February 23, 2003 Mark 2:1-12
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.
Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 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? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”
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!”
It has begun again, my annual pilgrimage to the gymnasium. For several weeks I have been subjecting my body to the disciplines of water and weights, trying to keep from forming into a pear. But this time, it’s going to be different. I’m going to stay the course. I’m going to get in shape and stay in shape. I want to be healthy enough to be able to play sports with my children without getting tired after five minutes. That’s my goal. But there are many obstacles - of time, energy, and will power.
God compared spiritual health to physical health - as Paul encouraged us to run the race. Just as there are many obstacles to getting or staying physically healthy, the same goes spiritually. Sometimes we are very excited about getting to know our Lord better, where other times we kind of let it slide. On top of that, we have supernatural obstacles in the devil and his demons. We have personal obstacles in our own flesh. And innumerable obstacles are also in the world. But these are not obstacles that cannot be overcome. Today, we look at the healing of the paralytic, we’ll see how -
Jesus Overcomes the Obstacles to Healthy Living
I. Through friends
Our story begins where we left off last week. Jesus’ fame was beginning to spread - especially after the leper told people that he was a miracle healer. And so, A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. The focus of the story is mainly on this last phrase - the paralytic. One commentator explains what this is -
The "universal" palsy, called also "paraplegia", or "paraplexia", is a general immobility of all the muscles that receive nerves from the cerebellum, except those of the head__its cause is usually supposed to reside in the ventricles of the brain, or in the root of the spinal marrow.__The "lateral" palsy, called also "hemiplegia", is the same disease with the "paraplegia", only that it affects but one side of the body. Its cause is the same, only restrained to one side of the brain, or spinal marrow. The "partial" palsy is where some particular part, or member, alone is affected; as, for instance, where the motion of the arm, or leg, is destroyed. Now this man’s disease seems to be the perfect and general palsy, which affects the whole body, or the "paraplegia", which reaches every part but the head; whereby all sense, as well as motion, are destroyed.
His situation was completely hopeless.
But I want to focus for a moment on his friends. They didn’t like to see this man - their friend - to lay their unable to move. They wanted him to have a better life, so they took him to Jesus. I don’t know how big this paralytic had become from inactivity, but it took four of them to carry him on a mat to get to Jesus. When they got to the house where Jesus was, they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd. So what did they do? They made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. Palestinian houses were built with flat roofs and outside stairs up to the roofs. The roofs were constructed of tiles and covered with sod. These men were determined to get their friend to Jesus, so they carried him up stairs, got their fingers dirty - dug through the sod - and lowered him down to Jesus.
I want you to think for a minute about the people in your life - that are like that paralytic, but spiritually. Maybe they’ve been paralyzed with guilt - over the divorce they went through. Maybe they’re paralyzed with laziness - not wanting anything out of life but luxuries. It could be a paralyzation of indifference. The point I’m making is that they are paralyzed. You can’t expect them to make it to Christ on their own. They need YOUR HELP. Unfortunately, how often do we approach such situations with a more hands off approach. You know someone is having problems in their marriage or their work - and they need some hope - some light in their lives - but you say to yourself, “I don’t want to get involved.” Or you say, “I don’t have the time, I have enough problems of my own.” You think to yourself, “there’s no way I’ll be able to help.”
Bringing people to Christ takes work. You might need to get your fingers dirty. You might need to do some heavy lifting. You will have plenty of obstacles. But what you need the most of is faith - faith in Jesus - that he can change people - that he can help. The four men could have found a lot of excuses NOT TO bring their friend to Christ - he was too busy, they were too busy - there was no room - he was too heavy - but they didn’t. They recognized a need and they zealously sought to get him to Christ. Where is our zeal? Are you at least praying for your friends who don’t believe in Christ, or who need spiritual guidance? Or are you leaving them paralyzed at home? Do you think that God’s Word won’t really do them any good? Jesus wants you to bring them to Him.
II. Through forgiveness
Finally, after a lot of work, the four men were able to lower the paralytic down to Jesus. Now, you have to realize something about paralytics back then - they would have naturally carried a lot of guilt with them, because of the common perception about diseases and the like. It was commonly thought that if you came down with a disease that you had sinned in some way. (John 9:2) I wonder if they were even allowed in the synagogues and the like - because of this common view. They were either looked at as demon possessed or being steeped in sin. Not only was it bad enough to have the physical problems, but the spiritual problems would have been much worse. When Jesus looked at this man, he could peer through the physical problems and notice a much deeper problem that the paralytic had - this deep seated guilt and sorrow for his sins. That was Jesus’ main concern.
So the first thing Jesus said to him was, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Jesus wanted him to know that he was a part of God’s family. Why? Because his sins are forgiven - not might be - or could be if he turns himself around - but ARE FORGIVEN - sent away. He wanted this man to stop feeling so guilty, and to take comfort in the pronouncement of forgiveness that Jesus - the Son of Man - had given to him. This was the first step to restoring the man to health. Jesus took a hose of forgiveness and washed out his soul.
