Exploring My Strange Bible - I am who I am Part 4: Who Can Forgive Sins?

Episode Date: November 15, 2017

In this episode we’re exploring the story of Jesus. We’re going to explore the version from the Gospel of Mark. Jesus fundamentally redefines his understanding of God by his acts of forgiveness and healing. How does forgiveness reveal something fundamental about God’s heartbeat? We address this question and more in this episode.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right, well, this is the fourth of a 10-part series we're doing called I Am Who I Am. These were teachings that I contributed a number of years ago to a series we did at Door of Hope Church. We took months to just stop and explore the scriptures cover to cover and rediscover the portrait of God's character told in the story of the Bible and in the story of Jesus.

told in the story of the Bible and in the story of Jesus. We're in this section exploring a story of Jesus, one of my favorite, because it was actually really influential on me personally in helping me rediscover who God was and God's fundamental character towards me. It's the story of Jesus forgiving the paralyzed man who is lowered down on ropes through a hole in the roof by his friends is such an amazing story. But also the context, we are going to explore the version from the Gospel of Mark and the way he frames that Jesus has the power to make him well. What Jesus does is fundamentally redefine his understanding of God by his act of forgiveness and healing. How does forgiveness reveal something fundamental about God's heartbeat for our world? And that's what we're going to explore in this story.

So I hope it's helpful for you and let's go for it. I invite you to grab a Bible, your own, grab your Bible and turn to the gospel of Mark with me. Mark chapter 1, just the first page. Last week we looked at the first page of the New Testament and now we're looking at the first page of the second book of the New Testament. And we're right square reaching the middle of the series that we're in that we started when we started gathering here in the Northeast building here. And we're doing this long exploration of the unique identity and the character of the Christian God. As the disciple of Jesus, what do I mean when I say the word God? And the reason we're doing this, it's kind of born out of this conviction that the word God

is a very sloppy, ambiguous word in American English or in Western English. And so when, as a follower of Jesus, when I use that word, I'm not talking about the big guy upstairs or whatever that my neighbor thinks of, or I'm not talking about some old man in the sky. When I use the word God, I'm not talking about the same God that gets invoked in kind of American public religion or something like that. For a Christian, the word God has a very specific meaning, and that meaning is totally bound up and woven up with Jesus and who Jesus is. And so we took a month to explore God's character as God the Father. We're taking now a month leading up to Easter to explore the character of God through, we're doing

this long exploration of the unique identity and the character of the Christian God. As the disciple of Jesus, what do I mean when I say the word God? And the reason we're doing this, it's kind of born out of this conviction that the word God is a very sloppy, ambiguous word in American English or in Western English. And so, as a follower of Jesus, when I use that word, I'm not talking about the big guy upstairs or whatever that my neighbor thinks of, or I'm not talking about some old man in the sky. When I use the word God, I'm not talking about the same God that gets invoked in kind of American public religion or something like that. For a Christian, the word God has a very specific meaning, and that meaning is totally bound up and woven up with Jesus and who Jesus is. And so we took a month

to explore God's character as God the Father. We're taking now a month leading up to Easter to explore the character of God through us and Jesus. And so we're going to explore what I think is one of the most beautiful, important stories about Jesus today in the Gospel of Mark. Actually in chapter 2, but you know with me, you can't ever just do the passage you're going to focus on. You have to talk about everything all at once, right? So Mark chapter 1. Let's just dive into the first sentence and see where the rabbit hole will lead us. Mark chapter 1. lead us. Mark chapter 1. The beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, a voice of one calling in the wilderness.

