Jesus and Healing, pt3 (Mark 2:1-12) | 6/30/19
Mark 2:1-12 6/30/19 | Will DuVal
We’re in Mark ch2, vv1-12. And while you’re turning there in your Bibles, I’ll remind you, or if you’re new, catch you up to speed. We are working our way through the Gospel of Mark together in a series entitled “ROOTED”, and this morning is our final message in a mini-series within that series focused on the subject of healing. Physical healing. We’ve spent the past 2 Sundays now examining 8 different passages in Mark where we see Jesus miraculously heal people. And this morning, we’re gonna wrap up this topic by zooming in on just ONE story in particular, from Mark 2:1-12, and Jesus’ encounter with a paralytic.
But before we get rolling, I need to confess that I stole, or if you prefer, I “borrowed” my OUTLINE of this passage there in the bulletin, from a sermon David Platt preached back in April at the Gospel Coalition conference that a few of us attended together. So I’ll give credit where credit is due; I loved his sermon so much, and they say all the best ideas are stolen anyway, that ESPECIALLY preaching on a short week of preparation and sleep, his outline really helped me organize my OWN thoughts on this passage. So... thank God for David Platt too.
But with that said, would you stand with me as you’re able for the reading of God’s word...
MARK 2:1-12
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!” This is the word... Let’s pray..
So here IS Platt’s outline: in this passage, we find ONE central theme, driven by TWO urgent needs, which highlight THREE characteristics of Jesus, precipitated by FOUR faithful friends, ALL of which leads us to FIVE expectations in evangelism. Got that? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Here we go:
1 Central Theme: THE PRIMACY AND POWER OF JESUS’S WORD
THAT is the central theme of this passage, and indeed, ALL of Mark’s Gospel. This story is not primarily about physical healing, not primarily about community or the power of friendship, it’s not even mostly about the relative importance of spiritual vs. physical healing; more than ANYTHING, this is a story, about the primacy and power of Jesus’ word. Jesus’ word is primary – it is FIRST, it is ultimate, of ultimate importance – and it is powerful – it is authoritative, effective, transformative. THAT is central here.
That’s what has BEEN central in EVERY passage we’ve studied in Mark thus far; think back with me:
Mark 1 opened with Jesus’ baptism and anointing, where God publicly acknowledges that Jesus IS his beloved Son, with whom He is well-pleased; in other words: Christ IS God’s word INCARNATE. The word of John 1, who is SO primary, he was “in the beginning WITH God”, and who is SO powerful, that “all things were made THROUGH Him”.
Then we looked at the most important verse in the Bible, Mark 1:15, where Jesus articulates the gospel for us, this gospel that holds the “POWER of God for salvation for ALL who believe”, and Jesus not only defines the gospel, but Mark 1:14, he PROCLAIMS it. It is by the POWER and PRIMACY of Jesus’ word, that we have a gospel able to save us at all.
Then Jesus calls his disciples, in Mark 1:16-20. He LITERALLY “CALLS” them, “Hey – come follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men”, and the POWER of Jesus’ word proves PRIMARY in their hearts, such that we’re told “IMMEDIATELY, they dropped their nets and followed him”.
Then in vv21-28, Jesus’ first encounter with a DEMON, which launched us into a 2 week study of the 12 passages in Mark where Jesus tangles with demons, but in EVERY passage, what is primary? What is the POWER by which demons are cast out and conquered? Mark 1:27 “And the people were all amazed, saying, “What is this? A new teaching (his WORD) with authority (with POWER)! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”” It’s the power and primacy of Jesus’ word.
And time and time again, passage after passage, the takeaway for us from Mark’s Gospel is NOT “10 steps to physical healing”, is NOT “Strategies for overcoming the demons in YOUR life”, is NOT ANYTHING about what you and I have done, could do, or should do, but rather what JESUS has done FOR us by the power and primacy of His word.
HE speaks, and the demons flee.
HE speaks, and the blind regain their sight.
HE speaks, and the dead come to life.
THAT is the real story here. And the STAGE that is set here in particular in Mark 2, for the power and primacy of Jesus’ word to be on full display, is DRIVEN by the urgent needs of one unnamed paralyzed man...
