the capacity to forgive sin.
 
How can He do that? It is only because Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, died in our place.  All the sins of all those who will ever repent and believe were placed on Christ and He died in our place, therefore satisfying the justice of God and God's justice, being satisfied by a perfect sacrifice, allows Him to forgive sinners who repent and believe. That is is the message of the Christian gospel and only Christianity makes that promise.
 
And what we have in the first 12 verses of Mark 2 is a story about forgiveness. Let's read it.
 
Mark 2:1-12
 
We have been watching Jesus demonstrate His authority.  We’ve seen it in regard to diseases and demons, but in this passage we his authority to forgive sins.
 
Now the story is full of people.  There is the crowd. There is the paralytic. There is the Savior. There are the leaders and then we return to the crowd at the end and that’s how I want us to see it, through the various characters that are involved in the story.
 
Let's begin with
 
1. The Curious Crowd
 
Verses 1-2
 
You will remember when we last saw Jesus, His desire was to minister in the villages and communities, but because of the disobedience of the leper He healed, He is forced out into the wilderness.
 
And at the beginning of chapter 2 a period of time has passed.  We don’t know how long, but long enough for things to have cooled down a little, so He comes back into town.
 
Now, things have cooled down a little bit because He's been out in the wilderness for so long, He feels He can reenter Capernaum and He won't be completely stifled. So it's time to go back.  But as soon as He returns, the crowd returns also.
 
Mark says, “many gathered”.  That's probably an understatement. It was, most likely, a mob scene. There was no longer any room for anybody, not even near the door. It was just completely jammed.
 
Now keep in mind, crowds are never the measure of ministry success. Never does Mark say the crowds were coming to Jesus in repentance and faith. Generally they are just curious. Monday evening there was a hostage situation just off I-35 in Norman and the southbound traffic was being warned to keep moving.  Why?  People were curious.
 
That's why, like Christ, we must continually preach the truth.  People may merely be curious when they come, but they ought to hear the truth and that’s what Jesus shares according to verse 2.
 
 
 
 
Now, according to verse 6, within the group of the Pharisees, there was also a group called scribes. The scribes were the theologians of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the preachers and teachers of the system.  The scribes were the scholars.  They were also known as rabbis.  And they were there out of curiosity as well.  Already they are beginning to have suspicions about Jesus.
 
That is the curious crowd.  Some are there seeking healings.  Some may have come to hear His words.  Some may have come from curiosity and others are suspicious.
 
Next we find
 
2.  The Believing Sinner
 
verse 3
 
Now there’s nothing to out of the ordinary in that verse.  According to Matthew 4:24, He healed many paralytics. However, this is the only one Mark puts a spotlight on.
 
His friends bring Him to Christ and they couldn't get him in through the door because of the crowd.  And I’m of the opinion they tried a lot of different ways to get him in but they have no success.  So determined to get him to Jesus, they dismantle the roof and let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.
 
Verse 4
 
Now we've heard that story so many times, it has a certain amount of familiarity but that is a shocking set of circumstances.
The roofs of that day were generally flat and made of large beams that were used to support smaller limbs that were then thatched and covered in mud or mud tiles with the result being a very thick, dense covering.  So it was no small task to dig a hole large enough to lower a man lying on a pallet.
 
And by the way, they had to use some calculations to get him in the right spot of come in contact with Jesus.  So as the Lord is preaching and teaching away, all of a sudden mud starts falling on His head and thatch starts coming down all over the place. People are looking up as this hole just keeps getting bigger and bigger and all of a sudden a body drops through on a pallet.
 
I think it safe to say about these five men they believed Jesus could heal. Would you agree with that? The four holding the man and doing the digging certainly believed.  The paralytic must have believed.
 
And we know they did because in verse 5 Jesus sees their faith.
 
There we see
 
3. The Forgiving Savior
 
I find it interesting that the people coming through the roof don’t say anything, at at least nothing is recorded.  You would think they would say, “Excuse us.  We hate to interrupt your talk, but our friend needs you.”
 
They don’t speak, but Jesus does and notice what He says.
Verse 5
 
I find that very interesting.  Now we are told He saw their faith.  They all had faith that Jesus could heal. But from their side, it was the same kind of faith everyone else had.  They had watched what Jesus was doing and they believed He could do it for them also.
 
It’s just like us going to a doctor we don’t’ know for surgery.  Why do you do that? Why do you let somebody put you asleep? And then they wheel you into a room and somebody slices you open and messes around.  Why do you do that? You don't know the guy, you don't know how he treats his wife, his kids, his friends, his enemies. Why do you do that?
 
You do it because you have faith, based upon reputation or recommendation, that he can help you.  That's human faith.  It's the same faith you exercise when you go to eat in a restaurant. You've never been in the kitchen in your life and probably shouldn't ever go to the kitchen. You don’t know if the guy has a disease or washed his hands after the restroom but you let him prepare you a meal and pay him good money to do it.
 
That's exactly why these men did this. They have faith Jesus can heal. And it's such a strong faith they're willing to destroy a house to get him to Jesus.  Can you imagine what that trip cost them?  Somebody’s going to have to pay for the repair of the whole roof. They're going to embarrass their friend if Jesus doesn’t come through.  And yet they have such confidence.  That’s human faith and we all have it to one degree or the other.
But there is something more at work here with the paralytic than just human faith because although Jesus saw the faith of all of them, He narrows His statement down and He said specifically to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”   So apparently Jesus see in him a faith that was not visible to everybody else.
 
