F.R.A.N.gelism!
Mark 2:1-12
Introduction: The evidence of the Fall is all
around us every day: sickness, suffering, sin, injustice, evil, and death. What is the greatest benefit that
Christianity has to offer to the world? Specifically, are our physical needs
our greatest needs? Liberal theology
would say yes. This story is about four men and their needy friend. Friends are
people you can count on, people who are there when you need them. This week Herb
Mullins commented on this passage: “The greatest day of that man’s life was
when his four friends ‘let him down’!” Truth! They let him down – not by disappointing
him – but through the roof, and into the presence of the Son of God! They came
looking for healing, and, at least for the paralytic, they found also healing
of soul that comes with forgiveness. How does relief from physical suffering
relate to reconciliation with God? H.A. Ironside said,
When Jesus was on earth proclaiming the gospel of the
kingdom, it was specially fitting that the blessings of the coming age should
be manifested, and thus the people be given a sample of what [true] Israel
and the whole world will enjoy in its fulness when God’s King reigns on Mount
Zion and blessing goes forth to all the earth.
Ultimately, the miraculous physical healings that Jesus did
looked forward to the day spoken of in Revelation 21:4, when “He will wipe away every tear from their
eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying
nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” In that day, the
only trace of the Fall the redeemed will see are the nail prints in his hands…
The Maine* Idea: With faith, we can overcome
difficulties and bring our friends to Jesus, the (only!) One who can meet their
deepest need.
I. Friends bring friends
to Christ despite the challenges (1-5)!
And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it
was reported that he was at home. 2
And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at
the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3 And they came, bringing to him a
paralytic carried by four men. 4
And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the
roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on
which the paralytic lay. 5 And
when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins
are forgiven."
The setting for
this miracle story is described in verses 1 and 2. Even though the growing fame
of Jesus made it impossible for him to openly
enter in the cities and towns of Galilee, he does return quietly to Capernaum
after some time out in the countryside. Notice that Capernaum is now described
as “home” for Jesus… Even though He apparently slipped quietly back into town, the
report of his return soon got out, and word spread quickly – Jesus was back! “Many”
were gathered at the house where they were staying—standing room only it seems!
Jesus was not
just visiting friends, he was “…speaking
the Word to them…” Rather than the usual words for “preaching” (kerusso) or
“proclaiming the gospel (euangelizo) Mark simply says, “He was speaking the Word to them…” Later in this Gospel, in
Mark 4, when Jesus is explaining the parable of the Sower to his disciples, He
will say that “…the sower sows the Word…”
The idea of speaking the Word to people is essential to our mission in the
world. Rather than thinking exclusively about times of formal preaching or
teaching or evangelism, we need to be sensitive to opportunities in our
day-to-day life, those occasions when God might providentially open a door to
simply “speak the word,” to share the truth that God has revealed with the people
we come in contact with. And take hope,
because (as we’ll see in that parable) some “soil” will be prepared to receive
it, and bring forth 30, 50, or 100 – fold. Yes, in many cases the ground will
be hard and dry, or shallow, unreceptive to the word or distracted by the
world. But even so, we are to sow the Word!
Some in the house where Jesus was speaking were hearing and receiving
His teaching. Others would not listen, they were hard, rocky, or shallow soil. But this story is about some who were
destined to hear the Word of Life and didn’t yet make it into the house.
Faithful friends
will go out of their way to help a friend in need (3,4). These four men came
carrying their paralyzed friend on a stretcher. We don’t know much about the
man, or how he came to be in this condition - was it an accident? An assault? Some
kind of chronic condition or disease? Was his condition related to his own sin
(cf. John 9:1-3)? We just don’t know. The point is that together they
believed that Jesus could help. So they came. And they encountered a wall
of people, elbow to elbow, blocking the way to the one who was their Hope. Question: Is it possible for people to get in
the way of others coming to the Lord? Here the crowd seems to be an obstacle!
They are thinking about themselves perhaps. Some may be simply curious. Others,
like the scribes, may have been waiting for an opportunity to accuse Jesus.
Some may even be there because they saw others gathering! (A friend in Russia
said that some items were in such short supply that whenever people saw a line
forming, they got in it first, and then sought to find out what it was for!). The
four friends and their paralyzed brother were seemingly blocked by the crowd from
approaching Jesus. Or were they?
