The Conflict of Healing

As we continue in our study of the Gospel of Mark, we are going to notice a shift in the story. So far, we’ve seen the hopeful beginnings of the kingdom of God, as Jesus started his ministry, called his first disciples, cast out demons, and healed many. You would think, with such great miracles and expectation over what the Messiah would do, that Jesus would be universally and warmly welcomed. But, he was not. Even with the authority of his preaching, he still received criticism. In spite of the miraculous healings he brought, he still faced opposition. As John 1:10-11 says, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” The prophet Isaiah had warned, some 700 years earlier, that the Messiah would be a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, despised and rejected by his people. So, it should not be a surprise that, no sooner had the kingdom of God drawn near to man in Jesus, that he faced opposition from the rulers and authorities of this world.

We find the beginnings of that opposition in the text before us today.  Let’s begin by reading our text found in Mark 2:1-12. I want to look at four different groups in this story. I want to look at “the crowd”, “the paralytic”, “the scribes” and “the savior”.

First, consider the crowd. I want you to imagine that an itinerate preacher walks into our local hospital and seeks out the most stricken person in the hospital. He walks into that person’s room (let’s say the person is terminally ill with cancer and only has days to live) and he touches the person and immediately the frail body is strengthened. The person whose skin was once clammy and pail is now flush with new life. The patient has new vigor and stands up and begins to walk around. His appetite returns and he asks for a whole plate of food. The doctors are amazed, and they begin running tests (X-Rays, CAT scans, MRIs), trying to find remnants of a once pervasive tumor. But, they don’t find anything. The next day, the newspapers run headlines about this miracle. That evening on WSFA, the main story is about this miracle in Greenville Alabama. Pretty soon, Fox News and the Today Show come to Greenville to do specials on this amazing event. You know that people would be pressing in on this preacher to see if he might heal their diseases. Even with our intelligence and our skepticism about the miraculous, we would do whatever we could to meet this miracle worker. This is exactly what is happening in our passage. The people of the city have heard about the miracles of this local itinerate preacher and they want to be a part of it. And there are so many people that there is no room to move. The King James version rightly calls it a “press”. People were back to chest, pressed into this house to hear Jesus speak and to see him work miracles.

But, let’s not be mistaken. The crowds were not coming to follow Jesus. They were coming for the spectacle. Notice that the crowd had no concern for this paralytic who truly needed to be healed. There was no effort to make way for this man. And there are so many people today who are just like this crowd. They would come to Jesus just to see the spectacle. I can’t tell you the number of people I talk to who complain about one particular church or another who is not trendy enough. They say, “I can’t go there because their worship just doesn’t appeal to me.” And many churches will bend over backwards to adjust to the felt needs of these people. The church will add technology, get rid of the pulpit, add a band and get some fancy lighting all for the sake of attracting these spectacle-seekers.

But, there is another character in this story that we need to consider. The paralytic himself came to Jesus with a serious need. It is a terrible thing to have a chronic illness of any sort, even with the modern medicine that we have today. But imagine that you do not have Tylenol to relieve the constant pain or Neosporin to heal the bed sores. Imagine that you do not have the conveniences of electric wheelchairs or ergonomic beds. Imagine that you are totally and completely dependent upon the goodness of others. Now consider that people were not always good. In Jesus’ day, a chronic illness was seen as God’s judgment on the person. So, not only would you have to live with the constant pain and suffering of your malady, but you would also have to live with the shame and distain of society.

But, this man knew that he needed Jesus, and his friends did too. So, when they realized that they could not get him into the house, they went up on the roof. In these days the houses were built with a center room (living room) that was surrounded by the bedrooms. They were built with a flat roof and steps that went up to the roof on the outside. The roof would be constructed of main joists that were laid across the top of the house, and then strips of wood and thatch would be laid across that. Finally, mud was used to build up the roof, and then tile was laid on top of the mud. So, his four friends would have had to locate Jesus’ position from the roof, then dig down through the roof and make an opening large enough for a 6x3 pallet. This was no small task. And it was not something that was done quietly. You can imagine that Jesus started getting dust on his shoulders, then he had to step back because pieces of the roof were falling on him. You can also imagine that people were amazed and frustrated that this commotion was breaking up their entertainment.

When the man is lowered down in front of Jesus, it is very apparent what the man needs. Notice, Jesus never asked “What is it you need?” It simply said that he saw their faith and he acted. But, Jesus does not act in the most obvious way. You see, Jesus recognized that this man, though he could not move and had to have 4 friends to carry him around all the time, that was not his greatest need. The paralytic’s greatest need was for his sins to be forgiven. Jesus knew the condition of this man’s heart. He knew that he was sinful and that he needed redemption more than he needed to walk.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jer 17:9)

 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Rom 3:23)

Just like this paralytic, you may have come today with your needs. You may have brought your financial situation to God today thinking “If only God would hear my prayer and give me some relief from the burden of my debts and the strain of my finances, maybe I could make it.” Or you may have come today with a physical ailment, maybe something just as chronic and besetting as this man’s paralysis, and you think to yourself “surely God sees my need and knows the pain that I am in.” Perhaps, a family relationship is falling apart and you think “Does God see me and the strain that I am going through with my relationship?” Jesus is telling you today that, yes, he does see your need, but you have a greater need than all of these. You are alienated from God. Your heart is corrupt. You are separated from the God that made you. You are dead because of your sins.

