The Authority to Forgive Sin

INTRO

Our one word for Jesus in the book of Mark is Servant, to help us understand Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many.” In Mark 1, Jesus’ early success emerged as people began to show up at His door to seek healing and the casting out of demons. However, with favor and success usually comes opposition. In Mark 2, that opposition begins.

TEACHING

Mark 2:1-4: Jesus returned to His headquarters after having been away for a while (v. 1). So many people gathered to hear Jesus teach that it was standing room only (v. 2). Then four men arrived who were “almost frantic to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus so Jesus would heal him.”¹They didn’t care about the crowd and found a way to get their friend through the roof above Jesus’ head (v. 4). MacArthur explains that most first-century homes had flat roofs where the inhabitants could rest during the day and sleep on hot nights that were accessed by external staircases. The roof would have been built with wet clay over slabs of dried clay to seal the roof against rain coming through. “The paralytic’s friends took him up to the top of such a house and dug out the top coat of clay. . . until they made enough room to lower him down into Jesus’ presence.”²The four friends were so concerned about the paralytic that they didn’t care how much work it took or how much damage was created as they brought their friend to Jesus. Wiersbe said that the friends didn’t just pray for their friend, “they did not permit the difficult circumstances to discourage them.”³

Mark 2:5-7: When the friends broke through the roof, they lowered the paralytic down to Jesus. He looked down at the man lying before Him and said, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (v. 5). The Jews believed that any disease or affliction was caused by some sin. But, in John 9:1-3, Jesus clearly stated that this belief was not true. How completely does God forgive repentant sinners? MacArthur provides five verses that show how much God can forgive sin:

• Psalm 103:12: God removes transgressions as far as the east is from the west.
• Isaiah 38:17: God will cast sins behind His back.
• Isaiah 43:25: God remembers sins no more.
• Micah 7:19: He casts sins into the depths of the sea.
• Colossians 2:13-14: God nailed a certificate marked “paid in full” to the cross.4

Some of us don’t believe that God can completely remove our sins because they are so huge or so many. But God forgives them all!

The scribes (lawyers) had the responsibility to check out these new teachings to make sure they were biblically correct. They heard Jesus forgive the paralytic’s sins and they heard blasphemy. Either they didn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah, or they did not believe that the Messiah could forgive sin. Constable points out that the scribes and Pharisees would later condemn “Jesus to death for what they considered blasphemy.”⁵(Mark 14:61-64). The accusation of blasphemy always led to trouble.

Wiersbe says that Jesus looked down on the body of the paralyzed man, looked around at the scribes and Pharisees who had come to spy, and looked within “to the critical spirit in their hearts and knew that they were accusing Him of blasphemy.”⁶Jesus understood with the “omniscient mind of the Savior”⁷what they were thinking (v. 8). In verse 9, Jesus asked which was easier—to say your sins are forgiven or to say pick up your mat. In some contexts, it would be easier to say the sins are forgiven because it can’t be proven. Jesus then told the paralytic to pick up his mat and go home to prove that He had authority to forgive sin (vv. 10-11). There’s tension in proving who Jesus is. The paralytic immediately got up and left the room while the others watched (v. 12). Most of the people there wanted to see a miracle from God.

Mark 2:13: Jesus went out again by the sea and the crowd came to Him and He taught them. What you’re going to see is that everything just continues to take off.

The title Son of Man, in verse 10, points to the picture of Jesus as a Servant. MacArthur states that “Jesus used this term for Himself to emphasize His humiliation.”⁸With the title Son of Man, Jesus was saying that He was with His hearers and that He was a part of them. The title implies that Jesus was both the divine Messiah and the representative of man. Son of Man was used 14 times in the book of Mark alone. Over time, the Son of Man will show His suffering (Mark 2:28; 8:31, 38; 13:26, 32).

CLOSING

“So, from the very beginning of the story Jesus walks a tightrope—under constant threat—and must evade incriminating charges until the right time. His narrow escape from such a serious charge (blasphemy) early in the story contributes significantly to the tension and suspense in this conflict.”⁹Jesus was constantly working out His humanity and His divinity. In this story of the paralytic, Jesus put Himself into an environment where He could bring about physical healing but restore spiritually as well. The Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive the sins of man. People wanted to be around the Servant, the Son of Man, who could set them free.

Here’s my request for this lesson: If you’re the paralytic in this story, reach out to friends and let them know you need help. If you’re the friend in this story, reach out to someone who is hurting and let them know you’re there for them. That’s how we begin to understand the Son of Man as the Servant.