Prepare the way for the Lord and make straight paths for him. End quote. And so begins Mark's gospel. And we're all like, oh, yes. Oh, Isaiah 40. Oh, brilliant, really good, Mark. Okay, let's get going. So, no, that's never the case with us, right? Because we didn't grow up in Jesus' family where the family scriptures, what we call the Old Testament

scriptures, you're like, you're raised on these stories and these poems from the time you're a little child. And so what Mark is doing, you remember last week, Mark wants to introduce Jesus to you, just the same thing that Matthew did, which is first make this claim that Jesus didn't just like drop out of nowhere. He came and what he's doing is a climactic moment in a long story that leads up to this moment. And that long story is Jesus' family story. So do you remember if you were here last week, how did Matthew do that at the beginning of his gospel? Genealogy, right? Through that long, long list of names, which is a gripping way to begin a story, right? We're just like thrilled right from the beginning. So that's how Matthew does it. He's inviting you into Jesus' family story to understand who Jesus is. Mark's doing

the same exact thing. He just does it more briefly, and he does it through quoting a whole bunch of poetry. And so he says, here it is. This is going to be good news about this guy Jesus, Messiah, Son of God. You know, Isaiah 40. Okay, let's get moving. And so hold on. Okay, let's stop here. So he has this long quote from Isaiah. Most of it comes from chapter 40, but he's also doing some awesome things here. He's actually sprinkling in some words from Exodus 23 and Malachi chapter 4 and Isaiah chapter 40, because he's brilliant and amazing, and that's how he works. So Isaiah 40, and then you're supposed to get a whole story, which we're going to take a moment just to recap briefly, and then you're like, oh, oh, we're at that point in the story.

Holy cow. And then the rest of Mark 1 unfolds, and you know, you're deer in the headlights, because this is so amazing. So let's just take a moment, a moment here to get this backstory. What Mark's doing, you can see in verses 2 and 3, he's thrown together actually wording from three different passages in the family scriptures, in the Old Testament scriptures. And what he's trying to do is not just correspond the wording to some events that happen. He's trying to get a whole story in your mind right now. So we do this in culture through different ways. but we do this kind of thing all the time. So I googled the other day just because I was curious and because it really does seem like Google is omniscient. I don't know what else to say about that. So 100 most famous movie lines.

Do you know this whole website dedicated to surveying and accurate statistical information about what are, in fact, 100 most famous movie lines? And so right in the top 15 is this one. Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. For eight of you knew that one, okay, apparently. So, okay, a little line. Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. For eight of you knew that one, okay, apparently. So, okay, a little line. Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.

And for those of you who know the story, what moment is that in the story? Yes, right after the house lands and all this kind of thing, and she's waking up to this reality. It's sinking in this whole broad new world. Now, much closer to my heart was like number three or something like that. And that's, hey, Luke, may the force be with you. Right? And so there's a lot of may the force be with you moments, right, in Star Wars. But hey, Luke, hey, Luke. Yes, yes. Hey, Luke.

Hey, Luke. Han Solo. Yes, yes. Exactly, right? It's Han, it's on the lips of Han Solo. And this is why that moment's significant, because in Han Solo's character development, right? So, because he's been, the whole movie, he's been very skeptical about the Force

because you can't see it, touch it, you know, feel it, smell it or anything. And so Han Solo represents what George Lucas was trying to undermine, which is the modern Western materialist worldview. If you read interviews, that's what he was going for. And so Han Solo represents this whole worldview that is skeptical to anything that claims to be real, but that isn't apprehendable by the five senses.

But through knowing Luke, his whole worldview has been shattered, and he realizes that there's a bigger world that can fit inside his head. And so he, it all of a sudden becomes open to this. And so right as they part ways to go on the mission to go destroy the Death Star, he says, hey Luke, for the first time ever, may the force be with you. And it shows his changing, his character's changing. His mind is broadening in Han Solo. He looks awesome. His haircut was unbelievable. And so anyway, you guys with me here? Now, maybe only some of you knew that scene, had that scene come in your mind. But this is what I'm talking about. Little lines, you just throw them out there

and it's like, oh yeah, that's so epic, that moment in the story. That's, that is what Mark is doing, right, right here. And so when he, when he quotes Malachi 4, Exodus 23, Isaiah 40, and blends it all together, you're just like, oh, oh, that's where we are. Holy cow. And then the whole, what follows in Mark chapter 1, and then the story we'll look at right at the beginning of chapter 2. Just again, like I said last week, it just pops into three dimension, color, stereo, whatever, whatever you want to say. So thumb right here, put your thumb here, turn back to Isaiah 40 with me, and we're going to take a little five-minute detour into Isaiah 40, because it will help us. It'll help us read the story about Jesus healing a paralyzed man and forgiving his sins. It will help us read it with a new set of eyes.

