by John Davis

Jesus Meets the Greatest Human Need

Mark 2:1-12

Mark 2:1-12 And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.  ² And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.  ³ And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.  ⁴ And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.  ⁵ And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,  ⁷ “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”  ⁸ And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts?  ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?  ¹⁰ But 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, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”  ¹² And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

You may feel at times as we go through Mark that some of what is being said about Jesus is strangely familiar. (Did I take the same content from another encounter and transfer it to this one. Yes and No) We will find a persistent consistency in who Jesus is and what His concerns are.

Introduction:

    This event in Jesus’ life raises some interesting questions for us. How and why do people come to Jesus? What is humankind’s greatest need? When we look at our friends and family struggling with life, what is their greatest need? Who is Jesus and what power does He really have? Why do religious leaders get so upset with Jesus?

This is a story about a paraplegic who is miraculously healed but who received something more valuable than the ability to walk again – his sins are forgiven.

There are anywhere from 250,000 to 400,000 people with spinal cord injuries in the US. 47% with paralysis of the lower extremities; 53% are quadriplegic. 80% are male. About 90% live a normal life span. More than half were injured between the ages of 16 and 30.

I read the story of Trevor Snowden, a world class snowboarder whose back snapped in two. He describes his accident:

At Snow Qualomy Pass, Snowden was the third boarder to make a practice run off the sculpted snow ramp designed to catapult contestants over a flat area and onto a steep landing slope. The first two riders barely cleared the flat section and contest officials were worried. “The walkie-talky guys said to get more speed, so I touched it up a notch,” said Snowden. He hit the jump and not only cleared the flat but sailed over the entire slope, landing in another flat area 103 feet below the ramp. “I was doing a backside 360 (helicopter) and, when I turned around, I saw that I was too big,” he said. “I thought about skidding on my side or leaning back but my mind just decided to stick it – to land on my feet. I was so high and so far and the hill was so flat that there was no way my body could stand the compression.” “I hit and all I remember is hearing my bones rattle inside my flesh,” he said. “I hit so hard that I bounced off the snow like a beach ball.

I also read of Tasha Schuh a beautiful 18 year old girl who fell through a 12 ft.trap story on a stage landing on a concrete floor. She said after the accident:

“I had a lot of different emotions, following my prognosis. At first I was crushed. I was so sad, I didn’t even want to live. I never thought I could live my life successfully in a wheelchair. I would never be able to play volleyball again, my most favorite sport, and I would not be able to play piano. I had taken lessons for 8 years, and someday I wanted to be a music teacher. I never thought I would be able to go to college, hold a job, or get married and have kids.”

Imagine the situation described here. Jesus is back at his Galilean headquarters in Capernaum, preaching in a crowded house either his house or, as traditionally held, the home of Peter and Andrew. There are people on the floor, in the doorway, at the windows. Passersby stop in curiosity at to what or who is attracting such a crowd.

This reminds me of the dedication service of Bethsaida Church in Northwest India. This is the church for which an American church has funded the construction. The guests from the states were tucked against the front wall in the small building with people sitting or standing on every square inch of floor space. Even the stairs going up to the roof were packed with children.

The particular house where Jesus was had outside stairs going up to a mud and straw thatched roof. Four men arrive with a paralyzed friend lying on a homemade stretcher. They’ve heard about Jesus and believe that He can heal their friend. When they arrive, they cannot enter the house because of the overcrowded situation, so they go to the roof.

Now imagine sitting on the floor in this house listening to Jesus, as little pieces of straw and dried mud begin to fall from the ceiling. Soon there is a bit of sunlight shining through, then a large hole, and suddenly, a man on a stretcher is lowered right in front of the preacher.

This had to be quite a chaotic situation. What’s the owner of the house thinking as his house is vandalized? What are the guests thinking as they are covered with dust and their service is interrupted? And, what does Jesus think of the somewhat abrasive forwardness of these intruders.

Imagine having friends like these men or being a friend like these men were. Friends who care about you so much that they’ll do the unusual in order to help others. We know there were at least four friends carrying the stretcher and the text implies that there were more. Here they are a group of friends who care about one of their own. We don’t know how long this man was paralyzed or what brought about the paralysis. We simply know that he is suffering with this incurable ailment and his friends watch him suffer. They hear about Jesus, know that He’s in town, and decide to take their friend to Jesus. They were interested in his healing; little did they know that he would come away with much more.

Jesus recognized that these men had faith. It was more of a curious, seeker type of faith than saving faith. They didn’t say to themselves – “Jesus is preaching the gospel so let’s take our paralyzed friend so he can get saved.” They came to Jesus so He could heal their friend. It wasn’t a mature biblically grounded faith. But it was faith that was headed in the right direction and a faith to which Jesus responded.

