Should We Expect Forgiveness from God?

Announcing the Forgiveness of Sins

Please open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Mark. This part of the Bible was written by one of Jesus’s followers, named Mark. And Mark has been giving us part of Jesus’s biography. He’s been writing an account about key events that happened in Jesus’s life. And what we’ve seen from the beginning, here, is that Jesus isn’t just presented to us as a wise teacher, or a political activist, or as a doer of good deeds – but Mark gives us evidence that Jesus is much more than these things. Jesus is the Son of God, through whom comes the forgiveness of sins. And in everything that Jesus does, we see evidence of Jesus’s unique authority, integrity, and insight.

And the same is true in our text this morning. I’ll be reading from Mark, Chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. I’ll read this in just a moment. But first, let’s ask God to help us as we hear from His Word:

[Pray and Read Text]

Not Surprised?

When someone tells you a riddle, a riddle you’ve never heard before, there’s an element of surprise to it. You don’t know what the answer will be. There’s some suspense. When you hear the answer, it’s often unexpected – and that’s what can make the riddle more interesting, or more engaging. But when you’re hearing a riddle for the hundredth time, the riddle is so familiar that we often fail to appreciate how clever it is. We’re no longer surprised by the unexpectedness of the answer.

And sometimes, when we come to a part of the Bible that we’ve heard before, we can have the same kind of attitude toward it that we have toward an overused riddle. Since the element of surprise is gone, we might have trouble hearing the words of Scripture with fresh ears. The events can sometimes seem less meaningful, or less shocking than they should.

But as Mark writes about this event, there are a number of things here that are not normal occurrences. There are ideas that are different from the way the world normally thinks. And so as we work through these verses, I want to remind you why this occurrence would have been surprising to Mark’s original audience, and why these things should continue to leave an impression on us today.

So there are four surprises to look at here, as we strip back the layers of this story. Four surprises. First, we’ll consider the surprising arrival of a Paralytic. Then, we’ll look at the Surprising Priority of Forgiveness. Third, we’ll give attention to the surprising importance of faith. And then we’ll be reminded about the surprising power of Jesus. (Repeat?) These will be my four points this morning.

The Surprising Arrival of a Paralytic

So first, we’ll consider the surprising arrival of a paralytic.

You may remember, last week, Jesus healed a leper – he took away the leper’s disease and defilement. And the leper was thrilled by this, and even though Jesus warned him not to, he went out and began telling as many people as he could. And as a result, Jesus was put in the position where he could no longer openly go into town, or else he would be swarmed by crowds of people.

But, in here in verse 1, we’re told that Jesus returned to Capernaum after a number of days. It would seem that Jesus managed to slip into town undetected. Perhaps he came while it was still dark, or maybe he shielded his face so people couldn’t recognize him.

But you may remember from a few weeks ago, Jesus had been in Capernaum recently. In Mark 1, verses 29-34, he healed a number of sick people, and cast out demons. He had created quite a stir. And so the secret of Jesus’s return didn’t stay secret for long. Once word got out, people began to gather. Pretty soon the house where Jesus was staying was packed with people. The crowd spilled out the door into the street – standing room only. And as these uninvited guests begin to stop in, Jesus patiently welcomes them. And at the end of verse 2 we’re told that he was preaching the word to them – meaning that he was teaching them about God’s Word – who God is, what God is doing, and what God wants.

Yet while all this was going on, Mark tells us in verse 3 about a group of men, who were carrying a paralyzed friend to the house where Jesus was teaching. Now kids, this word, paralyzed – you know what word means, right? If someone is paralyzed, it means that someone can’t move certain parts of their body. Usually it’s because there’s been some sort of damage to their brain, or to the nerves in their back. And so people can’t feel or move their arms, or their legs.

Mark doesn’t tell us how long this man had been paralyzed for, or what caused it. He also doesn’t mention what parts of his body were paralyzed. But it seems quite likely that this man couldn’t move any of his limbs – that he was a quadriplegic.  Because there’s no indication in the text that this man did anything or moved anything. He just lay on the mat that these four friends used to carry him. And so these friends wanted to get this paralyzed man to Jesus, because Jesus had a reputation as a healer – as a miracle worker. They wanted Jesus to help this man move again.

But, of course, when these four men arrived at the house, there was no path to get in to Jesus. Verse 4 tells us that they couldn’t get near to him because of the crowd. My guess is that these men asked to get in. But it’s implied that people in the crowd weren’t willing to move. Maybe they were concerned that they’d lose their spot in the house. Maybe they knew this paralyzed man – Capernaum was a small enough town – and maybe they had some sort of prejudice against him. But in any case, the paralyzed man and his four friends were shut out.