2 Urgent Needs:
This man has an evident PHYSICAL need, but he has an even more ultimate SPIRITUAL need. Evident PHYSICAL need, ultimate SPIRITUAL need. We’ve seen THIS theme in Jesus’ other healing miracles as well – this idea that our physical well-being is IMPORTANT to Jesus, but not AS important as our SPIRITUAL health – NOWHERE is that theme more prominent than here in the story of the paralytic. Consider the scene: Imagine with me, that you are one of the man’s 4 friends here...
His PHYSICAL need is certainly evident to you. You have PRAYED for your poor friend for YEARS now. You’ve taken him to every physician and faith healer in the region. You are HEART-broken for him, stuck lying there, motionless all day long, utterly dependent on a few close friends like YOU for survival. And frankly, caring for HIS infirmity takes a toll on YOUR mental and emotional health as well. But then you catch wind of this traveling miracle-worker named Jesus. And you get word that he’s actually passing through Capernaum right NOW. So you rally your other friends, jerry-rig a quick mobile palate, and hustle as fast as you can manage to Jesus, bouncing and balancing your friend along the way. But when you arrive, you find the house is already PACKED, with people spilling out the door. You try pushing your way forward, but the crowd doesn’t budge. You start to lose hope, when one of the other friends hatches a hail-mary plan: what if we go DOWN through the ROOF?! In desperation, you HOIST your friend up, pull YOURSELVES up, and then go to work, digging through the layers of thatch and dried mud standing between your friend and Jesus. You hear shouts from below: “Hey, who’s up there? That’s my ROOF!” Jesus HIMSELF becomes so distracted by the dirt and straw falling on his head that he stops preaching. After a few minutes of feverish demolition, when the hole is big enough, you begin lowering your friend down to Jesus. By the time his mat rests on the floor, the crowd has grown silent. Jesus looks up at you, looks BACK down at your friend, as you anticipate the moment you’ve longed for since your friend’s diagnosis years ago. Jesus locks eyes with your friend... opens his mouth... and declares: “Take heart, Son, your SINS are forgiven.” Confused, you turn to look at your other friends. Did you mishear him? Did Jesus badly misread the situation here? Surely if he has the power to heal supernaturally, he’s got the common SENSE to see that you are NOT here to have your friend’s SINS forgiven! You cart him down to the Temple once a year for that. If you wanted his sins forgiven, you would have just offered a goat sacrifice to the local priest! No, YOU carried him all the way across town in the scorching Galilean sun for PHYSICAL healing. Because you believed the hype; that Jesus was Israel’s long-awaited Messiah of Isaiah 35 (vv5-6): the one through whom “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped; and the lame man shall leap like a deer”. But YOUR lame friend isn’t leaping for joy; he’s still laying there like a DEAD deer on the same old mat – maybe Jesus isn’t any different from all the other phony healers and charlatans out there after all. And while YOU are disappointed, you notice the looks on the faces of others down below, who appear to be OUTRAGED. But before you OR they can speak up to question Jesus, HE questions you first: “Don’t you realize that YOU are the ones misreading this situation? What is more difficult: for me to physically heal a few faulty muscles and nerve-endings, or to cancel an ETERNAL spiritual debt of separation from God, and reconcile a wretched, Hell-bound sinner with His holy, perfect Creator forever?” And after letting that bombshell sink in for a moment, Jesus says, “But just to PROVE it... Brother, go ahead, and stand up, take your mat, and walk home.” And. he. does.
The man’s physical healing from paralysis seems almost inconsequential in context here. In comparison to Jesus’ forgiveness of his sin. As Platt says, “All our physical suffering ultimately goes back to a spiritual source [anyway. The Fall in Genesis 3...] When sin entered the world, so did suffering and pain of all sorts... Our ultimate problem [therefore] is that we are separated from God by sin in a world that is full of suffering. So our ultimate need is not to be rid of our maladies but to be reconciled to our Maker.” And just in case the REST of the roof caves in and he’s only got time to heal one or the other, Jesus prioritizes the man’s ULTIMATE need first. To be reconciled to His Maker. Fortunately for the paralytic, Jesus is sovereign over ROOFS too, and the man leaps up like a deer after all.
