1/9/2012 4:40:08 PM
MARK 2:1-12
“Forgiveness”
“1 ¶ When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them. 3 And they *came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. 4 Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. 5 And Jesus seeing their faith *said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." 6 But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?" 8 Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, *said to them, "Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? 9 "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ’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 paralytic, 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.’”
Before we get into the verses from Mark chapter two I want to write a bit about what the most important benefit of the Christian faith and this question may have an obvious answer but there are times when things are not as obvious as they seem. We want to know what is the most distinctive benefit that Christianity offers the world? Some may say it is morality, some kind of ethical approach to life. Love could be another answer to this question. How about fulfillment to one’s life. These are all good answers and they can be seen in the Scriptures that these are true answers, but there is really only one answer to this question and the answer corresponds directly to man’s greatest need, and that is where Christianity marks itself out from all other religions on the face of the earth. The greatest need that a person has that lives on planet earth is to have his sins forgiven and that is because we were all born spiritually dead and we are all as bad off as we can be, but true Christianity offers the benefit that meets that need. Only through the Christian gospel can anyone escape the wrath of God poured out on sinners eternally in hell.
What is it that sends a person to hell? Some may say it has to be sin that sends a person to hell, but that is not entirely true for if Christianity offers the forgiveness and then people do not take advantage of this offer then it is unforgiving sin that sends a person to hell. We will see in this section that forgiveness is the major theme, and although we will see Jesus heal another person the healing is just the picture of forgiveness. There are other things that we will see in this section too, and they will be in the people who are involved in this story. We will see the curious crowd, then there is the believing paralytic, then of course the forgiving Savior and last we will see the hostile leaders. But first a bit of review: Jesus has already demonstrated His authority over disease, actually over all kinds of diseases, and He also has demonstrated His authority over demons in that the demons must obey Him. He has demonstrated His authority in teaching, by proclaiming the truth and then doing it in ways that never have been done before. Now He wants us to understand that He has authority to forgive sins and as stated above this is the heart of this wonderful story.
“1 ¶ When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home.” (Mark 2:1)
Jesus had been away from Capernaum for a while teaching and preaching in other cities about the kingdom of God. We remember in the last lesson on Mark that Jesus had to spend time out in the wilderness teaching the people because of what the leper who was cleansed by Jesus did in tell so many people about the miracle that Jesus had done to him. Now He is back at home in Capernaum, and we don’t know if home was in the house of Peter and Andrew or another place, but we do know that the text says that He was home and where Jesus was at that time in His ministry there would be many people looking for a physical healing, but probably not too many looking for a spiritual healing. It did not take the people long to find out that Jesus was back in Capernaum.
“2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them.” (Mark 2:2)
We begin to see the curious crowd in this verse and they were all meeting in a house that Jesus was using to teach in and the place was so crowded that no one else could get into see Jesus and so other means had to be made in order to get to see Him. This crowd is not looking for a spiritual healing, but a physical healing and I would suppose that this makes Jesus sorrowful to see many people just coming for a physical healing when He could have given them so much more if they would have been willing.
3 And they *came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. 4 Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.” (Mark 2:3-4)
We see here four men carrying a paralytic man trying to get into see Jesus. Now we can understand why the statement was made about this crowd that they were looking for a physical healing and not a spiritual healing, for they see this paralytic man being carried and do you think that they would make room for him to get into see Jesus? This answers the kind of crowd that was here, and Luke tells us that there were Pharisees and scribes who were in the crowd too.
Now because they could not get in through the door they went up onto the roof in order to let this man down before Jesus. The houses in that day were mostly one story with an outside stair case leading to the roof. The roof was made up of large beams with some sort of cross pieces and then some kind of thatch and then mud to cover the roof. These men would have to know exactly where to begin digging through the roof in order to make sure that they could drop the man down right in front of Jesus. Dr. Wiersbe says that their faith was put into action by doing this task.
“5 And Jesus seeing their faith *said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” (Mark 2:5)
This is an amazing statement that Jesus just made, telling this man that his sins were forgiven. I am sure that Jesus knew that there was going to be a reaction concerning this statement that He has just made, but one thing about Jesus He was doing what His Father had sent Him to do and this was part of it or else He would not have done it.
“6 But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 ‘Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?’” (Mark 2:6-7)
We see what these scribes were thinking about and their thoughts were actually the right thoughts for no one can forgive sin except God and so they were thinking that here was a man who was very popular and who had messages of authority and could cast out demons and heal people of their diseases, but was He really God because that is exactly what He is claiming to be at this time and they knew it. “16 ’Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death. “ “23 Then Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought the one who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. Thus the sons of Israel did, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.” (Lev. 24:16, 23) This must have been what these men were thinking about for they wanted to kill Jesus and that is probably why they were there in order to get some evidence against them and they also must have thought that they now had this evidence.
“8 Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, *said to them, "Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? 9 “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ’Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ’Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’? (Mark 2:8-9)
Now what do you think that these men were thinking when Jesus tell them that He is reading their minds. Dr. Wiersbe writes “But the next instant, He proved Himself to be God by reading their minds and telling them what they were thinking (See John 2:25; Heb. 3:13). Since they wanted to ‘reason’ about things, He gave them something to ponder: Which is easier, to heal the man or to tell him he is forgiven? Obviously, it is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven!’ because nobody can prove whether or not the forgiveness really took place. So back to His words, Jesus immediately healed the man and sent home. The healing of the man’s body was but an illustration and demonstration of the healing of his soul.”
“10 ‘But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’-He *said to the paralytic, 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.’”
I am not sure the condition of the men’s hearts who brought this man to Jesus but the man whom Jesus healed had his sins forgiven so we know that he not only was physically healed but more importantly he was spiritually healed and the his destination changed from eternity in hell to eternity with Jesus Christ.
We then go back to the curious crowd and the statement that they make that they had never seen anything like this before.
Dr. Wiersbe has some interesting and thought provoking things to say at the end of his commentary on this section: “Suppose the religious leaders had opened their hearts to the truth that day, what could they have learned? For one thing, they could have learned that sin is like sickness and that forgiveness is like having your health restored. This was not a new truth, for the Old Testament Scriptures had said the same thing (Ps. 103:3; Isa. 1:5-6, 16-20); but now it had been demonstrated before their very eyes. They also could have learned that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is indeed the Savior with authority to forgive sins—and their own sins could have been forgiven! What an opportunity they missed when they came to the meeting with a critical spirit instead of with a repentant heart!”
1/9/2012 6:11:24 PM
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