Forgiven!

9.30am Sunday 25 November 2007

Readings: Mark 2:1-12; 1 John 1:5-2:2

Thus far in Mark's Gospel we have begun to look at issues that touch on the very fundamentals of human life, and on the reason why Jesus came to this earth two thousand years ago. Re-capping on what we have considered so far, if there was a key verse from the first passage we looked at in Mark it was, "There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death."[1] The message that Sunday was the vital importance of getting our direction right in life. I shared about my experience of taking the wrong track on our tramp to the Bridge to Nowhere, and using that to illustrate that there are two tracks we can travel in life with complete opposite destinations. All paths do not lead to God like many would have us believe. Using Jesus' illustration, one track is narrow and leads to life and the other is broad and leads to death.[2] We need to make absolutely sure we are on the right track. We must not assume that if the track we are on appears to be right, that it is necessarily the right way. We must check it out on our map, the Bible. If we are not heading in the right direction, then we must do something about it, change direction and get on to the right track. Our eternity is at stake so this is no light matter. What track are you on today?

Then we saw how Jesus calls us to follow him, as he did those first disciples, not just to go along for the ride, but to carry on the work he began, to do what he did, and that our response to his call should be immediate, without any hesitation. He has provided all the resources we need to be able to follow him and to do this well. From the moment we entrust our lives to him he puts his Spirit within us to strengthen and sustain us, to teach and to guide us in the right way. He has given us the Scriptures to be "a lamp" to our feet and "a light" for our path.[3] He has modelled for us the kind of life we are to live, as well as our having the example of others, like Peter and Paul, who have walked this way, too. And he has given us each other to encourage and build one another up, because we are not meant to travel this way alone. 'Better together' is to be our motto. We cannot do it on our own.

We were given a glimpse of the dark forces that rule this world both in the temptations of Jesus, and in the man with the evil spirit in the synagogue. Jesus demonstrated the absolute authority He has over these powers. We could say he lifted the veil that hides this spiritual dimension to life to give us a glimpse of what needs spiritual discernment. Jesus came to take issue with these forces that have usurped God's reign and rule on the earth and enslaved humankind. We are engaged in a spiritual battle against an enemy that gives no quarter, who will use fair means and foul to accomplish his evil purpose. We have been given the armour and weapons we need to successfully engage in this battle.

Last Sunday the story of the leper made us aware of our need to be cleansed so that we can stand before God. In his touching the leper we witnessed a parable of Jesus, in all his purity, stooping to touch the ugliness and stench of our sin to bring healing and forgiveness, to give us hope and a future.[4] Jesus is engaged in the business of bringing healing to our broken world. He was sent to be this world's Saviour.

This morning we come to another healing story in Mark's account of the life of Jesus. Note that this is only the beginning of the second chapter of his Gospel and we have had several accounts of healing already - the man with the evil spirit, Simon's mother-in-law, the many Jesus healed after sunset on the Sabbath in Capernaum, and the man with leprosy. Healing went hand in hand with preaching the good news wherever Jesus went.

In today's story there were several obstacles that stood in the way of the healing this paralysed man.

1.      The CROWD. Mark tells us that Jesus had returned home to Capernaum. We are not told whose home it was, but it was soon to be overflowing with people. We are told that the crowd that gathered at this home was so great that it filled the house and spilt out on to the street so that it was well nigh impossible to get to the door. This fact confirms the consequences of the man with leprosy ignoring Jesus' strict warning not to tell anyone about his healing, and why he could no longer openly enter a town. Imagine for a moment that this was your home where the crowd assembled, and how you might feel if every Tom, Dick and Harry in Hillsborough squeezed into it to be with Jesus? Maybe it will be like this one day here in St David's in the Fields.

Next we are told, "Some men came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them."[5] We often think there were only four. Matthew, Mark and Luke all say that "some men" came bringing a paralysed man. Mark adds the words "carried by four of them." So there may well have been several of them all together. However, when they arrived they were confronted by this large crowd milling round the entrance to the home where Jesus was. They quickly assessed the situation. They could see that getting their friend to Jesus through the crowd was not an option. This called for some ingenuity on their part. If there was no way through or around the crowd, there might be a way to tackle it from the top, which is what they did. They were not going to give up trying at the first difficulty they encountered. They worked out a 'plan B' that now came into play. It was more difficult and challenging, as the stairways up the sides of houses in the Middle East were not designed for carrying people up on a stretcher. They were only wide enough for one person to climb at a time. What they planned to do also carried the risk of incurring the wrath of the owner of the home. In dismantling some of the roof so that they had a hole big enough through which to lower their friend to Jesus could have led them being charged with wilful damage of another person's property. Be this as it may, they were determined to go ahead.

Now imagine the scene below as the crowd listened intently to Jesus' teaching. Mark says he was preaching "the word to them." Jesus never missed an opportunity to do this wherever he was and whenever he could. This was why he had come. We were told this in chapter one.[6] As Jesus is speaking the ceiling begins to creak and you can hear people walking on the roof just above where Jesus was seated. Every eye turns upward towards the sound. Soon bits of clay start falling and those directly underneath put up their arms to shield their heads from the falling debris. Then a hole appears in the ceiling that grows bigger by the minute until faces can be seen. Mark says, "they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it." Then they lowered their friend on the mattress he was lying on. Jesus was impressed! This was the kind of faith he longed for. That these men were willing to go to such lengths to get help for their friend clearly demonstrated their belief that Jesus could make him well. They certainly deserved full marks for persistence, and Jesus rewards their persistence, just as he will us when we "earnestly seek him."[7] Jesus then says something that comes as quite a shock to everyone who were there. It was not what was expected. He said to the paralysed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Is this what you would have expected Jesus to say? It is like something out of left field. It catches you off guard. We will see why in a moment, for there was a second obstacle to his healing.