Friends, do we believe that whatever physical needs are evident in our lives at this moment - for bodily health, for financial security, for material provision – do we REALLY believe that those are always only secondary to our ETERNAL, spiritual need? Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness as much as we hunger and thirst for that promotion? For another child? For the doctors to find a cure? If the ultimate source of all our problems is spiritual, the ultimate solution must be as well. THAT is the kind of healing we need, and THAT is exactly the kind of ultimate healing Jesus promises and offers us. How? Because Jesus has ultimate AUTHORITY. Specifically, we see his authority in THREE unique ways here:
3 Characteristics of Jesus:
#1 - His authority to READ HEARTS. Look back at vv6-8: The scribes don’t say a WORD. They don’t HAVE to. Mark says they “question in their HEARTS”, and that “Jesus perceived in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves”. This is that age-old “Would You Rather” question: would you rather have the power of invisibility, or be able to read minds? The correct answer is invisibility. You do NOT want to read my mind; we would not stay friends for long. And I LIKE to think I’m not that uniquely sinful and critical; you wouldn’t have ANY friends! Because we humans are a critical, hypocritical, judgmental, petty bunch. I think that had to be half of the anguish that Jesus experienced while he was on earth. Can you imagine being in the middle of delivering the most famous, momentous sermon in history, the Sermon on the Mount, preaching your heart and soul out, only to look over and supernaturally overhear Peter thinking to himself, “I wonder what we’re having for dinner tonight... ooh, I hope he multiplies some more of that sea bass, that was delicious...” Or healing someone, and then commanding her, “Don’t tell ANYONE about this”. But you can hear her thoughts out loud, and she’s saying to herself, “This is AMAZING!! Just wait til Matthew and Mark and Luke and John hear about this...” So you call her out: “You’re definitely going to disobey me and tell everyone you know about this, aren’t you?” And she lies right to your face: “No way, Jesus!” But you’re simultaneously reading her heart and it’s shouting “You BET I am, Jesus!” I mean, this would be AWFUL! But such was life, for the Son of God.
And Jesus STILL commands the authority to read hearts. 1 Samuel 16:7 “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”” I don’t know about you, but for me, the more difficult truth to believe ISN’T that Jesus has the power to forgive all our sins and bring us back into relationship with God the Father; the harder thing to believe is that he knows the depths of my heart and still WANTS to. I don’t struggle to accept Jesus’ ABILITY to forgive me; I struggle with his DESIRE to do so. And yet, because of JESUS, we can sing “it's not one or the other. It's hard truth and ridiculous grace. To be known fully known and loved by You”.#2 – Secondly, Jesus has the authority to HEAL SICKNESS. We’ve spent 3 weeks on this now, so I won’t beat a dead horse, but it bears reminding one last time, that even if I DID, Jesus could bring that dead horse back to life! Because he has all AUTHORITY not just over sickness and disease and physical death, but
#3 – His authority to FORGIVE SINS means he has power over SPIRITUAL death too; the separation our sin previously caused between us and God. As Platt says, “The [irony is, the] scribes were right! Only God CAN forgive sins. Yet what they failed to see was that God, in the flesh, was standing right in front of their eyes. And this is the good news of the Bible, the greatest news in all the world. God has not left sinners alone in a world of sin and suffering. God himself has come to us. [Jesus] lived the life we could not live, [...died the death we deserve] for our sins. And... rose from the grave in victory over sin and death. And now, he offers reconciliation TO God for anyone, anywhere who repents and believes in him. This is the gospel.
Yet sadly, it is not the gospel that is being preached in many places around the world. ...There are so many places where a false gospel is being proclaimed that if you believe in Jesus, you will be healed of all your diseases now. That if you trust in Jesus, you’ll be free of your sicknesses today. It is not the gospel, because the gospel is much, much better news than that. The gospel is not going to Africa and saying, “Trust in Jesus, and your HIV/AIDS will be gone.” The gospel is not going to America and saying, “Trust in Jesus and your cancer will be gone.” The gospel is going anywhere and everywhere in the world and saying, “Trust in Jesus, and your sins will be gone.” ... Forgiveness is God’s greatest gift because it meets our greatest need.”