1. Jesus responds to genuine concern. He saw their faith
   

Sincerity doesn’t save you – but sincerity gets the attention of Jesus. I have at times diminished the sincere faith of others because it was misguided, misinformed, and without solid theological foundations. Jesus recognized their faith, as misdirected as it was, because it was a ‘first step’ in their beginning to look beyond themselves for a solution to an overwhelming issue of life.

These friends saw someone they loved suffering and they desired relief for him. His inability to walk, possibly even his inability to talk, were disturbing to them. Unless you are sadistic or masochistic, no one likes to look on suffering, especially the suffering of those whom you love.

What initially brings them to Jesus is not their deep spiritual concern. They aren’t overwhelmed with the lost condition of their friend. It’s not their friend’s sinfulness that they see as a problem. It’s his suffering. There’s no indication that they have made any theological connection between sin and suffering. They aren’t coming to Jesus as the Redeemer who forgives sinners, but to Jesus the one who is moved by compassion at the suffering of the multitudes.

They simply are not mature in their understanding of redemption. However, they know at least two things – their friend needs healing and Jesus is a proven healer.

Let me pause for a moment here to say that this is normally the level at which the Spirit of God is beginning to work in lives and causing people to seek after the living God. Often God is using pain and suffering to arouse people to seek Him. Not every beginning prayer is as clear as the publican who went into the temple and cried out, God be merciful to me a sinner.”

More often than not the cry is one of desperation – I’m hurting. God, please help me. Have mercy on me.”

Also, more often than not, this is the level at which we become concerned about others. We see their suffering and not their sin, and we cry out for them.

Though there is a deeper level of concern for someone’s life that we need to approach, I don’t want to minimize any genuine concern for others that causes you or them to turn to Christ for any kind of help.

In verse 5 we read that Jesus saw their faith. It wasn’t mature saving faith but it was genuine faith accompanied with unusual action. Jesus responded to this faith.

This is a necessary reminder that God is always at work in a world that is full of suffering. Think of the suffering that people face:

Marriage struggles

Racism

Poverty

Illness

Tragedy

Injustice

Trevor Snowden talks about the spiritual impact of his suffering.

The accident has made him more spiritual, he said, by forcing him to understand that there are more important things in life than snowboarding. “I had everything,” he said. “I was fully sponsored by Fila, I was finally getting a regular paycheck, MTV was filming the Bud Tour and I was finally ready to really break out into the sport. Then it was all taken away.” Snowden said that one reason he has adjusted so quickly is that he was unhappy with his life. “I had all those great things but I was still kinda bummed, life just kinda sucked,” he said. “When it was all taken away, it was refreshing to know that I had a new beginning. I was wrapped up in snowboarding, because that’s all I had.”

I was talking with a pastor friend one day about ministering to needy people. He suggested something like a “Headlines Ministry.” He noted that people in the headlines normally don’t want to be there and whether they are innocent or guilty they are suffering. A letter and flowers from a Christian letting them know that you care may open a door for addressing the deeper issues of one’s life.

We can bring everyone’s need to Jesus, but we know that Jesus will always probe the deeper issues of life.

1. Jesus probes the deeper needs. Son, your sins are forgiven.
   

He’s always looking at the heart issues. Some would that the discussion of forgiveness in this setting is inappropriate, insensitive, or irrelevant. Do Jesus’ words seem a bit out of place to you.

As He looks deep into the heart of this paralyzed man, he sees a heart crying out for release from guilt. The friends knew the man was imprisoned by a paralyzed body but did not see the more severe imprisonment of the soul, paralyzed by sin.

As Jesus looks at this paralytic man, he looks past his paralysis deep into his heart. He knows that the deepest yearning of this man’s heart is to be rid of guilt – to be forgiven. “A Dutch poet called man’s guilt ‘the root of all human problems.’ A British psychologist has called man’s sense of having been forgiven ‘the most healing force in the world.’ And how often have not specialists informed us that many patients could be dismissed from mental institutions if they were only able to convince themselves that their guilt had been blotted out” (Hendriksen 1975, 89-90).

The OT background sets the stage for understanding that there is a relationship between sin and disease and forgiveness and healing. “Healing is a gracious movement of God into the sphere of withering and decay which are the tokens of death at work in a man’s life. It was not God’s intention that man should live with the pressure of death upon him. Sickness, disease, and death are the consequence of the sinful condition of all men. Consequently, every healing is a driving back of death and an invasion of the province of sin. That is why it is appropriate for Jesus to proclaim the remission of sins…. Jesus’ pronouncement of pardon is the recognition that man can be genuinely whole only when the breech occasioned by sin has been healed through God’s forgiveness of sins” (Lane 1974, 94).

