Jesus’ Authority to Forgive

Mark 2:1-12

Forgiveness is at the core of Christianity. Well-known secular humanist and novelist, Marghanita Laski was acutely aware of that. Not long before she died, she participated in an interview with a Christian host, before a huge television audience. In a moment of honesty and openness, she stated, “What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me!” And the sad reality is that she did not receive forgiveness because she never met the Savior.

 This morning we are going to meet a paralyzed man who is taken to the Savior for physical healing, but leaves with both physical and spiritual healing. Now if you remember at the end of Mark chapter 1, we saw the healing of a leper who met Jesus as Jesus was out on his preaching tour through Galilee. And you'll remember Mark chapter 1 verse 39, "And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons."

Well, His preaching tour is over and now Jesus comes back home. And if you will also remember, even though Jesus grew up in Nazareth, it is no longer His hometown as He is not welcome there. Luke 4:28-30, "And all the peoplein the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went His way." So Jesus can’t go back to Nazareth because He was no longer welcome.

So He sets up home base in Capernaum where Peter and Andrew and James and John lived. And if you think about Jesus ministry up to this point, we have seen here in Mark the things He has done. He has preached the gospel, He has cast a demon out of a man, He has preached with authority in the synagogue, He has healed the sick and diseased, including Peter’s mother-in-law, and He has healed a leper. He is popular, and people are coming from all over because they want healing from Jesus.

But remember the mission of Jesus. He came to preach! Mark chapter 1 verse 38, Jesus says, “that is what I came for." And although we are going to see another healing from Jesus this morning, we are going to see Jesus authority on display again as He shows His authority over sin. We are also going to see that the scribes,who were a part of the Pharisees, have gotten word about all that Jesus is doing and they’re whole religious system is going to be confronted. Jesus is popular with the crowds because of His healing, but the scribes are leery of Him because of the work He’s been doing and words He’s been preaching. And so they show up on the scene and from here forward they are going to challenge the authority of Jesus. But Jesus is going to give them proof of who He is and the authority that He has.

So let’s pick up in chapter 2. We are going to break this passage into 4 sections this morning and let’s start in with our first point, The Popular Preacher. Look at verses 1-2, "When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them." 

Now as I said earlier, Jesus has returned from His preaching tour in Galilee and has escaped the crowds and goes home to Capernaum. Most believe that Jesus lived with Peter and Andrew and Peter’s wife and mother-in-law in their home. And word gets out that Jesus is at home. He’s back, and the people of Capernaum remember what He did the last time He was in town. He essentially healed the whole town. Chapter 1, verse 33-34 says “And the whole city had gathered at the door. And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons;”

Well, the people are back and they want more from Jesus. So they are gathered at His house,or the home He is staying in, and this house is packed! The people have come and packed this house out so that no one could even enter the house. The whole house including all around the door is packed with people. But look at what Jesus was doing while when He has the crowd gathered there. The end of verse 2 says, “And He was speaking the word to them.” Remember, that was why He came. He came to preach and when He had all these people gathered around. His mission was to preach the gospel to them and what message was giving them? In the MacArthur study notes, it says the word is “The good news of the gospel, that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, for the forgiveness of sins.” And guess what is about to happen? An illustration of this right in front of their very eyes.

Which leads to our second point. Not only to we see the popular preacher, but second, we now see the faithful friends. Look at verses 3-4, "And they *came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying."

Now we are introduced to a paralytic man and his four friends. These men obviously hear that Jesus is in town and they have this friend who is paralyzed and they know that if they can just get this man to Jesus, then He will heal him. So they come to the house carrying their friend on this mat. The NASB calls it a “pallet." It is probably some kind of thick padded quilt or a flexible mattress. And as these four men bring this paralyzed man to the home they realized that there are so many people there that they can’t get in.

Now, think about this. They could have said, “Oh well, we tried! Let’s come back tomorrow." Or even waited outside until everyone had left, but they wanted to get to Jesus right away. They knew that Jesus could and would heal their friend and they didn’t want to wait any longer. They had to get to Jesus. One commentator says, “Persistent faith in the face of opposition or obstacles is an important theme throughout Mark’s gospel.” And we see the persistent faith from these men right here. They weren’t going to be stopped from having their friend see Jesus.