Isaiah chapter 40. Okay, so I won't take the time that we took last week to review the family story, but it began with Abraham and God's promise to him that somehow through his family that would miraculously come into being, the blessing would be restored to all the rebellious nations. God rescues that family from slavery in Egypt, brings them into the promised land. They become a kingdom and one of their most famous kings, a guy named David, God makes a promise to him that a king's going to come from his line and set up a kingdom and rule the nations and peace and harmony and the new creation. It's going to be awesome forever and ever. Amen. And so he has a line of kings come from him and it's Israel's kingdom period.

And how does this go? This part of the story. It goes badly. Really, really badly. It's a long involved four whole books of the Bible that's basically a tragic narrative of watching this family that had such incredible potential and opportunity just squander it time and again and run themselves right into the ground. And so, this 400-year process ends with the kingdom of Babylon coming to Jerusalem, sacking the city, besieging it, burning the temple, and hauling the people off into exile. And so the curtain draws, significant moment of the curtain drawing here. And as the readers and Jesus' family were like, well, what about God's promises and blessing for the nations and the Messiah? Like, when is all

that going to come? And so on. And Isaiah 40 is one of the most significant chapters in all of Jesus' family scriptures because it addresses what hope do God's people have at this moment in their history. And the voice speaking in Isaiah 40 is a voice that is looking beyond exile and speaking to God's people hope for their future. Are you with me here? So let's dive into just a few of these words for a couple minutes. We begin with a word from God that says, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.

Proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin is now paid for, that she's received from Yahweh's hand double or more than enough for all of her sins. So right, kind of screaming out of the gates here. It's this message to people who are without hope and not sure whether Yahweh is with them or abandoned them and so on. And so it's this message of comfort and of reassurance. Because why? What is the status of Israel's sins at this point? Done, paid for, it's over. So this long history of Israel getting more and more entrenched in its own sin finally hit bottom. Yahweh allows them to face the consequences of their decisions, and exile becomes this moment of Israel dealing with its sin and the consequences of their sin. And so this

voice comes and says, and now that season is done. You faced the music. Your sins are now dealt with and paid for. And so we have this announcement right from the beginning that whatever future there is for Yahweh and this family and for humanity, it's this message that your sin is now forgiven. We're moving forward in the relationship. Keep reading. Look at verse 3. The voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way for Yahweh. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley will be raised up. If you know this from Handel's Messiah during Christmas time, every valley be raised up, every mountain and hill laid low, the rough ground will become level, the rugged places a plain, and the glory of Yahweh will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The mouth of Yahweh has spoken here. This is this epic, the poetry is so elevated and epic here. So what's being described here? It's a poetic

description, but what's being described here is actually fairly mundane. It's the building of what? We're building a highway. It's talking about road building. My son's favorite book about six months ago was all this poetic set of rhymes about building this road, and it's broken into about 12 stages of like, you know, the greater comes and pours the gravel and then the tar and asphalt. Anyway, so that's like what's being described right here, right? So if you're building a road, a big highway through the desert and you come to a big valley and you want to build the road, what do you got to do with the valley? Yeah, fill that thing up, right? And you get to make it level. And then if you're going to run a road right through and there's a big bend and there's a hill or something,

what do you got to do with the hill? So you got to blow it up, right? Or dig it up because they didn't have dynamite back then. And so we're describing the building of a highway. There's this voice calling that's saying, Yahweh's coming. Yahweh's coming. He's returning.