The presence of illness in any of our lives is a reminder that we belong to a race of sinners. Not that a particular sin brings about a specific consequence of illness but that all illness is linked to fall of the human race and is evidence of that fall. The presence of illness brings about a longing for wholeness that can never be attained without forgiveness. “What we cry out for, all of us, sometimes without knowing it, is to be whole within, to be restored at the center of our being, to be at peace again with God. And that happens when God forgives us” (Brownson 1993, 93).

Any experience of the temporary removal of the effects of sin is a token of the ultimate application of redemption in the removal of sin and all the effects of sin from the universe.

The experience of illness, i.e. the effects of sin, should always drive us to the cross where Jesus died so that sin can be forgiven and the ultimate effect of sin, death, could be conquered.

Also, as He looks into the hearts of the religious leaders, He sees skepticism.

The religious leaders heard Jesus’ pronouncement of forgiveness and didn’t say anything out loud. But, in their hearts they were ridiculing Jesus. They have a theological problem with Jesus. Actually, they have a good theological principle but erroneous judgment. They confess properly that only God can forgive sin. This is affirmed repeatedly throughout the OT Scriptures. But their theological understanding is very limited. There’s no room in their thinking of the possibility that God could take on human flash and that Jesus could possibly be the incarnation of God. So they conclude in their hearts that Jesus is guilty of blasphemy. We know from the later gospel narrative that this charge follows Jesus all the way to His crucifixion. To them Jesus is a charlatan, a fake. He’s taking the easy way out. Words are cheap and how can one verify whether or not forgiveness has taken place.

Jesus asks them a few questions: “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?

Which is easier to say? The religious leaders thought that words of forgiveness were easier; Jesus implies by his question that the physical miracle is the easier of the two. It’s a far greater miracle for a man to be forgiven than for him to walk again.

“To offer forgiveness took infinitely more. For that, God needed to come among us and share our humanity. For that, he had to take on himself the whole weight of our guilt and rebellion. He had to suffer and be forsaken in our stead. He had to die on the cross for our sins. That’s how difficult how costly it was for the Almighty God to forgive sins” (Brownson 1993, 95).

If forgiveness is our deepest need and God’s grandest miracle, there’s nothing in all the world we ought to seek more eagerly, both for ourselves and for others (Ibid., 95).

If Jesus is God, and only God can forgive sins, then Jesus holds an exclusive power to forgive. This exclusive power to forgive continues to be a root of controversy in a pluralistic world.

Often our problem is not that we do not care about people who are suffering; our problem is we fail to see the deeper, need of forgiveness. We long for people to be relieved of temporal suffering, but care little about the eternal suffering they face.

1. Jesus forgives sin and removes the effects of sin.
   

   10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” He said to the paralytic, 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
   

Jesus now addresses the skeptics. They considering him to be blaspheming when he says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” So, he gives the skeptics an opportunity to come to faith – so that you may know. These words are identical to those in 1 John 5:13 – so that you may know that you have eternal life.

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Jesus opens a window of opportunity for these skeptics. His healing of the paralytic is not only an act of compassion (Indeed, it is!) but a confirmation of his authority to forgive sins.

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He is the Son of Man – one who is truly man and the True Man. Sometimes there is a bit of ambiguity in the use of the phrase “Son of Man” in reference to Jesus. Is Jesus merely a son of man or is Jesus the Son of Man? The reader is left to decide. (We sometimes say of others – “He’s the man” – no we are all less than the man God intended us to be). Jesus is The Man, the second Adam who succeeds where the first Adam failed.

Listen to His words and look at the healing of this man. Can he really forgive sins? Can he and will he eventually remove all of the effects of sin?

To make it even more personal – does he have authority to forgive my sins? Will he, whether now or later, remove the effects of sin in my life and in this world? In Christ we experience the miracle of forgiveness that brings healing to our wounded soul, resulting in immeasurable delight and unending peace with God.

This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Whom do I know that needs this amazing Jesus?

To what extent am I willing to go to bring them to Jesus?

What do I really believe Jesus can do?

Conclusion:

    Hear the call of Jesus Christ!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

John Davis

On September 10, 1970 I came to understand the great love of God for me, a sinner and a rebel. That evening I received God’s forgiveness and a new life through Jesus Christ, who died in my place and rose again to offer forgiveness and new life. I have been senior pastor for over 30 years planting two churches in Buckingham, PA and Queens, NY and serving two other churches in Brooklyn, NY and Roslyn, PA. I am currently the lead pastor at Grace Church of Philly.