Mark Series Chp 2 - part 1

The Paralysed Man

A Man of Authority

Lets read Mark 2:1-6

Mark 2:1–9 NIV

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’?

This next part of Mark with this opening few verses specifically has a few controversies.

Jesus does something suprising, 2 The scribes challenge him on it, 3 Jesus responds in a way that makes the scribes be quiet.

Jesus and the Paralyzed Man

We see in verse 1 that Jesus is back in Capernaum and in verse 2 the house that hes in gets so packed with crowds of people wanting to see him that the house is overflowing. It says that he was preaching the word to them.

All of a sudden we read about four men carrying a paralyzed man. They cant get into the house through the door to see Jesus so what do they do? They climb on the roof.

A normal house in those times in Israel had a flat roof with timber lying across it and they had sticks overlapping it the other way. They also used branches and weeds on top as a layer, after that they would cover it all with dirt about 1 foot thick to help stop water getting in. Que image.

In Mark here it says that these Men took the roof off and made an opening. Imagine that! Everyone listening to Jesus preach and you just hear digging and branches snapping on the roof and dust falling on their faces.

Then all of a sudden you see this light shining on them , the roof just got broken open. This body gets lowered down like a crane with a bedsheet.

Mark doesnt record in his gospel how the crowd wouldve responded or how the owner of the house would have responded but all we see is how Jesus responded.

Jesus didnt look at it as property damage but in verse 5 we see what he thought of it.

Mark 2:5 NIV

5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus saw their faith. Faith can never be brought down to a intellectual state. Its spiritual. The Faith of these four men here showed their attitude towards Jesus. They had a single mind. Their mission was to get their friend to Jesus because they all knew that Jesus was the answer to their friends problems.

But when you come to Jesus you always get more than what you asked for.

Jesus always looks beyond the obvious needs to look at the ultimate need we have.

Being paralyzed wont send you to hell, sin will. Jesus says that the sins of this paralyzed man were forgiven.

Lets look at his forgiveness. Jesus knows the sins of this man , and he forgives them. Both of these things are proof that Jesus is God. Who else knows all the sins of someone else?

Its cool because Jesus forgiving his sins shows that he saw his sins being more against the man than him being paralyzed.

If i walk down the street and i see 2 people having a fight and one guy gets punched in the nose, it wont make any sense if i went up to the guy who threw the punch and say “ i forgive you” They would both look at me like i was a weirdo.

They never sinned against me, the one that was sinned against would have to be the one who does the forgiving.

Even though our sin hurts others, all sin is first and foremost against God.

Psalm 51:4 NIV

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.

Every confession of sin at any level, we must understand it was first and foremost against God.

The paralyzed man here recieved even more than just forgiveness, notice how Jesus calls him “son” hes gone from a child of wrath to a child of God.

When we get to Mark 5 we will see the same thing when Jesus stops to heal the women with the blood issue, he calls her “daughter” then says her sins are forgiven and that her faith saved her.

Its something i want us all to see. Its a reminder that being adopted by God is even greater than being forgiven. What would you mean by that Nolo , you may think?

Think of it this way… Forgiveness says “you are not guilty, you are free to go” but Adoption says “You are free to stay here forever”

verse 6 Mark says that there were scribes sitting there , probably sitting there all judgmental and they just looked at everything that was happening and it says “ in there hearts” they were questioning Jesus and they just thought “blasphemy!”

Have you ever looked at someone and just thought by their facial expressions, i know what theyre thinking.

This is how Mark recorded this, its like he knew exactly what they were thinking because of the way they were sitting.

This is their logic right now:

We know God alone can forgive sins.

Jesus claims to forgive sins.

Therefore Jesus is making himself out to be God.

This is blasphemy.

Blasphemy is insulting God, this is how they looked at Jesus when he did these things that only God could do.

We see the scribes call Jesus a blasphemer many times in the gospels but the funny thing is that if Jesus is God and they say he isnt , then they are the ones commiting blasphemy.

Mark 2:8 NIV

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?

When Mark was saying they were questioning in their hearts , Jesus says in verse 8 that he could tell through the Spirit that this was in their hearts aswell. Its like how it says in 1 Samuel 16 that God doesnt look at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.

Mark 2:9 NIV

9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?

Notice next how Jesus doesnt ask which is easier to “do” forgive or to heal but he says “ which is easier to say” Its because forgiveness is easy to claim because its invisible but being healed is physical and we can see it , so if Jesus said to be healed and he wasnt healed then it would have showed that he failed or was false but he does get healed and everyone can see it.

Mark 2:10–12 NIV

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!”

Jesus tells the paralyzed man to rise up and take his bed and walk. The man obeys him straight away and everyone responds in amazment.

Everyone there knows that Jesus can do what no one else can do.

Jesus doesnt tell him to try and get up and see what happens. His legs are literally dead and he doesnt have the ability to do what Jesus tells him to do. But Jesus heals him because he is God and his dead legs came alive because Jesus spoke it into being.

The miracles that we see Jesus do are not the main point, they are only pointers. Jesus can do what no one else can do because he is God.

Jesus didnt come just to show the power but he came to bring the salvation of God.

The man left carrying his bed , but the main thing is he left no longer carrying the burden of his sins on his back.

Jesus did the healing so that everyone would know that he had the authority to forgive sins. Jesus doesnt use the word ability as if he has the ability to do it, but he uses the word authority because he has the authority to do it.

Even though in this story we see everyone in the house crowd be amazed at what Jesus was doing , we dont see people in the crowd repenting or having faith. If they really believed we would of probably seen more of the roof be ripped open of people trying to get in to be forgiven but they dont.

This story should teach us a lesson, to not be like the scribes or the crowds and fall short on faith, but we should be like the paralyzed man and his friends.

To conclude this: Jesus goes beyond our obvious needs and goes to serve our ultimate need. We need forgiveness and adoption into Gods family more than we need anything else.

This story is a reminder that Jesus is both willing and able to forgive.

This story also teaches us one other important lesson in life. This might help us fathom or grasp the other tragedies we see in life.

Its easy for us to get angry at God when a tragedy or something bad happens and we say “God ! why the heck is this happening” Maybe the paralyzed man had the same thoughts.

But think about this…If this man didnt have the tragedy of being paralyzed , he probably would have lived the rest of his life and died ignorant of God and never seen Christ.

He probably would have just carried on with life and never got brought to Christ and never would have heard the words “your sins are forgiven”. That man being paralyzed , was actually more of a blessing than a tragedy. It was the beginning of eternal life for him.

Lastly , be like the four friends. We all know people that need Jesus. We are not the savior but we can help bring them to him.

Living and being the light as a parent or a friend will help bring people around you to Christ.

Christians cant play the role of the Holy Spirit we cant place the burden of saving people on ourselves but we can follow the conviction to not let anything stand in your way as i try and bring this person to Christ.

Amen.

Questions for Reflection:

How do the friends of the paralyzed man show faith?

Do you ever find yourself trying to be the savior for others instead of bringing them to the savior? How can you be more like the friends of the paralyzed man?

How aware are you of your need for Jesus? How does the story of the paralyzed man help you?