2023.02.12 Healing the Paralytic
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Healing the Paralytic
Healing the Paralytic
Psalm 56 • Mark 2:1-12
1 When Jesus came back to Capernaum a few days later, it was heard that He was at home.
2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer space, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them.
3 And some people came, bringing to Him a man who was paralyzed, carried by four men.
4 And when they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and after digging an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralyzed man was lying.
5 And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking it over in their hearts,
7 “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were thinking that way within themselves, said to them, “Why are you thinking about these things in your hearts?
9 Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?
10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralyzed man,
11 “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home.”
12 And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
On the surface, this seems like a run-of-the-mill healing story. Paralyzed man meets Jesus. Jesus says some hocus pocus over him and the man walks away. Woohoo! The crowds go home amazed, and we have a nice side of embarrassment for Jewish leaders thrown in for good measure.
But if we look closer at this Jesus Story, we have some things to learn.
First, what do we learn about God?
What do you learn about GOD from this story?
What do you learn about GOD from this story?
To God, forgiveness of sin and healing are the same thing.
Look at verse 9:
9 Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?
10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralyzed man,
11 “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home.”
Jesus using the declaration of healing and the declaration of sins being forgiven interchangeably.
Turn over to James 5. James is Jesus’ brother. He was not a believer until AFTER the Resurrection. His faith exploded, and he became a very important leader in the early church according to the book of Acts. James 5
14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
15 and the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much.
We learn that in God’s heart, Healing and forgiveness of sins are intertwined. In this passage, verse 15 says, “...the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick”. Whose faith is James talking about? The faith of the sick person, or the faith of the one praying over them?
Here, we learn something very important about humans.
What do you learn about HUMANS?
What do you learn about HUMANS?
YOUR FAITH can heal SOMEONE ELSE!
Charlatans travel the land ‘healing people’. And when a person isn’t healed, many of them tell the poor person “your faith is lacking”. But in reality … if the person isn’t being healed, perhaps it’s the praying person’s faith that’s lacking.
Returning to Mark 2, Look at verse 5:
5 And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
This story is also recorded in Matthew 9:1-8 and Luke 5:17-26.
This phrase is recorded in all three versions in the Greek and in the English … The only difference is that Luke uses a pronoun instead of Jesus’ name.
ἰδὼν⸃ ὁ Ἰησοῦς τὴν πίστιν αὐτῶν
eidon ho Iesous ten pistin auton
Most of us probably hated diagramming sentences, so I will spare you that exercise. But I will give you a very small Greek lesson this morning with this phrase.
[same slide with English underneath Greek]
literally: seeing the Jesus the faith them
That word order in English is very awkward, and looks like it may even be a statement about the men seeing Jesus’ faith, but the grammar of the Greek tells us that
“the Jesus” (ho Iesous) is the one “seeing” (eidon) (the verb is masculine singular … like Jesus)
and in Greek, the article, noun, pronoun order of “ten pistin auton” indicates possession, so “the faith” belongs to "them” (third person plural)
Jesus sees the faith of this man’s friends … and he responds by declaring the paralyzed man’s sins are forgiven.
We learn that YOUR FAITH can heal someone else!
That’s the good news in this about humans. However, there’s a warning in here, too.
The scribes miss the connection of forgiveness of sins and healing --- so they miss the healing opportunity because Jesus declares sins forgiven.
Looking at their response in verse 7:
7 “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God alone?”
Who do the scribes think can forgive sins? [only God]
And they take this belief so seriously, what do they call a human forgiving sins? [blasphemy - the most serious infraction they could lay on a person]
We just learned that healing and forgiveness of sins are intertwined, and that your faith can heal someone else. Can you forgive someone else’s sins?
Turn over to John 20 for a minute. This is after the resurrection, and Jesus is preparing the disciples for his ascension.
Let’s read starting in John 20:19:
19 Now when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were together due to fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
This statement is being made to “the disciples” - And it says in verse 24 that Thomas - one of the twelve - wasn’t with them. One of the twelve is different than “the disciples” from verse 19. This is not just the twelve in the room. It’s likely a larger group including women, and Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit and tells them all they have the ability to forgive sins. Who are the disciples of today?
In Mark 2, the scribes don’t recognize Jesus as divine and they don’t believe a human being can forgive sins. But Jesus tells us … his disciples, his followers, his believers are empowered to forgive sins. James restates this and again connects forgiveness of sins to healing.
Two things we can learn about humans is that the faith of one human can heal another human --- and all human believers are empowered to forgive sins!
What do you learn about YOURSELF?
What do you learn about YOURSELF?
How are you using your abilities?
Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation by challenging the Church’s selling of indulgences … effectively selling forgiveness. He posed the question that if the Pope had the ability to forgive sins, why would he not forgive them for the sake of mercy instead of payment? I ask you today … if you have the ability to forgive sins, why would you suppress mercy by not exercising your ability?
In my last semester of seminary, I asked one of the most brilliant professors I had, “Do you still find revelations when you study?” He hedged a bit at my question, but finally offered an answer along these lines:
‘I don’t have as many revelations of things I didn’t know any more. But I still discover new connections between bits of knowledge that change my faith and grow me.’
Perhaps you’ve been studying Scripture long enough that today’s ‘learnings’ aren’t new to you. But, I can tell the connections are new to most of us. How can I tell? Because I don’t hear of healings among us, and I don’t hear about people confessing sins to each other for forgiveness.
We’ve been wrongly taught that faith is a very personal thing, so we should keep our beliefs to ourselves. The new connection we learned today is that our faith is interconnected with each other. Our healing, our forgiveness, our usefulness are all tied into the connective tissue of the Church - the body of believers.
We are sick, we are unforgiven, we are weak — because we think we can have faith and remain disconnected from each other. We are withholding God’s mercy, and we’ve been convinced that He’s okay with it.
Having said that … let me ask:
What do you learn about yourself? And...
What needs to change as a result of what you’ve learned?
What needs to change as a result of what you’ve learned?
For those of you who go to lunch together after worship … maybe your conversation can be a little different because of what you’ve learned this morning.
5 And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much.
23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
Let us pray.