Imagine you go to the doctor with a throbbing migraine. You just want the headache fixed. But the doctor runs some tests and says: your head isn't the problem. It's something deeper — something you never would have guessed. The doctor is either brilliant or foolish. Either way, they've told you something about yourself that you didn't know. That's exactly what happens in Mark 2. A paralyzed man is lowered through a roof by four friends, right at Jesus' feet. He wants one thing: to walk again. Every prayer, every hope, every longing he's ever had is tied to that request. And Jesus — with the full power to heal him on the spot — looks at him and says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Not yet "get up and walk." First, "you have a bigger problem than your legs." In this message from Mark 2:1–12, we look at what Jesus reveals about us and about Himself in one of the most well-known stories in the Gospels. About us: our biggest problem is rarely what we think it is. About Him: the God who came with the authority to judge chose instead to forgive — and it would cost Him His life. They wanted a wish-granter. Jesus was offering something far deeper and far more dangerous: a Savior. If you've ever wondered why Jesus hasn't given you what you've been asking for — it might be because He's trying to give you something better.
When Getting What You Want Means Missing What You Need
Mark 2:1–12 (NIV)
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." 6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 8 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? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." So he said to the man, 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. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"
We bring Jesus our most desperate need. He responds with something no one expected.
The deepest problem in your life is not on the surface. It never is.
Daniel 7:13–14 (NIV)
13 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."
The one with every right to condemn you is using his authority to pardon you.
The declaration that Jesus was 'at home' indicates that Capernaum had become his headquarters and the house of Simon Peter his ordinary residence. The architectural features of the Palestinian peasant's house are well known. The flat roof was reached by an outside stairway and was made of wooden beams interlaced with branches and covered with a thick layer of clay. — William L. Lane
Most people in the world believe that if there is a God, you relate to God by being good. Most religions are based on that principle, though there are a million different variations on it. But they all have the same logic: If I perform, if I obey, I'm accepted. The gospel of Jesus is not only different from that but diametrically opposed to it: I'm fully accepted in Jesus Christ, and therefore I obey. — Timothy Keller, Jesus the King
It is remarkable that Mark notes Jesus saw 'their' faith—the faith of the four friends as well as the paralytic. True faith is rarely a solitary endeavor. It often requires a community of people willing to carry our mat when we cannot walk, and willing to tear up the roof when the door is blocked. — David E. Garland, Mark (NIV Application Commentary)
How can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human, that fire has become flesh, that life itself became life and walked in our midst? Christianity either means that, or it means nothing. It is either the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality of the world, or it is a sham, a nonsense, a bit of deceitful playacting. Most of us, unable to cope with saying either of those things, condemn ourselves to live in the shallow world in between. — N.T. Wright
The paralytic's friends must carry him up the outside stairs to the flat roof. They break up the roof, which was typically made of a mixture of mud and straw packed over branches and wooden beams. The physical damage to the house, and the shower of dirt that must have fallen on the people below, are ignored by Jesus, who sees only their faith. — David E. Garland, Mark (NIV Application Commentary)
We often come to God with our own diagnostic charts already filled out. The paralyzed man and his friends believed his greatest need was ambulatory. Jesus, the Great Physician, looked deeper. He saw a soul crippled by sin, which is a paralysis far more fatal than the loss of physical mobility. What good is a healed body if the soul is lost? — Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Diligent (Mark)
When Jesus pronounced the man's sins forgiven, the scribes were scandalized, and rightly so if Jesus were merely a man. In Jewish theology, sin was fundamentally an offense against God, and therefore only God could issue a pardon. By forgiving the man, Jesus was essentially saying, 'I am the offended party.' It was an unmistakable claim to deity. — R.C. Sproul, Mark: St. Andrews Expositional Commentary
Forgiveness is never free; it is only free to the one who is forgiven. For God to forgive sins, the debt must be absorbed. When Jesus looked at the paralytic and forgave him, He was already setting His face toward the cross, where the ultimate price for that very forgiveness would be exacted in His own blood. — Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies
"Jesus has the power to give you exactly what you're asking for. He loves you too much to stop there."