The obstacles to
bringing their friend to Jesus were not going to stop these determined friends.
How determined are we for our friends to come to Jesus? One of them got an
idea: we can’t get through the crowd, let’s go through the roof! In much of the world today, roofs are covered
with clay tiles, this seems to have been different. Mark says they opened the
roof, and “dug through…” Dr. Mark Strauss explains,
Palestinian roofs were generally flat and made of
wooden crossbeams covered with thatch and a layer of dirt. They were sturdy
affairs and were used for work, storage, drying fruit, and sleeping on warm
summer nights. An external staircase or ladder provided access…
They went up that outside staircase to the roof and got to
work. (Luke mentions “removing the tiles” and it could be that there were tiles
on top of the hard, dried clay, or that the surface of the clay was hard and “tile
like” and Luke used language that his Hellenistic readers could understand).
The verb translated “they made an opening” only occurs a few times in the New
Testament, and it has the idea of “gouging” a hole. It wasn’t easy, and the
process no doubt got the attention of the crowd below, as dirt began dropping
down on people, and then, shockingly, a stretcher is lowered down into the midst
of the crowd!
They were taking
a risk! How would the homeowner react? What would Jesus think? How did the
crowd feel about what was happening? Someone cuts in line in front of you at
the grocery store, or swerves in front of you in the car, or sits in front of
you at the game… how do you feel? We hear almost nothing from Mark about the
reaction of the crowd to what was happening.
Freeing
Forgiveness (5). The reaction that is reported by Mark is that of Jesus,
doing the unexpected, rather than first healing the physical need of the man,
He addresses the spiritual…
5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven."
Notice that
Jesus “saw their faith.” Remember the words of James, “You show me your faith apart from your
works, and I will show you my faith by my works!” (James 2:18). Jesus saw
the faith of the four friends (and maybe the paralytic). We’re not sure about
the nature of their “faith.” How much did they understand about who Jesus is?
What did they know about the depth of their sin and the need for a Savior? They surely believed that Jesus could help
their friend and heal his infirmity.
Do we have faith that Jesus can meet the deepest need of our friends,
relatives, associates, and neighbors… those people that God has purposefully put
in our lives? There may be obstacles: their stubbornness, their past, other
people in their lives, our conflicting schedules, our fear… whatever. Do we
believe that God can meet their need? Of course we do! Then do something!
God is bigger than any obstacles. Because with faith we can overcome
difficulties and bring our friends to Jesus, the One who can meet their deepest
need.
Notice what
Jesus does: he meets the man’s greatest need, and at the same time asserts his
authority as the Son of God. He speaks to him tenderly, affectionately, calling
him “My son…” The word is literally, “child,”
[teknon]. Considering that Jesus
himself was a young man just over 30, for him to use this term the paralytic
was probably younger, and Jesus was also already respected beyond his years—He spoke
with authority. And rather than first speaking to the man’s physical need, he
says “…your sins are forgiven…” We
understand that suffering and sin are related at the core because sin brought
the curse on God’s good creation. And the healings Jesus did also pointed to
some aspect of our spiritual need. H.A. Ironside alluded to this connection when
he said,
Every form of disease healed by our Lord Jesus seems
to picture some aspect of sin, which is like a fever burning in the soul, a
leprosy polluting the whole being, a palsy making one utterly unable to take a
step toward God, and like a withered hand incapable of true service. Whatever
form sin may take, Jesus can give complete deliverance from it.
So, He begins with the deepest need of the paralyzed man:
forgiveness… reconciliation with God.
Remember Jesus was revealing himself to Israel, speaking with authority,
not as the rabbis. And showing that He
has authority that only belongs to God… including forgiving sins. That ministry of reconciliation has been
entrusted to us (2 Cor 5:18,19). Your friends, relatives, associates, and
neighbors have all kinds of needs… but they have one principle need, one thing
that is more critical than anything else: God’s solution to the problem of sin. That points us back to the truth that with
faith we can overcome difficulties and bring our friends to Jesus, the One who
can meet their deepest need.
II. Jesus has the power
to meet the deepest need of every human (6-12).
