The 6:33

When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” –Mark 2:5-7

I love this section of Mark! There is so much to look at, I’m a visual guy. I like to look at things and observe how they interact with each other. Mechanical things with gears and levers, I’m all about it…

Maybe that is why I love Gods word so much… Once someone showed me the mechanics of it, that is all I see! And just like mechanical objects, the more I look at it, the more I learn just how each price is important to the function…

To the casual reader, they see a Sermon their pastor gave sometime ago about the importance of having “mat carriers” in your life. And on that I agree 100%! But that is the function, I like to look at the parts…

If you’re following along with this series, then you are already familiar with the four friends and the paralyzed man…

Lets look at the parts and see if we can better understand the function…

First, this section starts out with “Jesus saw their faith”. “Saw” is a verb, an action word. These four friends didn’t just offer thoughts and prayers for the paralyzed man. They took action to help their friend. The house Jesus was in was slap full of people, there was no room for four men carrying a bed. What would have been the limiting factor to most people, these four friends came up with a solution…

Against custom of the day, they gained access to the roof of this house and dug through the roofing material to gain access. Remember, this is not their house. They faced serious consequences for this act of vandalism. But the urgency to help this paralyzed man outweighed normal reason or fear of consequence…

That is what Jesus “saw” Not a disruption of His teaching, He didn’t see the mess that was made, not the hole in the roof. “Jesus saw their faith”. They had put into action what they had believed about His teaching. But where did they hear His teaching?

The Four Friends…

It is clear now that these four friends had faith in Jesus. But where did that faith come from, to me this is another mechanical piece that makes this whole section work. In verse 1 of chapter 2 Mark tells us that Jesus and the Disciples returned to Capernaum. The place Jesus first preaches in the Synagogue. All the people in attendance were amazed at His teachings. A demon even tried to disrupt His message and was cast out in front of everyone… Peter’s Mother-in-law is healed by Jesus. That night, the whole town arrives to be healed and forgiven…

These four friends had defiantly heard of Jesus! They may have been in attendance of the Synagogue where they first heard the hope of the Kingdom of God form Jesus. Maybe they showed up at Peters house and witnessed Jesus’ healing ministry. Or perhaps the next morning they were among the crowd of people who were healed and had demons cast out?

Whenever it was is not as important as the fact, that what Jesus said, changed their lives forever! Now they wanted to share Jesus with everyone. And went to extraordinary lengths to share their faith…

Upon observing their faith, Jesus responded, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” The four friends put their faith into action so this paralyzed man could be healed. And Jesus responds, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Why?

In Jewish custom of the day, to have a serious affliction of any kind that couldn’t be healed was considered a judgment of God for sin. Almost the entire book of Job, we read of Job’s friends trying to get him to confess his sin so God would forgive him. By the time of Jesus, Rabbis had taken that literally. So, for Jesus this was a statement, where the custom of the day says it is sin, I came to forgive that…

This statement of Jesus caught the attention of the Scribes. Sitting in attendance, started reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Who Are The Scribes???

• Law Experts: They were often called “lawyers” or “teachers of the law” because they knew the Hebrew Scriptures inside and out.
• Interpreters: They applied the Torah to everyday life and created traditional rules to explain how to obey God’s commands.
• Community Leaders: Because most people could not read or write, literate scribes held high status and served as judges or community leaders.
• Copyists: They helped preserve and copy sacred religious texts.

They understood Gods Word; it was their job. Their reasoning was almost right, but their heart was hard toward anything other than what they had been taught to believe. They start out their reasoning with a pretty heavy accusation! Blasphemies, Leviticus 24:16 says that anyone who commits blasphemy should be stoned to death by the entire assembly.

They knew what the Word said but lacked any kind of faith in following what it said. This is the first time Jesus has any encounter with the religious elite, and it will not be the last. Throughout the Gospels the Scribes, Pharisees and the Sadducees, clash over what Gods Word says and what it means.

“Who can forgive sins but God alone?” This is what the Scribes are upset over… That Jesus said, “your sins are forgiven you”. And they are correct, only God can forgive sin!

Faith In Action…

There is another piece to look at! Something that once investigated should help us understand what is going on. Mark tells us that they “reasoned in their hearts”. This was not a vocal protest! They got offended… their hearts immediately got hard toward Jesus. For who knows how long they sat in this house and listed to Jesus teach about the Kingdom of God. These Scribes found no fault with Jesus until this point.

No, it wasn’t until faith was put into action that they found fault. And that fault was it was different from what they believed.

Had the Scribes simply waited to see if the paralyzed man was healed and walked out of the house. They would have had their answer. Jesus would have proved Himself as a fraud who just committed blasphemy and should be stoned according to scripture.

Or

Jesus would have proved that He alone has the power to not only heal, but restore this paralyzed man. Jesus would have removed the condemnation of sin that the culture had placed on him, thus proving Jesus has the power to forgive Sin. And as the Scribes reasoned, “who can forgive sin but God alone?” Jesus proved He is God.

The Great Commission…

The major takeaway of this section is that when our lives are changed by Jesus, we are to take action. The Great Commission of Jesus comes to us in Matthew 28:19-20. We are to put our faith in action making disciples of all Nations.

For some of us it might look like these four friends, a little messy (please don’t tell people I said to cut a hole in the roof for Jesus) and don’t apply revisionist history to the disciples.

Peter gave his first sermon in Acts 2, where at its conclusion 3,000 people were saved. Remember, that was the Power of the Holy Spirit! A few days before that in the Garden he chopped off the ear of Malchus, a servant of the Jewish High Priest. And a few years before that Peter and his brother Andrew were fisherman…

Just like this paralyzed man you were set free of the condemnation of sin, restored to testify of the One Who set you free. If Jesus can take a brash rough around the edge’s person like Peter, what could He do in you when you put your faith in action?

Don’t just be hears of the Word but Doers… Advance the Kingdom.