2.      The CRITICS. In the crowd that day, and seemingly seated in the front row if there were seats for people to sit on, were some "teachers of the law." These people would wheedle their way in anywhere where they sniffed something afoot that they needed to keep an eye on. They were the watch-dogs of Jewish society. This was their task. As teachers of the law they believed they were the ones who set clear-cut boundaries and guidelines as to what was acceptable and unacceptable to God in the way of conduct. What they prescribed touched every area of life, for the purpose that God's people might live according to God's will. Therefore it was of paramount importance that they were there. Like hawks they watched Jesus' every move, and weighed his every word. Now when Jesus said to the paralysed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven," you can just imagine their spiritual antennae going on 'red alert.' Alarm bells start clanging loudly in their minds as they thought to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"[8] And they are exactly right. Only God could forgive like that. The priests were permitted to announce forgiveness but only after certain sacrifices had been offered. What Jesus was doing was fulfilling what Jeremiah prophesied centuries before when he said, "'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and ... Judah. ...For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.'"[9] To the minds of these teachers of the law it was clearly blasphemous for any human being to claim an authority that belonged to God alone, and the penalty for such a crime was clear - stoning to death.[10]

However, Jesus "immediately" "knew in his spirit" what was on their minds, further evidence of the gift of 'knowledge' Jesus was exercising,[11] and so he challenged them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralysed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk?' But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins."[12] Then he tells the man to get up, take his mat and go home. In "full view" of everyone, this is exactly what the man does, and the roof is lifted again, only this time with an explosion of praise to God. The people exclaimed, "We have never seen anything like this!"[13] The test of a true prophet according to Deuteronomy was that what the prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord comes true.[14] Jesus therefore verified his authority as a true prophet of God in healing the man.

Two very significant things have taken place here, and it is important that you The first is

a)      Jesus "HAS authority to forgive sins." He wanted them to know this, and he wants you and I to know this too. He is the One to whom we can come with complete confidence knowing that if we own up to our sin, he will forgive and cleanse us.[15] With that forgiveness comes peace with God and the possibility for that peace to permeate all our relationships. You and I need to know this. Forgiveness cannot be found anywhere else. You will not find it in any of the other great religions of the world. Christianity is unique in this respect. Only Jesus can forgive your sins and reconcile you to God. What a wonderful provision! The second significant thing is

b)      Forgiveness is on the basis of GRACE, and grace alone. Jesus was doing something that a priest in the temple could not do, that even the law could not do. This man has done nothing to deserve or merit this. And you might well ask, "How can Jesus do this? Can sin be forgiven 'willy nilly?' Can it be dismissed so easily?" The answer is a definite "No!" The crucifixion makes this all too clear. The penalty or wage for sin is death,[16] and it must be paid. But note the wonderful truth here, one that is echoed again and again throughout the New Testament, namely that "it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God..."[17] There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that you or I can do to earn God's forgiveness. It is only through his undeserved and unmerited favour that we can be made clean. As Charles Wesley wrote, "Amazing love! How can it be, that you, my God, should die for me!"

We now come to third obstacle that had to be overcome for the paralysed man to be healed, and this was

3.      His SKEPTICISM. Did you notice that the man did not move the first time Jesus spoke. It was not until after Jesus spoke to him the second time and said, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home," that he acted. While we know what was going through the minds of the teachers of the law, we do not know for sure what was going on in this man's mind. That he did not move the first time could imply that he was hesitating. He may have been reading the minds of the teachers of the law also. He, too, may have been questioning in his mind, "Can this man do this!" He was facing the most important decision in his life: would he trust Jesus' word, or accept the judgment of the teachers of the law? You and I have to make the same decision. The world is full of skeptics. There were some even amongst Jesus' disciples. We see it in Nathanael's remark when Philip told him about Jesus, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?"[18]

Philip said to him, "Come and see." And if we are inclined to be sceptical about Jesus' authority to forgive and heal, we would do well to heed Philip's words, "Come and see." Returning to the story we see that the man displayed the same faith as his friends and obeyed Jesus' command. From that moment his life is changed, totally transformed. It would never be the same again. That will be your experience, too, for our God makes all things new.[19]

Who do you identify with in this story today?

Are you like one of the men and have someone you want to bring to Jesus, and maybe need the help of others to do so?

Are you like the teachers of the law, tending to stand aloof and be critical and judgmental?

Are you like the crippled person, who initially may have been skeptical of Jesus' ability and authority to forgive his sins and make him whole.

Are you feeling like the owner of the house, maybe glad to have Jesus there, and/or upset with what has happened to your house?

Or are you like one of the crowd, listening, watching, but ready to give God the praise when good things happen?

As we imagine ourselves in this story and share how we feel about that, so it helps bridge the gap in the contexts between the time of Jesus and 2007, and enables us to apply this story to our own situation and needs.