Project 119: Mark 2:1-17
| Project 119
“Who Can Forgive Sins?”
The problem of sin is the base challenge for us humans. We may wrestle with a host of challenges, but the one challenge that is beyond us is that of our sin. Because we can’t do enough good to eradicate our sinful past, we need a Savior to bring God’s power to bear to help us in ways in which we could never help ourselves. During his second visit to Capernaum, Jesus heals a paralytic, which He intends to be a symbol of His authority to heal an even deeper malady, the sickness of sin.
A huge and enthusiastic crowd has gathered in Capernaum to hear Jesus. It’s not the first time. Mark tells us how Jesus had amazed the crowd earlier with His teaching and healing before leaving for a time of spiritual renewal. Now Jesus has returned and people have come out of the woodwork to hear what Jesus has to say and what He has to do.
Among the people is a paralyzed man who has been brought to Jesus by four of his friends. When the men see that the press of the crowd is so great that they can’t get their friend to Jesus, they go to the roof, break through its mud/thatch construction to lower their brother to Jesus’ feet. When Jesus sees the faith that all of them have expressed, the first words out of his mouths are words of forgiveness. “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Among the crowd are some teachers of the law. They hear what Jesus says to the man and they are not pleased. Forgiveness is God’s work. Anyone who would think that he could do anything about sin would be putting himself on equal standing with the divine, which would be blasphemous.
What would make these teachers of the law so touchy about Jesus’ compassion? Part of it was rank jealousy. Part of it was their resentment over how Jesus was attracting crowds that surely must have taken away from the numbers of people who had been coming to hear them teach. But part of it was something deeper and more pernicious. Whenever forgiveness becomes something that get passed out freely and without being requested, how then will we be able to assert our spiritual authority over others? Jesus could see through their impure motives and answers them with a deeply penetrating question: “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?’” Then, to show His own spiritual authority to forgive sins, that’s exactly what Jesus did. He commanded the paralytic to walk, and to everyone’s amazement, that’s exactly what the paralytic did.
As Jesus leaves Capernaum, he encounters a tax collector named Levi, son of Alphaeus. Given that tax collectors were viewed as “lowlifes” in the first-century Jewish world, Levi is a different sort of sinner. His allegiance to Rome’s oppressive tax system does not win him any friends, except for other sinners. Jesus invites Levi to become a disciple, which Levi accepts. Before you know it, Jesus has gathered in Levi’s home with all manner of outcasts and has drawn the ire of the religious establishment. When pressed as to why Jesus would hang out with such characters, Jesus’ reply hits to the heart of His redemptive mission: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).
Jesus’ response reminds us that not only is no one beyond the pale of salvation, no one is beyond the pale of discipleship either. As sinners, we are need of forgiveness, the experience of which empowers us in joining Jesus in the work of salvation God has sent Him to fulfill. Whether it involves taking other friends to Jesus, as did the friends of the paralytic, or hosting a gathering where we invite others to experience Jesus’ call, as did Levi, all of us have something we can contribute to Jesus’ cause and therefore extend His life-changing ministry in truly amazing ways.
Mark 2:1-17 (ESV):
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, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 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!”
13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”