Mark 2:1-5

Mark 2:1-2 – 1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.

When Jesus entered Capernaum again, the crowds all came, wanting to see him and what he would do. He began to preach the word to them, that being the reason he was there. So many people packed into the house that there wasn’t any room inside or outside the door.

Mark 2:3-5 – 3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4Since 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. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

There was a paralytic who had four friends that wanted to bring him to Jesus. I am sure they were hoping that Jesus would heal him, just as he had healed others. The place where Jesus was preaching was so packed that they couldn’t get near him, so they went up on the roof of the house, dug a hole in the roof, and lowered their friend down to Jesus. I love this story. This is wild. Can you see this? These guys hear that Jesus is back in town, and they decide they have to get their friend to Jesus, believing that Jesus can heal him. If you need to be healed, it would be a good thing to have four friends like these guys. They didn’t let anything stand in their way. They knew they had to get their friend to Jesus…so he could be healed. How many of us are like these four crazy friends? How many of us would climb up on the roof and dig a hole and lower a mat to get a friend to Jesus? Anyway, these guys are standing outside the house, they can’t get close, and one of them probably gets an idea. This is the crazy friend. There is usually one in every group. This is the buddy that’s been arrested a time or two. He always has some wild idea that could possibly get everyone in trouble, but he’s passionate. Maybe he hatched this plan and had to convince the others that it would work. Anyway, these guys climb up on the roof of the house, somehow hoist their paralytic friend up there, and they dig a hole in the roof. This house was probably made of mud with wood supports, and branches on the roof. This wasn’t like they removed a panel or something. These guys dug a hole through the roof. I can imagine being someone inside the house, listening to Jesus, and then dirt from the ceiling starts falling on your head. You begin to hear a commotion up above. Then more dirt starts falling, and you are seeing sky and hands as this hole emerges in the roof. It gets bigger and bigger, and the next thing you know, a guy is being lowered down through the hole into the house. Can you imagine if this was your house? What the heck? They just dug a hole through my roof! This is wild! Anyway, there is no room in the house, so people begin to pack even closer together to make space for this guy on the mat that is being lowered. He finally reaches the ground, and now everyone can see that he is paralyzed. His friends are still on the roofed, anxiously peering down through the hole, waiting to see wait would happen.

This is where Jesus enters the scene. The scripture says Jesus saw their faith and said “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Wow! That’s huge! Why in the world does Jesus say this? I think there are a lot of reasons. Let’s start with this one. Here was a man who came to be healed. He obviously had significant physical problems. He was a paralytic. He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t take care of himself. He had extreme physical needs. He came to Christ to be healed. By telling him his sins were forgiven, Jesus is saying, “Yes, you need to be healed, but there is something more important than your physical condition.” Jesus spoke to his spiritual condition, and the greater need he had to have his sins forgiven. This is huge! Despite all of his physical needs, what he truly needed was to be forgiven! What a lesson for all of the people in the crowd. I don’t know what Jesus was preaching on at the time, but I have to believe this was an awesome illustration for his sermon. Here in one sentence, he speaks volumes. “Son, your sins are forgiven.” He healed his greatest need, and demonstrated to the crowd their need as well, to have their sins forgiven.

Okay, what’s another reason that Jesus said this? I believe that Jesus had been waiting for an opportunity to confront the religious leaders and the teachers of the law. We see in the next few verses how this plays out. Jesus was demonstrating his authority again, and we will get into that in a minute.

One more thing…verse 5 says, “when Jesus saw their faith…” he acted. We are saved through faith. In Luke 7:50, after telling a woman that her sins were forgiven, Jesus tells here that her faith saved her. Ephesians 2:8 tells us we are saved through faith. Faith saves. When Jesus saw their faith, he forgave sins.