PONDERING... What do you need? (Mark 2:1-12)

What Do You Need? (AM Sermon Notes)

GIST: Jesus sees the heart and meets the need (which is forgiveness).

(I was going to make the gist: The crowds were curious; the companions were caring, and Christ caused controversy with His ultimate compassion….which is our constant need. But realized my English-teacherness might have just been having too much fun with alliteration to actually be helpful.☺)

SCRIPTURE: Mark 2:1-12

1 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!”

We are moving right along in the Gospel of Mark. This morning, we are going to begin chapter 2, which introduces us to a series of about 4 scenes that could be known as the first of the “controversy scenes”. Up until this point, we have seen Jesus ministering, but the only real opposition has been from demons. Now, we see the controversy take human form. This first scene is a very familiar passage. In fact, I remember learning this story when I was first in Sunday School (I was shorter back then, but otherwise looked exactly like I do now...if you were curious :P). We’ve talked about this before, but we need to be cautious when looking at a familiar passage like this because there is a tendency to shut down a bit assuming we already know the message. Nonetheless, there is so much we can learn from this passage, even if we’ve read this story many times, and we need to pray that it get into our hearts and change our lives. Today, I want to try and zoom in on what seems to be the central focus and take some applications from there. Here’s the gist: Jesus sees the heart and meets the need (which is forgiveness).

CONTEXT: CURIOUS CROWDS & CARING COMPANIONS (1-4)

(See, I snuck some more alliteration in there…) I don’t want to spend too much time on context here because I don’t want to miss the emphasis of the passage. Yet, and my wife has been my sounding board as I’ve wrestled through how to preach this, I don’t want to neglect the awesome implication of the context either. So this is almost like an “aside mini-sermon”, but bear with me because it all fits back together in the end ☺.

Capernaum. This takes place after Jesus has left Capernaum and gone to preach in the surrounding areas (remember last week?). The passage says He’s home. It is assumed that Peter’s house was like His homebase at this time. He’s been out of town for awhile, but when He returns the scene is nearly identical to when He left. Again, He’s swarmed. In fact, so much so, that people cannot even get into the house anymore.

Curious Crowds. Now, it’s interesting to note. Like before, these people probably came for healing and miracles. However, we aren’t told that that is happening. What’s He doing in the middle of this crowd? Preaching the Word. Proclaiming the Gospel. Telling them the Truth. Remember, this is His priority. And, the crowd doesn’t leave when they see this. Though we don’t see mass salvations in this scene, we at least know they’re curious. Does Jesus know they came for something else? Of course! We’ll talk more about that later. Nevertheless, from the opening, we see Him meeting their needs instead.

Caring Companions. And these crowds were not an entirely good thing either. In fact, the part of this passage most people remember, was caused by these crowds...not moving out of the way. We have these friends who are carrying their paralyzed friend to Jesus because they know He can heal. The only reason they end up on the roof is because they are blocked by the crowd. Nonetheless, we see they are very intentional in their purpose. They get to the roof, and start tearing apart the mostly mud and stick structure to get to Jesus.  

Distraction? Now, just as an aside (within an aside?), picture what this would have been like from the inside. As a teacher, I’ve taught through many distractions, but never someone digging their way through the roof above me. One time, I was teaching up in the youth room and the glass, dome casing from the light fixture fell off and hit right where I had been standing maybe seconds before. That pretty much put my lesson at a stand still!☺ But that was nothing compared to this scene. I googled images of this yesterday morning, and most of them showed this very clean looking rectangular hole right above an uneffected room. No. There would have been dirt and debris everywhere--including on Jesus and the people in the room. Still, we don’t see irritation from Jesus, or even any indication that He stopped doing what He was doing.

Again, this isn’t the focus of the passage, but there is still a lesson for us here, and we’ll come back to that in the takeaways, so just hold on to this picture for a moment ☺.

1. JESUS SEE THE HEART (5-8)

It is pretty fantastic that twice in this passage we see Jesus responding to people...who said nothing. It’s really easy to overlook this, but it’s huge.

The Paralytic. First, we see this with the paralytic. This whole scene has just unfolded. It is very clear these men want their friend healed. Nonetheless, immediately we read that Jesus saw their faith and said, “Son (the word used here is a term of endearment; it’s something you’d call your child), your sins are forgiven.” Now, that statement is the central point in this passage. It’s what Jesus came to do, and it’s why we see the scribes getting so angry. However, we need to pause here for a second and look at what just happened. Did this man actually ask for forgiveness? Isn’t that how salvation works? Is there some kind of theological contradiction here? Nope. Jesus sees the heart. Not only does He know what this man needs, but sees that the man knows what he needs--and He gives Him that. We’re going to hit this more in just a second, and I know we’re not at the takeaway section yet, but I just want to say this now in case something prevents me from saying it later. Jesus wants to forgive you. I think it was Tim Keller who was preaching on this and said something along the lines of, ‘Jesus doesn’t wait for the man to find the right words to say, or ask Him to speak up or clarify his intentions’. He knows. He forgives.

