Forgiven

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

FORGIVEN

Mark 2:1-5

2:1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." 

NIV

We will get to the rest of the story, page two, so to speak, but for now, let us simply consider the depth to which friends went to get this paralytic in front of Jesus. When Mark said that Jesus entered Capernaum and the people heard that he had come home. We know that Nazareth was the place of his first home, but as it has been said that he was not welcomed or accepted as the Messiah in his own town, he went to Capernaum to make that his base of operations, if we could call it that. Nevertheless, upon his arrival, the crowds gathered, most likely in the courtyard of the home he was staying in. The crowd was so large no one else could get close enough to see or even hear Jesus. Mark tells us that Jesus used this opportunity to preach the word to them. Now, what exactly Mark meant by the word, we would have to gather was about the kingdom of God, or at least about how to live as if the kingdom was at hand. We have to remember he used a lot of parables to talk about how the kingdom of God was different than the present world system, as well as he taught about life itself, such as what we call the beatitudes. Again, we should take our cue from how Jesus lived, that is if we are followers of Jesus. Sometimes, it seems we spend a whole lot of time thinking about the way we should live as if by some laws, or rules and regulations, regarding the do’s and don’ts that are so often thought to be the way we follow Jesus. But Jesus was not concerned about those things as much as he was about the souls of men. Although, he did speak about the attitudes and the love we should have in living with each other. However, here we are not sure exactly of his words, but we are sure of the subject matter. Now to the depth of friendship. There was no way these four men were going to be able to carry their friend through the crowd. Now, that is saying something about the crowd. These people wanted to be near Jesus, but it appears all out of selfishness, not being concerned about anyone else. So these guys lifted their friend up onto the roof somehow and began removing a portion of what is most likely a thatch roof. Somehow, again, we are not told, they had gotten some rope and lowered their friend on the mat that he was laying on right down in front of Jesus. How ingenious was that? Where there is a will that has to be a way. So here this man gets lowed right in front of Jesus and He notices how much faith in Him those four men and this man had in order to go through all that effort to get in front of him. Now because of the rest of the story, and we know that Jesus knew in his spirit what the teachers of the law were thinking, we have to think that Jesus was setting it all up by not simply healing this man by telling him to get up, pick up and mat and walk, but to tell him his sins are forgiven. Now, some might want to make hay with the fact that the reason he was a paralytic was because of his sins. But, let’s be real here, we all are sinners saved by grace. We all have sinned and not all of us are paralytic because of our sin, and we would have to agree that sin is sin and we cannot put degrees on sin and say this man’s sin had to be worse than ours. So, it comes down to Jesus making a point that he has the power, the authority to forgive sin. When we come to Jesus he forgives our sin. It is that simple. Now, as Paul said, should we continue to sin so that grace may abound, God forbid. But the point still remains, that when we do, not if we do, that Jesus has the power and the desire to forgive our sin, to make us clean, to present us to himself as holy and blameless in His sight. That man became just that at that very moment, holy and blameless in His sight because he was forgiven.