Build a highway for Yahweh's presence to come. It's like a royal procession of a king coming, and the valleys are filled up, and the mountains are laid low, and everybody's going to see King Yahweh returning in glory to his people. It's this wonderful scene. And so the biggest thing is that there's a messenger coming. There's a messenger coming to herald, to herald what? To herald Yahweh returning. So Jerusalem, which is where Yahweh's temple was, it's where the people's gatherings were to meet Yahweh and so on,

that all got destroyed. Where do we stand with Yahweh? Where did Yahweh go? Did he abandon us? Did he leave us? And so the prophet says, no, dude, sins are forgiven. Listen to this good news. There's a messenger coming who's going to herald the return of Yahweh himself is going to come back to visit his people and to fulfill his promises. So think through, if you were here last week, there's another passage in Isaiah that we read from chapter 59 that talked about the same thing, that Yahweh looked out at humanity and at Israel

and at the kings from the line of David, and he saw there's no human, there's no one qualified with any kind of integrity to actually be the human being who I called them to be and to bring salvation and deliverance and so on. And so Yahweh said, I'm going to roll up my sleeves and I'm going to do this myself. And it's the same imagery here.

Yahweh's coming back. Sins are forgiven. He's returning personally. Let's keep going. Verse 9. Oh, yes. Yes. Verses 6 through 8, a whole other sub-rabbit hole

that will take in half an hour of awesomeness to go through, but we don't have time. So verse 9. You who bring good news, good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout. Lift it up. Don't be afraid. Say to the towns of Judah, here is your God. Look, sovereign Yahweh, he's coming. He's coming. So you have this, you have this herald who's announcing good news. I wonder if I've ever heard that word before in relationship to Jesus. So, this word could also, and is sometimes translated, gospel. So, if you're wondering, like, where did this word, the concept of good news, gospel, ever even come from? Here, right here, you're looking at it. This is where it begins life, and this is where Jesus got his language for where he thought about what he was doing.

So, Yahweh's returning, doing. So Yahweh's returning. And notice how Yahweh's returning. He's coming back. Look at verse 10. Sovereign Yahweh, he's coming with what? With power. And he rules with a mighty arm. His reward is with him.

His recompense accompanies him. And so you get this image here like, oh, he's not just coming back to plant some flowers in Jerusalem or something like that. He's coming back to, first of all, as a king, right? He's coming with his arm. He's going to rule like a king. So he's coming back to bring his kingdom and to rule as king. And he's going to bring reward and recompense. He's going to bring justice and visit justice on those among his people who ruined Israel's vocation and calling and hold them to become accountable. And so now we're kind of like, whoa, that's really intense. And we're kind of freaking out like, whoa, Yahweh's coming back, but not everybody's going to be happy and so on.

And then look at verse 11. He tends his flock like a shepherd, and he gathers the lambs up in his arms, and he carries them close to his heart. And he gently leads along little lambs that have little lambies behind them, that have young. Did you get that? It's like a head-turning moment.

You were just like, power, glory, return, Yahweh is king. And then this very compassionate, gentle, soft description of Yahweh as this attentive shepherd. And he's coming back to bring justice, but he's also coming back to pay attention to the weak and to the vulnerable and the little lambies. And he's going to pick them up and carry them right here. And so I'll use whatever word you want to describe this. I'll use the word mercy. And so this is the whole story. This is Isaiah 40. This is the story Mark's trying to get into your head, is that this is what everyone was waiting for, for a messenger to herald that Israel's sins are forgiven. Yahweh is coming back as king, and it's good news because he's going to bring justice and mercy, and so on, back to Mark chapter 1.

Mark chapter 1. Let's just go to the first sentence again of Mark. The beginning of what? Good news. It's too easy. It's just low-hanging fruit right there. Just the beginning of good news about Jesus. And remember, what's the meaning of Jesus'

name? Last week, Yahweh brings salvation. The beginning of the good news about this guy, Yahweh brings salvation. He's the Messiah, you know, from the son and the line of David. He's the son of God. Just like it was written in Isaiah the prophet, hey Luke, may the force be with you. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay. So who's the messenger? There's a messenger coming to announce this whole deal. Look at verse four. Who appeared? John the Baptist. Wild, crazy man wearing animal hair and eating insects. So John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching this baptism of repentance for what?