Now Jesus doesn't forgive sins unless the sinner repents and believes.  So what did Jesus see in this man? What kind of faith was it that catches the attention of Jesus?
 
It’s not just natural faith or human faith, but a spiritual faith. This is not just healing, this is salvation. This man's faith was not limited to believing in Jesus' healing power. This man believed that Jesus was the One who offered salvation to those who repent.
 
And according to John 2:25, Jesus knew what was in the heart of this man. He saw the real kind of faith, the faith that saves, the faith that doesn't come from experience but comes from conviction.  And notice how he references the man:  “Son.” Luke adds that He also called Him, “Friend,” which is endearing and sympathetic. “Your sins are forgiven.”
 
Jesus knew what he really wanted. He wanted healing, but far more than that, he wanted forgiveness. The other guys either didn’t care about that or didn’t yet understand it.  After all, they were up and walking around.  They hadn’t experienced the kind of need this man had.
 
 
But whatever the motivation, this paralytic knew he was much more than a cripple on the outside.  He knew he was crippled on the inside and He wanted not just a healing, but he wanted forgiveness and he believed that this was the one who could bring him forgiveness from God.  And so, Jesus, on the basis of His own personal authority, forgives the man.  .
 
Well, this is just what
 
4.  The Hostile Leaders
 
So in verse 6, we meet them
 
And by the way, they were exactly right and if they had followed their own statement to its logical conclusion they would have understood that Jesus was God in the flesh. Instead, they saw it as blasphemous.
 
Verse 7
 
Now that is the point of the whole story. Either Jesus is a blasphemer or He is God. There's no middle ground. He is either the one who can forgive sin or He is not. If He can, He's God. If He cannot, He is a blasphemer and He is saying He can do something that He cannot do and is a fraud and a deceiver. There's no middle ground.
 
Now notice, as of yet, they have not spoken.  They are simple rolling the details around in their heads, coming to the conclusion He is a blasphemer but Jesus knows what they're thinking.
 
verse 8
What a shock that must have been. He read their minds. He's aware of their thoughts.  Now it seems to me if you are debating whether Jesus is a blasphemer or God, you should start here.
 
After all, blasphemers don't know what people are thinking, only God does. They should have referred to their Old Testaments.  First Samuel 16:7, “The Lord looks on the heart.” First Kings 8:39, “For you know the hearts of all men.” First Chronicles 28:9, “For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts.” Jeremiah 17:10, “I the Lord search the heart.” Ezekiel 11:5, “I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.”
 
So, if you're wondering whether He is a blasphemer or whether He is God, those men had first-hand proof on the spot when He read their thoughts. Well then it moves to a second reality.
 
verse 9
 
Now on the surface you might say, “Well, it's easier to say pick up your pallet and walk,” but that's if you don't consider what it means by “say.” What it means is to say in a believable way.  Which is more believable?  For someone to say, “Be healed” or “Your sins are forgiven”?
 
Maybe we should ask it this way:  Which one is easier to verify?  Which one is easier to prove?
 
After all, if someone was crippled and now they’re up waling, that is verifiable.  But how do you know when someone's sins have been forgiven?
So if a man does what Jesus tells him to do, if he gets up, picks up his bed and walks out, guess what? He is God. He's not a blasphemer. And if He is God who can create and cause a paraplegic to be completely well, then He can forgive sin, something only God can do. Only God can do both
 
And right in front of them, both became reality as the Savior/God heals a paralytic and forgives sin.
He is proving that He can forgive sin by proving He is God by doing this miracle.
 
And that's what He explains in verses 10 and 11a
 
Then he gives the man three separate commands
 
Verse 11b
 
That’s exactly what He did.  He got up, picked up and went home in an instant, total, unmistakable display by the Creator/God.
 
So, we meet the curious crowd and the believing sinner, the forgiving Savior, the hostile leaders.
 
We go back to the crowd to conclude.
 
verse 12
 
The man walks outside in front of everybody with his bed rolled up and the crowd says, “We've never seen anything like this.”
 
Matthew, who writes of this same miracle, concludes like this:
 
Matthew 9:8
Notice back in verse 10 Jesus refers to Himself as “Son of Man”.  Why does He use that title?  Why not “Son of God”?  That would seem to be much more fitting.
 
Some say, “Well, Son of Man is a Messianic term.”  Not so much.  It‘s only used that way one time in the Old Testament.
 
And yet it appears to be the favorite term Jesus used of Himself.  Why?  I think because of what we find there in Matthews concluding statement.   They glorified the God Who had given such power to men.
 
What's the operative word there? Men. He was, no doubt, a man.  There in stood in the flesh.  He looked just like everyone else.  But how could He be a man and do what He was doing?  How could He be merely a man when He had such power and authority?
 
They had seen it again and again and again and the lsit just kept getting longer.  He had authority over supernatural demons and diseases and even sin. How could He just be a man?
 
Jesus did all these miracles in order to show that He was God, so that he could say He came to forgive sinners. Not only to forgive sinners, but to provide the sacrifice on which that forgiveness is based. And by the way, He's still doing it. He still says to spiritual paralytics, “Son, your sins be forgiven.” He'll say it to you if you'll repent and believe in Him.
 
Let’s pray.