So they go up on the roof and begin to dig through the roof right above Jesus head. Now, most the homes back then had a flat roof that was used for storage, for relaxing, and even for sleeping on hot summer nights because it was cooler up there. And the stairs to get up there weren’t on the inside of the home, like our homes, but on the outside. So these men had access to the stairs to get up there. The roof was also made of beams that stretched across and then had sticks and dried clay packed over them. So these men begin to pull this clay back and move these sticks out of the way so they could get their friend to Jesus.

And as they pull it all back, they then begin to lower their friend down right in front of where Jesus is teaching. One commentator suggests, “Probably ropes, which may have been borrowed from Peter’s fishing tackle lying on the roof, were fastened to the four corners of the pallet on which the prostrate sufferer lay.” And their friend, this paralyzed man, gets lowered down and lays right there at the feet of Jesus. Spurgeon says, “Better to come to Jesus through the ceiling than not to come at all. Better to be let down to Jesus by a rope than not to be in His presence.”

And then look at verse 5, “And Jesus seeing their faith.” This is not only the faith of these friends, but also the faith of this paralyzed man. The faith of these men is evidenced in the fact that they did all of this just to get their friend to Jesus. So there is this paralyzed man who has finally come to THE Healer and he has faith that as he lays there at the foot of Jesus, that Jesus can make him walk. But Jesus doesn’t put the focus on the fact that this man is paralyzed and that He can heal him physically. What does Jesus say?

Point number 3, the stunning statement. Verse 5, “And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Jesus knew what this man’s greatest need was. It wasn’t to have his legs healed so he could walk, it was to have his heart forgiven so he could live. Jesus addresses this man’s spiritual need first because that is what is the most important. One commentator says, “The friends and the crowd are expecting a healing, yet Jesus shocks them by pronouncing that the man’s sins are forgiven.”

Now, it is possible that this man’s affliction, being paralyzed, was the result of his sin as was believed by many in this day and Scripture even tells us this fact. But that’s not the point. The point is that this man was a sinner who needed his sins forgiven. So he comes to the one who can heal his heart and free him from the guilt of sin. And although he was probably condemned by many because they thought his paralysis was the result of his sin, he now lays at the feet of the one who does not condemn him. Romans 8:1 says, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Jesus did not condemn the friends for interrupting His teaching either, but commended their faith by turning to their friend and addressing his need. And then, as a compassionate father would lovingly address his son Jesus says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Now look at verses 6-7, But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?” Now who were these scribes?Scribes were experts in the written law of God. They were essentially scholars in the Jewish law and were experts in explaining the application of the law who were primarily Pharisees or associated with the Pharisees. So they know the law of God.

And what they say here is actually true when they say, “who can forgive sins but God alone?” because only the One who has been sinned against has the right and authority to forgive sins and since all mankind has sinned against God, only God can forgive their sins. But what they have missed out on is the fact that God is right there in front of them and Jesus makes a stunning statement. But if they had known who He was, they would realized that that is what Jesus came to do, to offer forgiveness to sinners. But they denied Jesus and therefore bring a claim against Jesus that He is blaspheming, that He is claiming irreverence for God and claiming to do something that only God can do. But Jesus is showing them His divine authority, not only to heal people physically, but to heal them spiritually.

Look at verse 8, "Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, *said to them, 'Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven"; or to say, "Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk"?'" Now we get another glimpse of the divine authority of Christ. Jesus, doesn’t hear them whispering to each other. He doesn’t see their face and see some kind of confused look on their face. He actually knew what was in their hearts. He knew their thoughts. I love this. Look, while they are scoffing at Jesus claim to divine authority, He reads their minds and demonstrates His divine authority. And He does it “immediately.” At that moment of their doubting, Jesus respods and He says in verse 9, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?”