Forgiveness of sin. So he's this crazy prophet who dresses like the ancient prophets Elijah and Elisha did, and he goes down to the Jordan, which is the symbolic place where Israel began life in the promised land as they crossed over the Jordan. And he's announcing this renewal movement that he's the messenger. He's preparing the way for who to come back personally among his people. way for who to come back personally among his people? Yahweh, right? Isaiah 40. Yahweh is coming. And so let's all go down to the river and let's own up to the fact that we have failed as the people of Israel. And let's just start this thing over again. Let's reboot this whole covenant story and let's recognize that if we turn to Yahweh, he'll forgive our sins. And we're waiting for

Yahweh to come and we're waiting for Yahweh to come, and what will it look like? What will it be like? When? How will the coming of Yahweh manifest itself? Go down to verse 9. At that time, Yahweh brings salvation. Came from Nazareth in Galilee. And he was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being ripped open, torn open, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And this voice came from heaven saying, you are my son, whom I love. With you, I am well pleased. So when we started the series, Josh and I, we explored the significance of this story. But so here it is. Here it is. Like everything has been set up for Yahweh's coming. And this is precisely the slot in the story,

right, where Yahweh comes back personally. and what is it going to look like? It's going to look like Jesus, that carpenter son from Nazareth. What? And then this epic scene at the Jordan River, where you have Jesus's revelation of his own identity through God the Father, communicating his love for the Son in the person of the Spirit. Oh, you know, that breaks some categories for me. I didn't see that coming. Go down to verse 14. What's Jesus' message? Verse 14. After John was put into prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming what? Good news. Saying, yeah, the time has come. The storylines leading up. Here we go. Here it is. The time has come. God's kingdom, it's right here. Right here, right now. You're watching it come into being. As you watch Jesus, Jesus is saying, as you watch me, you're watching all of this come true. Yahweh's kingdom is here.

Repent, turn, recognize what time it is, and believe, believe in the good news. Now, here's the thing. What Mark could have done is he could have saved us a bunch of time, and he could have just said, the beginning of the good news about Jesus. Now, listen, you guys. Here's my claim in this story about Jesus. I believe Jesus is Yahweh, become a human being to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. Okay, let's get the story moving, right? So, he could have done that, but what a boring way to begin a story. Instead, he's done this. He's recalled this whole storyline, and then right where you're expecting Yahweh to come back personally, he just sticks Jesus right there.

And he just says, chew on that, chew on that. And then the story keeps moving. Are you guys with me here? He could come out right and say it, but that would be a totally boring way of doing it. He does it this way, and I'm really thankful for it. So what does it look like when Yahweh comes up and when he comes to rule as king, what happens?

Well, Jesus calls a group of followers to himself. Look at verse 21. Jesus goes into this town, and he encounters a very dark spiritual force of evil that has been ruining a man's life. And he just casts it out and heals this man. Look at verse 28. And so news about him, Jesus, began to spread quickly over the whole region. And so as soon as they left that scene, he went with James and John to the home of two other guys, Simon and Andrew. And there Jesus finds this woman who's

deathly ill, and so he heals her right there in the house. And then look at verse 32. It just keeps going. That evening after sunset, people brought to Jesus all of the sick and the demon-possessed. The whole town is gathering at the door. And Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He drove out many demons, but he wouldn't let them speak because they knew who he was. So Mark, now Mark is describing, what does it look like? It looks like Jesus cruising around, healing people, moving precisely to the weak lambs and carrying them close to his heart

and leading them along and rescuing them, all the while saying, this is the good news. This is what it looks like when Yahweh brings his kingdom personally. Verse 35, he goes to the desert to pray, recharges batteries a little bit. And then Simon and his companions went to look for him, and they said, Jesus, everybody's looking for you. Everybody's looking for you. He goes back, and he heals this man with a skin disease. And then look at verse 45. He told the guy to be quiet.