4 - Which bring us to FOUR faithful friends. And this might be the most SHOCKING part of the entire passage for us today, as Protestants living in a hyper-individualized culture. I wrote a whole term paper in Divinity school on this one pronoun in v5: autwn – “THEIR”. “When Jesus saw whose faith? THEIR faith... he said to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”. Any way you slice it, this is TOUGH for us evangelical Christians to explain theologically. We have been taught to believe that when it comes to the faith required for the forgiveness of our sins, it’s every man for himself. That no one else’s faith has ANY bearing on your standing with Christ; there’s no such thing as being “born a Christian”; the choice to receive or reject Jesus is a personal, INDIVIDUAL one that every person must make for him or herself. So why does Jesus, in EVERY version - Matthew, Mark, AND Luke’s accounts of this same story - look upon “THEIR” faith before forgiving the paralytic’s sins? Obviously his own personal faith must be INCLUDED here in Jesus’ “their”, but that STILL doesn’t explain what the friends’ faith has to do with his forgiveness; why the plural pronoun?
I think the takeaway for us has to be that our faith MATTERS in others’ lives. In really, REALLY important ways. Like, forgiveness of SINS ways. We have to be careful here; I’m not saying that my faith can save my 3 year old daughter. But at a minimum, it seems clear here that if and WHEN my daughter eventually comes to a saving faith in Jesus OF her own, it will NOT be ON her own. Did you get that? Ellery’s future relationship with Jesus will be a faith OF her own, but not ON her own. Friends, OUR faith can DEEPLY affects that of others. And how did the faith of these 4 friends affect the paralytic?
First, their faith was CONFIDENT. I can imagine the paralytic might have given up believing long ago that he would EVER be healed, but when he saw how CONVINCED his friends were that Jesus was able to help him, I imagine that gave HIM new hope as well.
Second, their faith was COMPASSIONATE. I can imagine the paralytic may have also felt some GUILT about this whole thing. He must KNOW how much trouble he is ALREADY is to his friends, and the idea of them carting him all the way across town may have left him feeling like such a BURDEN. Until his friends bent down and looked him in his crying eyes and said, “We don’t HAVE to do this for you; we WANT to do this. Because we LOVE you, brother.” Their compassion MOVED this man to faith.
Their faith was CREATIVE. The great LENGTHS to which they went when their original plan was foiled must have inspired even FURTHER faith in the paralytic. When they arrive at the house, and he couldn’t see Jesus over the crowds, I imagine the paralytic closing his eyes in defeat... when NEXT thing he knows his heart jumps in his throat as he’s HOISTED high in the air and DROPPED onto the roof. To see your friends literally tearing the ROOF off the place to get you to Jesus must have made him believe, “Maybe, just maybe, this is actually going to work!”
And finally, their faith was CONTAGIOUS. I imagine myself being lowered down on my mat, and looking up into the faces of my friends... and seeing the HOPE on their faces... the anticipation of what Jesus is about to do. And it finally erases any last shred of doubt left in me. Their hope is contagious. I catch their faith.
5 - And it is this corporate, contagious quality of faith that leads us to FIVE Expectations in evangelism. Most Christians don’t read this story as a commentary on evangelism. But if our faith can indeed affect others’ faith in such a profound way, we would be remiss NOT to point out the implications this story should have for our own sharing of the gospel.
First, we ought to meet SPIRITUAL needs by PROCLAIMING JESUS’ WORD. In our relationships with unbelievers, we must remember that their physical, emotional, relational needs are ALL important, but they are NOT most important. What your unbelieving sister, who is cheating on her spouse and living in open rebellion of God’s law and the sanctity of marriage, needs most from you is NOT your marital advice; she needs JESUS! What your unbelieving cousin, who just got diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, needs MOST from you is not your sympathetic, listening ear; he needs JESUS. What your unbelieving co-worker, who is weird, and kind of a social outcast in the office, what she needs MOST from you is NOT your friendship, she needs JESUS. That doesn’t mean we don’t also give marital advice, lend a listening ear, befriend the outcast, buy the homeless man lunch, pray for physical healing; it just means we realize that ALL these things are only secondary to the REAL need, the DEEPEST need, if this person does not know Christ. Because NO ONE comes to the Father BUT through Him, John 14:6, and “How will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?[c] And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ...So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Rom 10:14-17). So friends, let us make the proclamation of the word of CHRIST primary and powerful in our lives. Like the paralytic’s friends, let us share OUR faith with confidence, compassion, creativity, and contagiousness.