Oh, but what great news that Jesus Christ stands ready to forgive. Notice, it says that Jesus “saw their faith and said ‘your sins are forgiven’”. Jesus saw the faith of the four men and the faith of this paralytic who were willing to face public humiliation for a chance to get in front of the Messiah, and he did not hesitate to impart to him the thing that he needed most. Oh, sinner, Jesus stands ready to forgive if you would only trust him! His forgiveness is not cheap; he died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. But, he did it because he loves you and he stands ready to impart that forgiveness to you if you would but come as this paralytic. The paralytic had nothing to offer Jesus (he couldn’t even move), but Jesus freely forgave him. And, you have nothing to offer Jesus, either. But, if you would just come and say “Lord, I am paralyzed in my sin, lost and doomed for hell without you”, and Jesus will forgive you.

But, the story doesn’t end there, because we have another group that gets involved. There were some scribes who were in the house who got upset about what Jesus said to this man. A scribe is a religious scholar. These men were well versed in the Old Testament (most of them probably had the whole Old Testament memorized) and the traditions of the Rabbis.  When they heard Jesus say, “your sins are forgiven”, they began to think to themselves “this man is blaspheming, because no one can forgive sins but God.” You know it is interesting that they thought this, because they are right. No one can forgive sins but God. You remember King David and his sin with Bathsheba. He saw Bathsheba bathing on her roof top and he determined that he had to have her. So, while her husband, Uriah, was off at war, he sent for her and slept with her. Well, like any good story, there is a clincher: Bathsheba got pregnant. David knew that he had to hide his sin, so he called Uriah (who was a soldier in David’s army) home from battle so that he would sleep with his wife and the sin would be covered up. But, Uriah was too noble to lay with his wife while his comrades were out fighting a battle. So, David came up with a better plan, “I will send Uriah into the heat of battle and then pull everyone back so that he is killed.” He did just that and then took Bathsheba as his wife. But after all of this and after thinking that his sin was hidden, even from God, the prophet Nathan came and confronted him about his sin. Psalm 51 is David’s prayer of repentance to God for these sins. Now, you can clearly see that David caused harm to Uriah and Bathsheba, but David says in Psalm 51:4, “against you and you alone have I sinned”. Sin is ultimately and finally against God, and it is only God that can forgive sins.

But what Jesus does next should have been their first clue, and it is something that we should not miss. Mark records that Jesus “perceived” what they were thinking. This is quite literally that he knew what they were thinking. As Psalm 139:2 says, “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” Jesus knew their thoughts because Jesus is “God with us”. Jesus was born as both God and man. He was fully man, eating, drinking, crying, sleeping. But, he was fully God, knowing the thoughts of men, calming the storms, healing the lame, raising the dead. So, the scribes were right in their thoughts but wrong in their understanding. Jesus could not blaspheme because he was God.

Finally, to prove His point, Jesus asks the scribes, “which is easier to do, say ‘your sins are forgiven’ or ‘stand up and walk’, but to show that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, Stand up and walk”. And the man stood up, grabbed his pallet and walked out the door. And he walked out healed inside and out. Now, obviously, the harder feat to accomplish would be to forgive sins, because only God could do that. But, Jesus uses his ability to heal this man of his paralysis as proof that he can forgive sins.

You may be here today and you just doubt all of this forgiveness talk. You find it hard to believe that God could forgive you for what you have done. Or maybe you doubt that Jesus is enough for you. Maybe you doubt that Jesus’ death on the cross was enough to pay the penalty for your sins. Well, I want to ask you, which is easier, to say to you ‘your sins are forgiven’ or to rise from the dead. You see, Jesus gave us proof that he really has achieved forgiveness for sins, and that proof is in the fact that he rose again from the dead. And you know what that means for you? When you trust in Jesus Christ you too can live for eternity with Christ in heaven. Death is not the end. It has no more sting, and it has no claim over the Christian.

Now, I know that everyone in this room, whether you have already trusted Jesus with your salvation or not, needs to be forgiven. Maybe you are a Christian but you have doubts that assail you and Satan just keeps beating you down telling you that you don’t deserve to be saved. Remember, the paralytic brought nothing to Jesus but his faith. It is faith that started you down this path of salvation, and it is faith that will keep you on it. But, maybe, today, you will acknowledge that you have never trusted Jesus to forgive your sins and to save you from the wrath of God. Maybe today, as I spoke about the fact that we are all sinners, you felt convicted about sin in your life and you realized that God is angry with you for that sin. Don’t shrug it off. Don’t say in your heart, “Oh, he’s just one of those crazy Baptist preachers I’ve heard so much about.” Don’t think “surely God will see the good things that I’ve done and in the end He will let me into heaven.” Remember, Jesus stands before you ready to declare freely and without reservation, “your sins are forgiven.” You may think that you have a whole host of needs today, but your greatest need is to be declared right before God.