Text: Mark 2:1-13; Ephesians 3:14-21
**Audio from the morning worship is not available; this audio is from the same (mostly) sermon preached in the evening at Sharon Towers Vespers.
What’s the biggest thing you can imagine that God could do for you? Ponder that while I re-read the verse Zach ended up with in the children’s message.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
I pride myself on having a pretty good imagination, so this verse has always caught my attention. God is able to do more than I ask or think. And I believe that’s just what was going on in today’s story. Jesus claimed to have God-sized power and I want to look with you at that.
We are continuing in a series entitled “Life in Jesus’ Name” in which we are taking seriously Jesus’ admonition to “hold fast to my name.” In order to do that, we are looking at what Jesus said and did. Today’s text is especially significant because he did both: he did something extraordinary and then he taught and demonstrated the significance of it. Let’s look and pay close attention so we’ll know what we are holding fast to!
Access to Jesus (vv.1-5)
So the story opens. Now I need to say something that I feel like I say pretty frequently. There’s something here I never noticed before. I say that because I hope it’s encouraging to you that if I keep noticing new things every time I look at a Bible story, then there are still things for you to learn as well. That’s why I still go to Sunday school. That’s why I keep reading and studying the same stories over and over. There’s always more to discover!
So what is it this time? It’s in the first verse. Jesus had come back to Capernaum and it was heard that HE WAS AT HOME. Did you know that? He had a house in Capernaum! Now some scholars think it was Peter’s house and Jesus was just staying there. Others think it was his. Either way, I always picture Jesus wandering around with the band of disciples, maybe staying for a short time with friends like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. But this says “he was at home.” Any deep spiritual meaning to that? I don’t think so. But it is new information to me! Jesus had a home in Capernaum and was rooted, at least for a time, in that community. He had neighbors. He interacted on the waterfront. He went to the synagogue. He had a home and people knew where it was.
And crowds came to hear him. They filled the house to overflowing! The word had gotten out that Jesus was healing people. But interestingly on this particular occasion the text says that the house was filled to overflowing and Jesu was “speaking the word to them.” (v.2) Another new thing for me – I always assumed it was for healing but it doesn’t say that. In fact, I checked this story in Matthew and Luke as well. In each Jesus is TEACHING and they just try to get their friend near to Jesus. ) And four men made an opening in the roof in order that a fifth man who could not walk might be lowered down near Jesus.
And here’s the verse on which this whole story hinges: “And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” (v.5) There are two important things in that verse. One is a definition of faith. Faith is trusting, believing, acting; it is visible to Jesus and he notices it. And it is some way connected to what he does next. He could have just kept teaching. He could have healed the man, which is perhaps what many assumed he would do. But he says, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Have you ever given someone a present and they open it excitedly and have that awkward pause and then say “thank you,” but it’s clear they don’t know what it is they are looking at? That’s what I imagine here: not a wild, exuberant thank you for the forgiveness of sin; but a puzzled look as to what exactly this ‘gift’ is.
Sins Forgiven? (vv.6-9)
Here