And so these men would have been placed in a difficult situation. If they try to wait things out, there’s no telling if the crowd will get smaller any time soon. But if they go home, and try again tomorrow – maybe by that time Jesus will be gone. And so these men, in their desperation, they do something that many of us would find scandalous. They climb up onto the roof of the house, which in those days would have been a flat roof. And the roof would have had beams holding up thatch plastered with hard mud or clay – they climb up on this flat roof, and they begin to break a hole in it. They seem convinced that if they can just somehow get this paralyzed man to Jesus, everything will be okay. So they tear back the mud and straw to make an opening into the room where Jesus is teaching.

Now, keep in mind, the crowd in the house must have heard noises from overhead. A few people probably gasped. Jesus, maybe paused in his teaching. And as these four men penetrated through the roof – as straw, dust, and dried mud began to sprinkle down on the people beneath – the crowd was probably annoyed. At least one person probably shouted at these guys, to stop tearing the house apart.

But even though the arrival of the paralytic would have been quite a spectacle, none of these juicy details are mentioned. Because Mark wants to focus on things that are even more surprising – even more significant.

The Surprising Priority of Forgiveness

And the second surprising thing here I want to point out in our text, is how Jesus responds to this paralyzed man. This brings us to my second point here – the surprising priority of forgiveness.

I think that for 99% of people reading this story for the first time – you would hear the things that have happened so far, that these friends are bringing their paralyzed friend to Jesus – and you’d expect the first words out of Jesus’s mouth to be, “You’re healed now. Get up and walk.” Something like that.

But Mark tells that this isn’t how Jesus responds. He doesn’t say anything about the man’s physical condition, or about healing him. Instead, Jesus does something unexpected. In verse 5, Jesus says tells the paralytic “Son, your sins are forgiven.” You have broken God’s laws, you have done wrong, but it’s no longer being held against you. That’s what Jesus means when he says, “Your sins are forgiven.”

But why does Jesus say that? What point is he trying to make here? I’m inclined to think that Jesus has a few different ideas he wants us to pick up on.

For one thing, Jesus wants us to see how serious of a problem sin is. Because, even though being paralyzed is one of the worst physical impairments imaginable – even though it leaves people feeling helpless, alone, and hopeless – sin is worse. Because sin distances us and separates us from God, it disqualifies from his blessings, it poisons our feelings and our thoughts, and the ultimate penalty we deserve for sin is eternal suffering and death. For as bad as paralysis is, sin is worse.

But Jesus isn’t just making a statement here about what the seriousness of sin. He’s also making a statement about what he’s come to do.  Jesus’s priority here – his end goal in coming – is to bring the forgiveness of sins. Jesus can tell this man that his sins are forgiven, because Jesus himself is the one who has come to suffer the penalty in the place of sinners. That’s what Jesus dying on the cross is about. He has come to be our substitute, to represent us, and to take the blame for our sins, so that you and I can be forgiven and acceptable in the eyes of God. And Jesus makes this priority clear here – because he doesn’t just deal with this man and his temporary physical condition. But he cares for this man’s soul. He cares for this man’s eternal condition. Because that’s at the heart of Jesus’s mission.

But there’s one more thing that’s important to notice here. Even though these four men and the paralytic come to Jesus, expecting a miraculous healing – Jesus doesn’t give them what they’re looking for – at least not right away. Instead, his priority is to give the paralyzed man what he needs. And it takes a bit of humility for us to accept this.

You might come to Jesus, insisting that he needs to help you with some big problem, whether that’s your anxiety, your relationships, your employment situation, your addiction, your physical health, or whatever. You might come to Jesus, expecting that he’s going to snap his fingers and take away your hardship and heartache right away. But when we come to Jesus, perhaps what you need most isn’t for your circumstances to be changed. Perhaps what you need more than that is for you to be changed. So don’t be surprised if you come to Jesus with a problem, and he begins to work on refining you in a way that’s different than you expected. Jesus knows what our biggest problems are better than we do.

The Surprising Importance of Faith

But there’s something else in our text that would have been surprising to many of the people in Jesus’s audience. And that’s the surprising importance of faith. Specifically, Jesus indicates that faith, is what prompts his declaration in verse 5 – that “when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

And the reason why this would have been so surprising, is because at that point, most of the Jews believed that forgiveness could only come through religious works – specifically through the offering up of animal sacrifices. The Old Testament Law, in Leviticus 4, commanded a certain sacrifice in order for sins to be forgiven.

But unexpectedly, Jesus declares that this paralyzed man is forgiven of his sins. And, of course, this man can’t move. He’s done nothing. He’s offered nothing. And yet, Jesus says that his sins have been taken away. So it’s clear here, this man is forgiven, not because of a ritual he’s performed, or because of a sacrifice he’s made, or because of anything he’s accomplished. Instead, his forgiveness comes through faith.

