Thank you to Richard for this message

MARK 2: 1-12

THE NEED TO KNOW

What is the worse fate to befall someone? Maybe this is something that you have worried about during Covid? Is it to fall seriously ill? Or is it to lose a loved one? Or maybe lose your job? Or to lose all hope?

What would you say? What is the thing that we should take more seriously than anything else?

If we take the view that Jesus is God (which is Jesus’s view of himself) it is therefore entirely reasonable to conclude that whatever Jesus considers is the most serious – must be the most serious.

So let’s have a look at this passage and see what Jesus knows that you need to know. So turn to and read Mark 2: 1-12.

The Seriousness of Sin

This is a well-known and loved passage but Jesus says something which in our 21st century Western culture we would consider at best politically incorrect. These friends have lowered the severely disabled man through the roof of this building. Quite what the owners of the building thought of that – we don’t know. So down he comes and what would you have said if you were in Jesus’s shoes?

I think my heart would have gone out to him – then seeing him in the awful paralysis that he was – I would have asked him: “do you want to be healed?” I would have considered his faith in that – and providing all ok – would then heal him.

What would you have done?

What Jesus says is confusing to our Western ears. He doesn’t even speak to this man about his faith or his paralysis: he talks about this man’s sin and forgiveness! How insensitive is that – would be our cultural response. Here is a guy who is paralysed and you talk to him about his sin!

So we need to ask the question: why does Jesus say what he says? Why does he focus on sin and forgiveness?

Imagine you had a car accident and you broke your leg badly and a splinter was in your finger. You get carted off to hospital. What would the medical team look at first? Clearly they would go straight to the broken leg – that is the most serious thing to deal with. So Jesus here in talking about sin – is dealing with what he knows is the most serious issue.

Now we know that Jesus does deal with the paralysis but the sickness caused by sin is more serious because it separates us from the Lord.

We have an adversary in the devil who is cunning and devious and has a two-fold strategy when he deals with Christians. First, he will attempt to convince you that you are not a Christian – and if that doesn’t work, he will attempt to convince you that you are not a very good Christian. Either way he is attempting to take an axe to the umbilical cord of faith that runs between you and the Lord. And sin (that is getting you off the Lord’s agenda and onto another, typically your own) is the main tactic.

With sin what it does it to take you away from the Lord’s agenda. It numbs you to things of the Lord. Jesus says in John 3 when speaking to Nicodemus: “Spirit gives birth to spirit.” But sin most certainly doesn’t. Sin brings a deadening to the things of the Lord. It also brings hypocrisy, abject fear and ultimately a desire to hide from the Lord (remember Adam and Eve).

So we need as Christians to be very clear about the seriousness of sin.

The Need to Know the answer to that Sin

But notice what Jesus says. He doesn’t point the finger and simply say: you’re a sinner. How awful that would be – and how important we remember what Jesus says next. He says: “your sins…..are forgiven!”

Imagine you met a doctor who saw that you had some form of ailment – say a headache – and pointed at you and announced that you had a headache. Not much of a doctor we would conclude. No – a good doctor would diagnose the problem (the headache in this situation) and then prescribe the appropriate treatment.

Well – this is what Jesus does here. He diagnoses the problem (sin) and wonderfully he gives the treatment to deal with sin; forgiveness.

Isn’t it amazing that forgiveness is the treatment. Not you or I paying by (for instance) giving a donation to charity or by making some kind of offering. No – the cure for sin is to be washed clean by Jesus through his forgiveness. There is no other way.

Maybe you have been struggling with some matter of sin and maybe you have been trying to be better – trying to make good – only to find you are exhausted and tired and still feel guilty or dirty or helpless. Why not go to Jesus? He is kind and gracious and will gladly forgive you because he can.

Later in the passage Jesus asks the teachers of the law: what is easier? Saying the words: “your sins are forgiven” or to say to this man – “get up, take up your mat and walk.”

We want to say the former – and that’s right because to instruct this paralytic guy to walk would mean that the guy would have to get up and walk. We would quickly be able to see if what Jesus said would happen.

So if Jesus can heal this guy – that would mean that he could say: your sins are forgiven. Right? But it means more. If Jesus can heal this paralytic – he therefore has the authority over sickness. This points to who Jesus is. Who else but God has authority over sickness? And therefore surely Jesus has authority to forgive sin. Indeed in verse 7 the teachers of the law say: who can forgive sins but God himself? Jesus can deal with your sin.

It is interesting to consider Jesus’s question: is it easier to say you are forgiven or say get up and walk? Jesus proved he could heal this man by healing him. And in that he proved that he could forgive sin. But actually what was easier? Because in order to forgive, someone, somewhere along the line had to pay. And Jesus paid that price so you and I could be forgiven. So when Jesus said those words, I wonder whether he was thinking ahead to the cross and the cost that would be paid to cancel this man’s sin? What was easier?

And I wonder how this man felt as he walked away? Yes – he could walk but was there anything else? Did he have a sense of forgiveness? Of being clean. A lightness in his spirit. No longer burdened by it all.

And so, what about us? What should we do? Answer: don’t be burdened by sin – go to the great healer and forgiver. That is his job. He doesn’t send you away with a flea in your ear – or burden you even more – no; he forgives. And that is why in verse 10 Jesus himself says:

“I want you to know that I have authority to forgive sin.” Maybe I could say that as follows:

“I need to know that Jesus has authority to forgive my sin.”

Why don’t you say that to yourself and remind yourself this week about that wondrous truth.

Others need to know

Finally – what do you make of those men who brought the paralysed man to Jesus? What friends they are!

And what do you make of what Jesus says in verse 5 when the writer says: “When he saw THEIR faith”. We want to say: when Jesus saw HIS faith……

If you are a Christian – do you know how you became a Christian? I’ll tell you. Because someone told you about Jesus. Maybe they were praying for you, maybe they preached, maybe they took time out to talk to and with you. Maybe they showed you kindness. Maybe they were interested in you.

But the bottom line is: someone brought you to Jesus.

So here’s the challenge: who will you bring to Jesus? Maybe you are already praying for someone – or more than one person. God bless you for that. And keep going. So maybe the Carol Service is something you would love to invite someone to. Maybe it’s about just talking about what the Lord has done in your life.

What a friend we would be to invite people to meet with the great restorer, healer and forgiver. Just so people would be able to be unburdened and live for the Lord.

So may the Lord speak to us now as to how we should respond.

In Jesus name

Amen


Category: Remembrance Day , Sermons

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