Second, we meet PHYSICAL needs by EMBODYING JESUS’ LOVE. Maybe you’ve heard that famous quote: “Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” The point being that actions speak louder than words; you should live the gospel out and let your actions do the talking. The problem is that the gospel isn’t a lifestyle. The gospel is literally “good news”. It is an announcement, a proclamation. So you can be as nice as you want to that office co-worker, and hope that she sees a difference in you and Christ’s love shines through you, etc. etc. etc., and we SHOULD do that, because embodying Jesus’ love for people incarnationally, by meeting physical, emotional, relational needs – feeding the hungry, caring for the downtrodden, that is all PROFOUNDLY biblical and important and good, and it really is true that “people don’t care how much you know til they know how much you care”, and so MOST of the time evangelism happens most effectively ANYWAY on the tail end of meeting someone’s physical need. So we do things like SERVE week as a church, and meet physical needs at Bridge of Hope, meet relational needs at Delmar Gardens... but we still look for opportunities to PREACH the gospel. With words. Not just “when necessary, but whenever POSSIBLE”. A mentor of mine told me once, “I think most Christians approach to evangelism is to wait until the Holy Spirit opens a door to share the gospel that is so BLATANT and UNDENIABLE that NOT to follow Jesus’ call here to preach the good news would OBVIOUSLY be sin. Like, we will not share until someone LITERALLY ASKS us, “What is Christianity all about?” And we hide behind the excuse that “the Holy Spirit didn’t explicitly call me to share”. When in reality, BIBLICALLY, it sure seems like Paul’s approach, for instance, was “I’m gonna preach the gospel UNLESS the Holy Spirit explicitly tells me NOT to. I’m going to ASSUME that if I’m not sure whether or not this person knows Jesus, and without Him they CANNOT inherit eternal life through the forgiveness of their sins, I’ll just ASSUME God wants me to share unless I hear otherwise.” THAT ought to be our mentality, friends. THAT mental shift will revolutionize your personal evangelism. Which is #3...
Persevere in PERSONAL evangelism, full of FAITH. The great Charles Spurgeon said: “Brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” Here’s how Platt puts it: “Persevere in faith that is confident in the power of the gospel to save. We talk much of the challenges of evangelism in our age, and they are indeed many. But I want to exhort us to be full of faith that when we bring Jesus and the lost together, he will show his power to save... We will not prove faithful if we talk more about how hard the ground is than we talk about how great the gospel is. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, and Jesus will show his power when we share his Word. So let’s persevere in confident, compassionate, loving, creative faith. We strategize and plan for so many things. We strategize and plan for worship services in the church. What’s the order going to be? We plan programming in the church.” This is Will now, not Platt - I spent a full 30 seconds coordinating my outfit this morning! I will admit to you, that is 30 seconds LONGER than I have strategized and planned for how I’m going to share Jesus with my unbelieving friends and family members today.” Let’s bring confidence – the gospel is greater than the ground is hard – let’s bring compassion – if someone you loved was skydiving and getting ready to jump out of the plane and forgot to strap on their parachute, it might embarrass them a LITTLE for you to point that out; there MAY be a fleeting moment of awkwardness. But I bet they would be glad you RISKED that slight awkwardness to save their life! Friends, do not let the world convince you that “OFFENDING” people has any place in this discussion about evangelism. Are they going to Hell without Jesus or not? That’s the only question that matters. Let’s bring CREATIVITY – re-allocate some of our planning and strategizing time towards personal evangelism, and lastly, let’s make our faith CONTAGIOUS. Do unbelievers WANT the kind of life that you and I have? Do they look at our lives and say, “I want a life like THAT”? And when you do ALL that, and they STILL don’t believe, persevere, press on, keep sowing gospel seeds. God is not done with them yet.
Fourth, Persevere in GLOBAL missions, focused on THE UNREACHED. I wish I’d saved more time here, but this is a topic for further, later discussion, especially with our missions team. Japan needs missionaries. Brazil needs missionaries. Sweden needs missionaries. But over 2 billion people, almost a THIRD of the world’s population still has NO access to the gospel today. They may live 40, 50, 60 years and die and literally have never even HEARD the name of Jesus. “how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?[”. Who’s gonna go to them? Are we?
And Finally, Never lose HOPE. Because while our confidence and our compassion ought to motivate our evangelism, we can REST in the hope that NO ONE’s salvation lies ultimately in our hands. Their eternal destinies are OUT of our hands, but they lie in hands MUCH bigger than ours. Hands that are ABLE to save, and Micah 7:18, hands that DELIGHT in showing mercy. And so we never lose hope. Because if he saved a wretch like ME, he can save a wretch like YOU too. Amen? Let’s pray...