What is your most basic need? Food? Shelter? Someone to care for you? The paralyzed man might have spoken of the ability to move, to walk. But after his encounter with Jesus he would have told you of an even deeper need which had been met.
Trust the power of Jesus. Listen to the Word. The news of Jesus healing the leper kept him out in lonely places for a time, but Mark has slowed his pace of narrative slightly. There is a pause of a few days before Jesus reenters Capernaum. But now he goes into a house and begins to speak the word to the people. He is preaching or teaching, but the language reflects the expression in the Old Testament, “the word of the Lord came to….” Only this time, Jesus is not merely a conduit for the word, he is the One speaking. As we saw last week in Mark 1:38, Jesus focused on his preaching ministry as the heart of his messianic work at this point in his public ministry. The word, not miracles, take center stage. Perhaps we overlook that emphasis as we read Mark 2:1–12, as our attention jumps to Jesus’ interaction with the paralyzed man. Jesus is preaching. Crowds fill the room and likely cluster around the house. Present are local scribes, teachers of the law.
Believe in the power of Jesus. The men who carried the paralyzed man trusted Jesus. They knew Jesus’ power and compassion. They allowed no obstacle to keep them from the Christ. Jesus recognized their faith—that of the man and his friends—and forgave the man’s sins. Jesus calls you to trust him. God the Holy Spirit is calling you to recognize Jesus’ power and to trust him.
“Faith is the practical (not purely reasoning) recognition on the part of a man that the saving work of the Kingdom is exclusively a divine work…. Faith presupposes knowledge, because it needs a mental complex, person or thing, to be occupied about. Therefore, the whole modern idea of preaching Jesus, but preaching Him without a creed, is not only theologically, not merely Scripturally, but psychologically impossible in itself…. The very names by means of which Jesus would have to be presented to people are are nuclei of creed and doctrine.”
Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology, pages 414–415
“Here Mark unveils what lies at the heart of the gospel: men need forgiveness; Jesus gives it. The degree to which you see your own need of that forgiveness is the measure of how clearly you understand the gospel.”
Sinclair B. Ferguson, Let’s Study Mark, p. 27
All of us, like the paralyzed man, are sinners in need of forgiveness. Come to Jesus in faith. You have examined your life this past week. You certainly have not found yourself sinless. But if your trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ, he invites you to his table. Your coming to the Lord’s Table is an expression of trust in your unseen Lord. The forgiving work of Christ is sealed to you in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The sacrament is a memorial, and it does express your faith. But God also speaks in and even through the Lord’s Supper. He is assuring you that Christ’s death is for you, that his saving work is as real as the bread you eat and the fruit of the vine you drink. This is not something automatic, mechanical, or magical. It is only as you are united by faith to the Savior that this forgiveness is yours. But, for those who do trust him, it is hard to see a more powerful way for God to say, “Your sins are forgiven” than for him to invite you to fellowship at his table.
Praise God, because the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins! Recognize Jesus as the Son of Man. Jesus calls himself, “the Son of Man,” almost always a self-description by Jesus. The Son of Man is the Messianic king. The title may seem to be one of humiliation, but Jesus uses it to claim divine authority. “Messiah” had taken on civic and political overtones with which Jesus did not want to be associated. This term is messianic, but had not acquired the same associations. The source is Daniel 7:13, 14.
“By calling Himself the Son of man Jesus imparted to the Messiahship His own heaven-centered spirit. And the height to which He thus lifted His Person and His work may well have had something to do with the hesitancy of His early followers to name Him with this greatest and most celestial of all titles.” (
Geerhardus Vos, The Self-Disclosure of Jesus, p 254
Trust him to to forgive your sins. Christ showed his authority by healing the paralyzed man. He understood the thoughts of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. He healed the man and sent him home. Mark confronts you with the Christ who has the compassion, the power, and the authority to forgive your sins. He calls you to trust him. That is a call that you need, not only if you are lost in sin, but also if you are a sheep who has followed the Good Shepherd for years. Keep on trusting the Savior! The blessedness of forgiveness that David experienced in Psalm 32 is yours—for you know the Lord. Praise God! Understand the claim Jesus makes. He presents himself as far more than a rabbi, far more than a great teacher, far more than a compassionate healer of the needy. He presents himself as the Son of Man, the divine, Messianic king. Praise God, for you have seen wonderful things. Those in the crowded house that day did see remarkable things. You have seen something even more remarkable—for you know the crucified and risen Lord. You know his power to forgive.
Come, not because you are perfect, but because you are a forgiven sinner—who continues to need Christ’s forgiveness.