Now think about this. Which is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven!” Right? Because there is no external proof that it happens at that moment. The harder things to say is “Get up,…” to a man who is paralyzed, right? Because if you say that, then there needs to be external proof of your authority. And then Jesus gives them the external evidence of the internal reality. And then tells them in verses 10-11, But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He *said to the paralytic, “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” 

Now what is interesting here is that Jesus refers to Himself as “the Son of Man.” Why does He do that? Well, this term “Son of Man” is a Messianic title that comes from Daniel 7:13-14 which says, “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, snd He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." Jesus is declaring Himself to be the Messiah who has been given all authority.

But it also shows the humility of Jesus as he identifies with man. He uses the term Son of Man to identify with man as a humble servant. Matthew 8:20 He says, “Jesus *said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air havenests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” He is the Suffering Servant who would pay the price for this man’s sin so that he could be forgiven and have his sins paid for and because He is God in the flesh, He has the authority to forgive this man’s sins.

Then what does He tell this man to do? Turn back to Mark and look verse Verse 11, “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” The scribes doubted and they wouldn’t receive Him for who He was. So He was about to give them a physical, external proof that He is who He says He is and is able to do what He just did. And so He gives a three-fold command to this man who is laying there on his bed, still crippled and unable to walk to “get up.”

Now, think about this man. He had probably tried to get up before and what was the outcome every time? Failure. His legs are too weak and have no strength in them and he would just collapse. But his faith was tested and he believed Jesus and was healed. Then Jesus says, “take up your mat.”

Now think about how many hours this man had laid on this mat. This was what was closest to him. He spent every waking and every sleeping hour on this mat. He had never carried it. But for the first time, instead of laying on his mat, he would be able to carry his own mat. Then Jesus says, “And go home.” His friends are all up on the roof and they were the ones who brought him from his home to Jesus’ home. But he doesn’t need them carry him anymore. No longer does he rely upon his friends to carry him around because he has been healed by faith in the Son of Man who brought both physical and spiritual restoration to this man that day. Think about that journey home for this guy. He hadn’t walked those streets. He wasn’t able to walk by another man and look him in the eyes. But now he is able to because he met Jesus. And all who were there in this house were blown away.

Which leads to Point number four, the people’s praise. Look at verse 12, "And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, 'We have never seen anything like this.'" This man obeys, he gets up, he picks up his mat, and he goes home. And everyone in this packed out house sees what has just happened and amazement comes over the people. This word for amaze here in Greek means: “to be amazed, to be astonished, of the feeling of astonishment mingled with fear, caused by events which are miraculous, extraordinary, or difficult to understand.”

There was amazement mixed with fear that came over these people and they start glorifying God because they had never seen something like this before. And you would think this would cause the whole house to fall down at Jesus feet and beg for forgiveness. But they didn’t…why? Turn over to Matthew 9:8, ”But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

They still saw Jesus as just a man. He proved His deity not only by forgiving the man’s sins, but by healing this paralyzed man so that he could walk. And all of this happened right in front of their eyes and yet they still did not believe in Jesus. One commentator says, “Note the phrase authority to menindicates they viewed Jesus as a mere man who was given authority by God but they did not recognize or acknowledge Him as God. They missed the graphic lesson completely and failed to understand the linkage of Deity regarding physical and spiritual healing (forgiveness).” Their praise was just a superficial praise and a superficial faith. Sure, they liked Jesus the miracle worker. But they didn’t like Jesus the Son of God. They like Jesus who could heal physically. But they didn’t want Jesus to heal them spiritually.

In closing, where is your faith at? It is a superficial faith like the crowds was, or do you have faith in Christ and His finished work. Do you just play church and come and sing songs and hang out with friends or do you come because your life is submitted to the King of kings? Do you desire to give all worship and praise to Him alone?

What about your friends? Do you pray for your friends who don’t know Christ? Do you share Christ with your friends and point them to the Savior like this man’s friends did? Maybe you are here, and you have never asked Christ to forgive you of your sins. He offers forgiveness to you today. All you have to do is run to Him and place your faith completely in Him alone.

Look this paralyzed man although he gained the strength in his legs to walk, would one day, lose strength in his legs as they withered away. Although he could run and dance in the streets with his friends that day, one day he would be laying down again, too weak to walk. But there was one thing in this man’s life that never faded away. It was his cleansed heart. It was the eternal life that he was given that day because his sins were forgiven by a great and mighty God.