And that’s why our text says that when Jesus saw their faith – the faith of these four friends, and the paralytic’s faith, too – it’s on the basis of faith­ that Jesus declares this man forgiven.

You may remember, at the very beginning of Mark Chapter 1, a man named John came to prepare the way for Jesus – and he was teaching them to anticipate the forgiveness of sins. Do you remember that? Well, Mark is coming full circle here, and he’s making it clear where forgiveness can be found – how people are made right with God. It has nothing to do with doing religious rituals, or performing acts of penance. But forgiveness comes to us, in the same way that it came to this man – through faith in Christ.

Notice, it wasn’t the intensity or quality of this man’s faith that brought forgiveness. But he found forgiveness because of the one he was trusting in – because of the one he came to. He was forgiven because he was trusting in Jesus, as the one who could make him well.

And the reason why we can find forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ is because he is the ultimate sin offering. There’s a reason why God connected the idea of sacrificial death and forgiveness to each other, back in Leviticus 4. And that’s because God was revealing that you and I need a sacrifice to suffer death in our place, in order for our sins to be forgiven. But the ultimate sacrifice isn’t a lamb, or a bull – but the only sacrifice that can once-for-all do away with our sin is Jesus.

And that’s why Jesus can come to this paralyzed man of faith and announce, “your sins are forgiven.” Even though there’s no mention yet of Jesus’s death, or the cross, or the resurrection, Mark is already preparing us for the idea that Jesus is the sin offering – the sacrifice – that we should look to with faith. He has come to put our sins to death, and to raise us into life with God.

But even though many of us have turned to Jesus ourselves, and have found this forgiveness, I can’t help but notice that this passage shows us something unique about how faith operates. Because Mark doesn’t just want us to how the paralyzed man trusts in Jesus, but he also wants us to see the active faith of his four friends.

In a generic way, we can see here that faith, when it’s operating rightly, it moves. It produces action. Genuine faith will become visible, because it will be accompanied by godly actions. That’s just a natural, unavoidable reality about how faith operates.

But here in our text, notice how the faith of these men is active. By faith, these four men bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus. They had to step away from their work – they maybe lost part of their income for the day. They had to physically exert themselves, by carrying this paralyzed man through town. When they tore open the roof to get this man to Jesus – it would maybe cost these men something of their reputation. Chances are, they realized they would have to help fix the roof, or pay the cost for damages. And yet by faith, these men understood the importance of getting their friend to Jesus. And so it was worth the cost!

I imagine that many of us know people who need help getting to Jesus. People who aren’t moving that direction on their own – who are paralyzed, perhaps, by fear, or who are paralyzed by hurts from the past, or who are paralyzed by sinful priorities or habits that they just can’t manage to let go of. And though these people need prayer, and though they need the Holy Spirit to work on their heart – we also need to be comfortable with acknowledging, that these people likely need friends to bring them to Jesus. That very well may be the way God intends to answer our prayers – it wouldn’t be surprising if that’s how God’s Spirit intended to work. You and I should consider – how can I be a friend to the people around me – and how can I, by faith, be helping to move these people toward Jesus?

These four men have faith that’s active. It produces this visible love and longing to bring others to know and enjoy Jesus. And it’s right that our faith would be active in a similar way.

The Surprising Power of Jesus

But in verses 6 through 12, Mark points out another surprise from our text. Specifically, the surprising power of Jesus.

Now, I’m aware, at this point in Mark, we’ve already been told about a number of amazing things Jesus did – how he’s resisting the devil and casting out demons, healing sick people, and curing leprosy. But in our text here, Mark further expands our understanding of how powerful Jesus is.

For one thing, Mark gives us insight into Jesus’s ability to know the hearts and minds of other people. You’ll see in verses 6 and 7 that the Jewish religious leaders – the scribes – they didn’t like Jesus’s statement to the paralytic about forgiving his sins. We’re told, though, that they didn’t say anything out loud about it – they didn’t express their concern – but they began questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”

Yet even though these scribes are mulling over these things in a hidden way, internally, we’re told in verse 8 that Jesus immediately perceived in his spirit that they were asking questions like this. Notice, the source of Jesus’s knowledge isn’t from reading body language – but we’re told that he perceived this in his spirit. And so he addresses these questions, even before they’re asked.

And so Mark is showing us another surprising thing about Jesus – that he’s able to see what’s going on in your innermost being. You and I can’t fool this man, Jesus, or hide things from him. He knows what you’re thinking. He knows what you’re feeling. This is encouraging for the person who’s open and honest with Jesus, and who’s trusting Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. But for the person who’s secretly living a double life, who has no love for Jesus – this won’t be comforting at all. But whether we like it or not, the truth is unavoidable here that Jesus knows. Jesus has the ability to know the questions and corruptions of our heart.