Like, hey, keep this on the wraps, you know? I'm trying to, like, actually have a life here in the ministry. And if you kind of let the word out, it makes things difficult for me. And look at verse 45. Instead, the guy who was healed, he went out and he began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus couldn't even enter a town anymore. He couldn't enter openly. He had to stay on the outskirts of town, but people still kept coming to him from everywhere. Are you with me here? Do you see this building anticipation and so on? People are beginning to clue in and recognize like whatever Jesus is cruising around doing,

it's this story coming true. That's the setup here. Are we all on the same page? Okay, Mark chapter 2. I just had to do that. I'm sorry. I can't. I can never actually just teach on the passage that I'm trying to.

I have to paint the whole story. Mark chapter 2. This is the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. And I just, this is one of, I think, one of the most beautiful and compelling stories about who Jesus is and who Jesus reveals God to be. Memorize it. Think about it every day. Bury the story deep in your heart,

and it will mess with you. Chapter two. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, right, which he's taking a risk going back into town, right? Everybody heard that he had come back. Dang it, dang it. They gathered in such large numbers

that there was no room left, not inside the house and not even outside the door. And so he started preaching the word to them. Part of learning to read the gospels is slowly kind of slowing yourself down and really trying to place yourself in the realism of the stories. And almost as what I try to do is like put yourself into different characters in the scene and think through the story from all these different viewpoints and so on. And so you have these crowds, and here's Jesus. He's been announcing that Yahweh is coming back, and He's setting up His kingdom, and that He's doing it through Him. And so, and people are encountering this healing presence and justice and mercy of Jesus. And so

they're crowding. And these are not, this is a little fishing village. They're not huge houses, right? You get 15, 20 people inside. There's all these people on the outside of the house. The door's packed. The windows are packed and so on. And so what's Jesus, he's inside. Is he yelling? How are you going to people hear him outside?

I guess you have to yell. They don't have megaphones. He's yelling. And he's preaching the word, which is what the message about the kingdom. The kingdom is here. Verse three. word, which is what the message about the kingdom, that the kingdom is here. Verse 3, so some men came, and they bring to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.

Now, since they couldn't get him to Jesus because of the crowd, so say a few hundred people around this small house with a little door and window, so they can't get him into the house. And so they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it. Then they lowered the mat down that the man was lying on. Okay, now just pause. You might be familiar with this story, but just, again, put yourself imaginatively into the scene. This is, whose house is he in? Most likely Simon and Andrew's that he was in earlier. How are you feeling about Jesus being at your house, right? Right now, right? So you thought it was just going to be a quiet evening, Jesus teaching to a small circle, hundreds of people show up, right? And then some people are so desperate that they actually get on the roof of your house. Now, don't think A-frame houses or anything like

that. These are single-story buildings. They're not that big, and the roof is flat, because that's valuable space. That's workspace. And so that's where you dry your laundry. If you're fishermen, that's where you dry out your fish after you've cleaned and salted them and so on. And so that's workspace up there. So it's like there's heavy cross beams. It's a floor up there. This is major demolition operation that's happening, right, on the roof. And there's always an external outside staircase and so on. So these four guys carrying this man who can't walk. There's a crowd. People are trying to hear Jesus. And so they're so desperate. They're so desperate. They sneak around to the stairway, right? And then they get up on the roof and they just straight up start tearing it apart.