6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there,
questioning in their hearts, 7
"Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive
sins but God alone?" 8
And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned
within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question these things in your
hearts? 9 Which is easier, to
say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your
bed and walk'? 10 But that
you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"-
he said to the paralytic- 11
"I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home." 12 And he rose and immediately
picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed
and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"
Then, as now,
many people failed to recognize the authority of Jesus (6,7). Some of the
scribes were there, religious leaders, authorities in the Scriptures and the
traditions of the Fathers. And Jesus’ words of forgiveness sent up a red flag –
Who did this man think He was? They were correct in saying that no man can
pronounce forgiveness. Sin is ultimately against God, only He can forgive sin!
C.S. Lewis said,
“He went about saying to people, ‘I forgive your
sins.’ Now it is quite natural for a man to forgive something you do to him.
Thus, if someone cheats me out of five pounds it is quite possible and
reasonable for me to say, ‘Well, I forgive him, we shall say no more about it.’
What on earth would you say if somebody had done you out of five pounds
and I said, ‘That is all right, I forgive him’” Jesus could forgive
because He was God in the flesh, and ultimately all sin is against God.
They understood what his pronouncement of forgiveness implied
– divine authority! He was claiming,
essentially, to speak for God – even to be God! And of course, He spoke the
truth. He is God, God the Son. That’s
the point! Remember the questions Mark is answering: Who is Jesus? Why did
He come? What does it mean to follow Him? Who is He? The Son of God. Why
did He come? He came to call sinners to repentance, to provide the redemption
price to allow humans to be reconciled to God. And as we grow in our
understanding and appreciation of those two truths, we follow Him, using
our gifts in His church, for His glory, and bringing others to Him. God was “…entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors
for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” (2 Cor 5:19,20). Jesus’ divinity is further revealed in this
story… He knows the thoughts of the scribes and responds to them before they speak
a word…
Jesus knows
what we are thinking – and still loves us (8,9)! It is clear in this scene
that Jesus’ divinity is revealed at several levels. He forgives sin, He heals infirmities,
He also knows the thoughts of people – like the scribes here who are reasoning
in their hearts, “Who does this guy think
He is! Only God can forgive sins!” (paraphrase of Mark 2:7). Yes, and only
God knows what we are thinking. In the
Fourth Gospel, John comments, “But Jesus
on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear
witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man…” (John 2:24,25).
Mark simply says “And immediately Jesus,
perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to
them…” (Mark 2:8). He knew their thoughts! Jesus is constantly provoking
the religious leadership, drawing them out, forcing them to choose. A few, like
Nicodemus in John 3 seem to be searching, inquiring, perhaps hoping… Many, as these
scribes, will not believe.
This miracle,
like all miracles, was a sign, revealing His authority (10-12). One writer
said, “He did the miracle which they
could see in order that they might know that He had done the miracle they could
not see…” Which is easier to say? You are forgiven? Or, get up and walk? Once
more, he provides a sign, revealing to those with eyes to see who He is.
Reminding them of what the Messiah came to do. And think of the part these four
unnamed friends had in the story!
What is God saying to me
in this passage? With
faith, we can overcome difficulties and bring our friends to Jesus, the One who
can meet their deepest need. By that I mean we can expose them to the Gospel,
and urge them to believe and be reconciled to God. Only God can open their
hearts, and by His kindness lead them to repentance and faith. He alone is the
Giver of life!
What would God have me
to do in response to this passage? This passage is a reminder to us of who Jesus is and why he
came. Healings were only a glimpse of the future, a promise of the day, still
future, when the curse will be undone. He came to provide the redemption price
that would make possible reconciliation with God. And he has committed the
ministry of reconciliation to us. Does that scare you? It shouldn’t! He also
said "I am with you always!"
We’ve been
talking over the last year or so about our calling to be witnesses right where
we are, to the people that God has placed on the “front burner” of our lives. Pastor
Greg Laurie used the term “F.R.A.N.gelism,” to talk about sharing our faith
with Friends, Relatives, Associates, and Neighbors.
The LaserChurch ministry tells us that on average we have 8-15 people in our
close sphere of influence, our oikos (literally,
“house” or “household”), and some of those are unchurched or unsaved. Whatever the exact number in your life, you
have some people that God has put in your life, and you in theirs, so that your
experience with God can be shared—in actions and in words. Let’s do it! AMEN.
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