But then, of course, Mark shows us that Jesus has the power to heal this paralyzed man. And what’s so fascinating about this physical healing, in particular, is that 2000 years of medical advancement still hasn’t been able to do what Jesus did in 5 seconds. Jesus heals a paralyzed man. We live in a day and age when fevers are treatable, and leprosy is considered curable through antibiotics. But bringing immediate healing to a paralyzed man is even clearer evidence that this must be the hand of God at work.

Jesus doesn’t readjust this man’s spinal column. He doesn’t perform surgery. He doesn’t give this man medicine to reduce swelling around his vertebrae. But in verse 11 we see that he simply speaks. And he says to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And simply by the power of Jesus’s Word, this man is healed. Again, Mark confirms for us the power of Jesus, and the power of His Word.

But notice that Mark also wants us be convinced of Jesus’s power over sin – his legitimate authority to bring forgiveness. In fact, it would seem that that’s the key reason why Jesus ends up taking away this man’s paralysis. Because the healing of the paralytic is done in response to the scribes. He wants to deal with their questions and their unbelief.

So in verse 9, he responds to the scribes, saying, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?” Jesus recognizes that it’s easy to make the claim that this man is forgiven. Because no one can tell, just by looking at this paralyzed man, whether or not his sins are actually gone. But Jesus wants to provide visible evidence that this forgiveness is fact rather than fiction.

And so in verse 10, Jesus explains that he will heal the man so “that [the people] may know that [He] the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” And so Jesus speaks, and he restores this man’s body – and he gives the people evidence that nobody can argue with. He truly must have divine authority.

And we’re led to this conclusion, because if Jesus had really said something offensive about God – which is what it means to blaspheme – if Jesus had really said something wrong and profane when he forgave the sins of this paralyzed man, there would have been no miracle. The Jews are all aware – if Jesus were lying and sinning, there’s no way that God would pay attention to Jesus’s words and bring a healing here. But the realness of the healing is a powerful confirmation that Jesus speaks the truth. He truly has the authority to forgive sins.

And so when we consider that comment made by the scribes – when they said, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” It’s clear that Mark is leading you and I to the conclusion that Jesus must be God. He is both the Son of God – of the same essence of God – and he’s the Son of Man – the same essence of Man. He is truly man and truly God. And only, uniquely in Jesus, do we find the forgiveness of sins through his sacrifice.

And in verse 12, we see how the people respond to Jesus. The people are flabbergasted, just like we would expect any rational person to be. As the paralyzed man picks up his bed and weaves his way out of the building, the people say, “We never saw anything like this.”

But even though the crowd is amazed, the unfortunate thing you’ll notice is that no one makes a commitment to follow Jesus, here. There’s no report of people pleading with Jesus, asking him to forgive their sins, too. The people are simply content to look at Jesus from a distance, and to admire him, and to say good things about him – but there’s no commitment. No personal confidence in Jesus. They want to enjoy what Jesus is doing in the lives of other people, but they don’t want Jesus to affect their lives.

And this continues to be a common way that people respond to Jesus today. People like Jesus. They have nice things to say about him. They have every reason to believe that he has the power to forgive sins. And yet these people don’t cling to Jesus for forgiveness themselves. Does that sound like you? You might be one of these people. But please hear me – for as long as you’re trying to hide your lusts, your jealousy, your greed – for as long as you’re trying to deal with these things on your own, you won’t find forgiveness. You must have a substitute – a sacrifice – to suffer the penalty that your sins deserve. And the only one who can do it is Jesus. God is eager to save. God has sent His Son to be known and believed. Won’t you trust him?

But I recognize that many of us here have already run to Jesus. We know that we’re corrupt. We’re grieved by our many faults. We are constantly aware of the ways we fall short. And it may even be tempting, sometimes, to think that God’s patience is wearing thin with us. We might be tempted to think that Jesus – trusting in Jesus – may not be enough to make things right between us and God.

But just as certainly as Jesus cured this man’s paralysis, Jesus truly, completely wields the authority to forgive your sins. Just as surely as this historical man was given the ability to pick up his mat and walk, Jesus has been given the ability to bring forgiveness to all who believe. The miraculous healing, here, proves it. Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross, confirms it. Jesus’s resurrection from the dead – it certifies it – that Jesus has the unbreakable ability to raise us up to God. So let your faith be encouraged. And let’s consider how we can encourage the faith of others. Let’s pray:

Fellowship Reformed Church is a Bible-believing church in Mt Pleasant, MI.