What Do You See?
Text: Mark 2:1-12
Proposition: Learning to see what Jesus sees is how we become fishers of men, disciples who look like and look at their Master, Jesus Messiah.
Introduction: I was looking at a web site this week that was called Judaism 101. I wanted to see what Jews both now and in times past believed about the Messiah. Let me quote to you from that site, “Although some scholars believed that G-d has set aside a specific date for the coming of the mashiach, most authority suggests that the conduct of mankind will determine the time of the mashiach's coming. In general, it is believed that the mashiach will come in a time when he is most needed (because the world is so sinful), or in a time when he is most deserved (because the world is so good). For example, each of the following has been suggested as the time when the mashiach will come:
- if Israel repented a single day;
- if Israel observed a single Shabbat properly;
- if Israel observed two Shabbats in a row properly;
- in a generation that is totally innocent or totally guilty;
- in a generation that loses hope;
They believe the Mashiach (the Messiah) will repatriate the tribes of Israel back to the land, reestablish the Davidic line of kingly rule, usher in a time of prosperity, be a mighty military leader, reestablish Temple worship and bring all together to worship G-D, both Jew and Gentile. What is not mentioned is any reference to the Mashiach having power to heal anybody or in any way forgiving people of their sin. That’s particularly significant for us this morning since that is what the account we are about to read is all about, forgiveness of sin and healing by One who taught that He is the Messiah. Have a look at Mark 2:1-12 with me.
I. The Main Purpose For Jesus Coming to Earth Was to Preach.
That might seem wrong when we first hear it but when you consider what Jesus had told Peter just days earlier it is clear. Look at Mark 1:38, “But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.” So as we begin Mark 2 it shouldn’t surprise us that what Jesus saw as of first importance was not healing people but rather teaching and preaching to them. He returns to Capernaum and is there just a short while before the word spreads that Jesus is back in town. In the parallel account Luke 5:17 says , “And it came to pass on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.” The miracles that Jesus did were always in support of the words He preached. So here in Capernaum are Pharisees and doctors of the Law from all over the place and in such a number that they had already begun to fill up the house. What I believe is happening is that there is a belief spreading amongst the people that Jesus is the Messiah, the long awaited One who would fulfill all that prophecy had said regarding Him. So that is the immediate context, that Jesus was doing what He had come to earth to do, to preach to the people the truth about the Messiah, about the kingdom of God, the truth about sin and what God really required. And on this day it was the scribes and Pharisees and doctors of the Law that the power of the Lord was especially present to heal.
You can almost hear Jesus preach what the writer of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews10:5,7, “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me…. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me—To do Your will, O God.’ “ This was the reason why the house was filled with Pharisees because of Jesus claims to be the Anointed One, the Messiah. This was also the reason why the people were packed to the walls right to the door and into the street. And I’d submit to you this same preaching is why five men made their way towards the crowd. Healing was a present hope but their hearts burned for news of the Messiah especially if This was He. They came especially to hear Jesus preach!
II. Faith Works, It Carries, It Climbs, It Digs, It Risks, It Lays at Jesus Feet.
Things move quickly with Mark. In two verses the four men carry the paralyzed man to the house then around and up the stairs to the roof and when they know they are just above where Jesus stands they put their friend down and begin to dig a hole through the mud roof. I think faith works one step at a time… if I can just get close, if I can just hear, if I can just see, if He could just see me. I don’t know if they intended from the very start to do whatever it takes to get to where Jesus was, maybe. It might have been just to get closer to Jesus but whatever the process, faith works, it moves. It lifts others, it carries and climbs, it is willing to even take things apart in order to make a way for those who can’t make a way. I’ve wondered about what all that must have looked like. Could Jesus hear them digging through the mud and branches of the roof? They hadn’t come expecting to lower the man down, where did they get ropes from? Did they just lower him through a small hole big enough to get the foot of the bed through? Did the others below reach up to help take the weight and lower the man down? What did Jesus think as He stopped preaching and watched all this happen? What did the Pharisees see, what did the people see, what did the paralytic see? Look at verse 5, “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” How did Jesus see their faith? I would say that He not only saw into their hearts but He also saw what they did and how they did it. He saw their faith.
I can imagine Jesus looking up into the faces of the men still on the roof, perhaps sheepishly looking down into the room. Then Jesus looks down into the face of the paralyzed man, the room goes dead still, a ray of sun cuts through the settling dust. Jesus, who is about 30 years of age at this point, looks at the paralytic and says to the even younger man at His feet, ‘Son your sins are forgiven you.” Again silence, the men above leaning in, what were they thinking? The crowd that could see and even the crowd out into the street who were getting third hand reports, what were they thinking? We know what the Pharisees were thinking, Verses 6, 7 say, “And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ‘Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” In case we miss the obvious Jesus points it out in verses 8, 9, “But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’?” Likely what they thought was seeing is believing, ‘We can’t see sins forgiven but we can see this man still laying there in the dirt.’ In other words, to answer Jesus question, ‘It’s easier to say your sins are forgiven because we can’t see if it really happened.’ It’s easier to say that but it is infinitely harder to do it. You’d need to be infinite in power, infinite in holiness, infinite in authority and even infinite in mercy. Only God can forgive sins for all sin is ultimately against God. And that is exactly Jesus point, that is what He has been preaching, that is what the Messiah came to do, to take away the sin of the world by taking it upon Himself. I like how Luke describes things, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” First comes forgiveness, the paralytic knew it the moment Jesus said it. Though none could see it the paralyzed man received it and knew it. Then after faith to be forgiven comes the command, “Arise and take up your bed and walk.” Luke describes the man as he makes his way through the crowd that day, carrying the bed that had once carried him, “Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.” What the Scriptures had said about the Messiah were being fulfilled right before their eyes, the kingdom has come and is coming even as Isaiah had said, (Isa. 61:1)
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;”
Communion
Dr. Charles Lee Feinberg, was Professor of Semitics and Old Testament at two theological seminaries – Dallas and Talbot. He took the Bible verses from Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12, which point to the Messiah and particularly to the way the Jews would one day sit before Jesus and not see Who He really is, the Mashiach. This is his paraphrase of Isaiah:
“Which ones of us believed the report made to us? To which ones of us did the mighty power of God disclose itself? So few of us, because He appeared so lacking in promise: He had no outward attraction that our carnal hearts could then delight in. So we desired Him not, with the result that He was despised and cut off from our company, knowing only griefs and pains, as we went our way, turning our gaze from Him.
But, marvel of it all, He was bearing and enduring our sorrows and our griefs, and all the while we thought He was being stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted because He was so sinful, and we were so good.
No. He was smitten because we were so sinful, for He was wounded because we had transgressed the Law and will of God: He was crushed to death because of our iniquitous ways; the scourge of God was upon Him, so that we might have spiritual healing and peace with God.
We all went senselessly on in our sins, deliberately and willfully, and God caused to come upon Him, as an avalanche, the sins of us all.
What oppressions and merciless treatment He suffered, yet He endured them so patiently and submissively. And yet we did not lay it to heart, that He was suffering all this because it was due us.”