Every problem in the world - whether it is marital problems, greed, anger, whatever all stems back to this main problem - sin. A lot of it stems more specifically back to guilt and a lack of love. People who don’t know about God’s love desperately seek for love in this world - thinking that they will find love from sex. Instead, their sexual escapades bring guilt and disease. People with a tremendous amount of guilt try to calm their guilt in alcohol and abuse of their bodies. What’s really sad is that even life long Christians continue to live burdened by a great amount of guilt over sins committed years ago. Our continual sins of laziness and selfishness continue to weigh us down.
The first step to spiritual health is found in Jesus words, “son, your sins are forgiven.” The beauty in this message is the total completeness of it - your sins are forgiven. That’s the wonderful thing about the gospel. Hebrews 10:10 says, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. It’s a done deal. God said through Isaiah "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” God says, “I don’t remember your sins - they’ve been paid for. It’s a done deal. When you really come to that realization - it’s as if a huge burden is lifted off your shoulders. My sins have been forgiven. Two thousand years ago the sins of the world - the WORLD - were wiped away. This is God’s proclamation to the world.
Some people don’t believe this news of forgiveness should be told to people. To them, forgiveness is only up to God, and we mortals have no business telling anyone they are forgiven, much less going to heaven. Mark says, Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” What they didn’t realize is that Jesus IS God. Since Jesus was and is God - he has every right as the judge to pronounce forgiveness and heal this man of his guilt. Jesus once told his disciples, If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (Jn 20:23) With these words, Jesus gave all Christians the right to tell people that they are forgiven. If a king were to tell his ambassador with a signed document to tell his people, “no taxes this year,” the message would be as good as if it were from the king. So we confess in our Small Catechism that, Confession consists of two parts. One is that we confess our sins. The other is that we receive absolution or forgiveness from the confessor as from God himself, by no means doubting but firmly believing that our sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven. This is the only way to spiritual health. We need to continually hear we are forgiven. God wants to hear you say, “I forgive you” regularly in your household. God wants you to truly believe that God has wiped your sins away. Unless you hear and believe this, you’ll always at least have spiritual symptoms of sickness - weighing you down and keeping you from serving to the glory of God’s kingdom.
III. Through miracles
Even though Jesus said he had the authority to forgive, the teachers of the law wouldn’t take His Word - for “Jews demand miraculous signs”. 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? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 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 knew that it was easy to say, “your sins are forgiven,” because you couldn’t prove whether it happened or not. So in order to prove that he had the authority to forgive sins, he went ahead and healed the paralytic. The man came as a guilty paralytic, and he left as a healthy man - both physically and spiritually. What a miracle of life this was. Jesus used these miracles to verify his message and tell the world who He was - the Son of Man - God Almighty. Nobody could deny it - they had no choice but to praise God for this wonderful healing.
These miracles still happen today - every day. When I used to give devotions out at the State Penitentiary in Norton, a man in his fifties would come to class every Monday night. All of the prisoners would testify that he was a wild man - often ending up in solitary confinement. For over twenty years he was in and out of jail. After many years of this living, this scarred and sinfully twisted man was carried to Christ. As a result his life changed. A miracle took place. The man I knew was a very soft spoken man and a faithful follower of Christ. I consider him a living example of the paralytic - someone brought to life who was spiritually paralyzed with anger and guilt. Jesus literally and miraculously changed his life. It was a great testimony to the fact that Jesus really is the Christ.
The writer to the Hebrews once wrote to his followers, by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity (Heb 5:12_6:1) He was disappointed with his audience because they weren’t moving on in their Christian lives and growing to maturity. Are you one of those people? Are you still laying on your mat after you’ve been healed - still being carried by other Christians? Are you still caught in the same sins you have been committing for years - sins of the tongue, or of laziness, or of disobedience? Is your life professing Jesus to be the Christ or the devil?
If you’re still laying on the mat, Jesus is calling to you today to get up. You’ve already been healed and forgiven. There’s no reason for you to stay on that mat of guilt - revolving your life around your past sins and problems. You’ve been forgiven, so move on in your Christian life. Start carrying others to Christ. Show to the world that your life has changed - that Jesus has worked a miracle with you. Let them know by your words and your actions that you’re spiritually alive and active. Bring those who are living in guilt to the forgiveness of Christ. When we do these things - amazing things will happen. You’ve got to believe it. Those four men would never have brought the paralytic if they felt Jesus would do nothing. If you bring friends to hear God’s Word - things will change. The Holy Spirit will give them spiritual life. He will give them confidence and hope. You’ve got to believe it.
It’s usually about this time of year that the exercise places start to become more scarce. After the New Year’s resolutions people may have come to work out for a month or two, but then become disgruntled when results don’t happen overnight. They forget that if you spent five years getting out of shape, it will probably take that much work to get in shape. You need to be patient and keep working at it.
It only took a few seconds, however, for the paralytic in this story to go from guilty and helpless to happy and walking. That’s how effective and powerful God’s Word can be. So don’t give up on God’s exercise program of the Gospel. Stay in the Word yourself. Keep bringing people to Jesus. Keep on pronouncing forgiveness to them. The gospel will work - sometimes quickly, sometimes it takes a while. Jesus is able to overcome any obstacles to healthy living. But it takes work - persistent work - of caring for people and carrying them to Christ. God wants to use YOU to bring others to Christ. So get off your mat, and bring those paralyzed by sin to Christ - today. Amen.