The Scribes. We see a similar scenario with the scribes. It’s actually kind of interesting to try and picture this as an onlooker. You’re in this crowded house hoping to see a miracle. Then, all of the sudden people dig a hole in the roof and lower a paralyzed man before Jesus. The man doesn’t say anything, but Jesus forgives his sins. Then, Jesus turns to the scribes, the religious elite, and lays into them about why they’re missing the point. Again, they hadn’t said anything. Jesus sees their hearts.

2. AND MEETS THE NEED (FORGIVENESS) (5, 9-12)

Not the expected. We’ve already started alluding to this, but here’s the main point of the passage. Jesus doesn’t do the expected here at any point. Remember, the crowds wanted miracles. They needed the Word. The paralytic wanted healing. He needed forgiveness! The scribes wanted things to go their way. They needed Jesus.

The paralytic could have pushed back here. He could have said, “Sure, I have some spiritual needs, but can we take care of that after I can walk?” Like we’ve talked about before, it’s not that God doesn’t care about physical needs...He just knows what matters most! (And the paralytic seems to have gotten this.)

The central and deepest need you have. I’m sure many of you have heard of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It’s something that comes up pretty often in educational conversations. The idea is you need to meet the most basic human needs before you can affect more meaningful internal changes. In other words, until a person is fed and feels safe and loved, they’ll never be in a position to learn or grow. There is some value in understanding that people have basic needs that need to be met, and for years this was the mindset of missionary movements. We’ll set up hospitals, schools, and orphanages. Then, when those needs are met, people will be ready to hear about Jesus. Yet, that’s not how Jesus worked! The most central need in our life is forgiveness, salvation. Everything else is secondary. I know I quote this verse a lot, but it’s worth remembering. “33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Fixing your health, marriage, job, circumstances in general...etc., will never fix your life. Fix one external, and another external will break down, as well. This can be hard to swallow--especially when we’re being crush by the weight of external needs. If you’re riddled with disease, it’s hard to think you could have a more pressing need than healing, but you do. 1 John 2:17 “17 ... the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

And the scribes are offended because they don’t see the truth. Man, we could camp out here for another entire sermon, but I won’t do that to you. Here’s the point. They actually had good theology. When they saw Jesus forgiving sin, they were upset because only God can forgive sin. Why? Because all sin is against Him. You can’t forgive someone for something they didn’t do against you. From an earthly standpoint, we see this. If you steal from Bill, only Bill can forgive you. Since all sin is ultimately an offense against God who created us, only He can truly forgive sin. So when Jesus did this, they knew He was claiming to be God. They were right. They were offended because they didn’t believe He was God! They were wrong. And that’s really what this final little dialogue is about.

He asks them which is easier to say, “your sins are forgiven” or “be healed”. On one side, forgiving sins seems like an easier thing to say, because there is no way to immediately prove that it happened. However, if He said, be healed, there’d have to be more immediate proof. Yet, forgiving sin isn’t easier.  Jesus wasn’t just telling this man his sins were forgiven; He was forgiving the sins. This required His sacrifice, His death, His taking on Hell for us. It wasn’t easier.

Nonetheless, defeating sin is why He came, so to show that He had the power to forgive sins, he turned to the man and told him to get up and walk...and he did. Only God can heal a paralyzed man. Only God can forgive sins. Jesus came to meet that need. We can be forgiven. We cannot afford to miss this.

TAKEAWAYS

1. Jesus sees your heart
• He sees your needs and your motives. You can hide behind moralism like the scribes, or run like the demons. This isn’t a threat; it’s a blessing. He knows your need even if you yourself are fighting to acknowledge it. AND-->
2. Jesus can meet your need
• You need forgiveness. In the sermon I’m going to link below from Tim Keller, he tells a Scottish folktale about a king who goes to battle and kills someone he regrets. As a result, his cloak is stained. He wants so desperately to get rid of the stain that he makes a decree that if any woman in the land can remove the stain, he will marry her. Long story short, everyone tries, but only this Cinderella-like character can. She doesn’t get credit for it at first, but when the king realizes who it was, he marries her and they live happily ever after...etc. Now, this might seem like just a “feel-good” story with basically no connection to the passage we’re talking about, but Keller made this point, and it really hit home to me:  Your true love is the One who gets the stain out. He’s the one who makes the only difference that matters eternally. Understanding that truth is key to living a life set free by the Truth. Your basic need has to be met before any real change can be effected. And once your basic need has been met, remembering that gift and living in light of it should revolutionize the way you live your life.
3. Are you forgiven?
• Have you had your deepest need met? Nothing else will ever be fixed without this.
• Are you living like it? Imagine if the paralyzed man would have just stayed on his mat!
4. Are you bringing others to that truth?
• Remember the context here. We had some faithful, intentional friends who, despite the obstacles, brought their friend to the one they knew could make the difference. Are you?
• Or...are you more like the curious crowds, or even the mad scribes who miss the point and get in the way?

Resource:

I listened to many sermons and studied a lot of material in preparation for this message (and re-outlined it many, many times). So much of what I studied was helpful, but this sermon by Tim Keller that I actually listened to early this summer by complete chance, remains the one that struck the deepest chord. I highly recommend it, and give credit where it is due if any of the above material resembles the more articulate message you’re about to experience. CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE TIM KELLER MESSAGE.