They're tearing up the floor. Are you with me here? This is crazy. And, you know, the story doesn't go there at all, but there's, you have to wonder, like, what? Did Jesus keep talking? It was like jackhammers going on right above their heads, and there's like dust falling down, and sticks, and broken clay, and it's like, what? Did he keep talking? Did he act like it wasn't happening? I got it, you know, we don't get any of those details in the story, but that was clearly some dynamic of going on. These guys are so desperate. So they rip this, you know, demolition hole in the roof, and they lower this guy in, right? You know, by ropes or something, by the four corners, and just right down before Jesus, and now he can't ignore them anymore. It's kind of like, oh, okay. Right. What do you do? What do you do? It's such an intense story.

Look at Jesus' response. This is so powerful. It says, when Jesus saw whose faith? Look at it. It says their faith. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven. There's a million amazing things happening here. Let's focus in on a few of them. First of all, this is the first occurrence of this theme in the gospel of Mark, and it's a big one in the Gospels, and it's this theme of faith. When people come to Jesus, Jesus, and they walk away healed or forgiven or transformed,

somehow Jesus always brings up faith in the connection and what just happened in this encounter that people had with him. And it's a big theme because where Jesus is in places where people refuse to believe who he says he is, and they are suspicious of him, or they want him to prove, like prove who you are, or something like that. In those places, people walk away from that encounter with like a scary Jesus. With Jesus who's just like, what? What? And he'll just walk away. It's a Jesus with whom they make no progress. He's impenetrable and always talking in parables. And he makes no sense to people who come to him with that mindset.

But the people who, like these guys, they just come with just this pure desperation. Like, this guy's in a bad situation. We don't know what to do. Jesus, you're amazing, and you can do something here. We just got to get to Jesus. And the people who come with that openness and recognition of their need, he's just right there. He's right there for them, and those are the people to whom he says, your faith has made you well, or your faith in me is the key to this relationship, you know, moving forward. Now here, so just stop and check your words faith at the door, right?

Whatever you thought the word faith means. And look at the story. How does Jesus know that these guys, I think the four friends, but I think it assumes the paralyzed man too. How does he know they have faith? Look at the story. How does he know they have faith? Look at the story. How does he know? Has he had a conversation with them?

So do you really believe in me? So like, I'm the son of God. You're saying you believe that fact or something? Like, no, I don't. There's no conversation. How does he know they have faith? They just tore a house apart to get to him. You know what I'm saying?

That's the idea here. They would let nothing, you know, check their desperation to just get in front of Jesus. And this is really crucial because I think somehow our ideas of faith and belief in Christian culture, whatever, it's somehow we associate it with a feeling that you need to muster up.

Like, oh, I need, do I have enough faith in Jesus? Am I sure? I placed my faith in Jesus, but did I really? Was it enough faith? I think it might have been 53%. I need to get to that 74% mark or something. You know, it becomes this thing that we muster up. And with Jesus, he saw their behavior.

And he said their choices actually speak to their deepest convictions and beliefs about the world and about me. And this is like belief in the scriptures. It's not only a mental activity. Belief, I think it begins with processing what's true about myself and about God and so on. But if you want to know what I actually believe, please don't listen to what I say, because I'll likely increase the impressiveness of what I say I believe, inflate it about 30 percent, so that you think well of me, right? I mean, it's what we do, right? So if, don't listen to what we say we believe, that's perception management, right, of each other.

What we actually believe is the choices that we make and how we live. And Jesus looks at their choices and he just says, these guys, these guys clearly have trust. They trust that I'm able to do something that they cannot do for themselves. Look at what they're doing. And so this, right off the bat, the story really kind of gets in our faces about this definition. What does it mean to come to Jesus by faith? How are we supposed to emulate these characters in the story in coming to Jesus by faith? And it's not about mustering up a feeling, apparently. It's not about just getting all the mental theological furniture in my head straight,

although I think that's important as you grow. It's just about this pure realization that I need Jesus, and he has something that I need, and I can't let anything get in the way of me getting into the presence of Jesus and hearing the truth about him. It's very powerful. It's their faith. Now, notice also, this is just worth observing, who does he speak to? Now, notice also, this is just worth observing, who does he speak to? Look at verse 5. Who does he speak to?

He's speaking to this guy, the paralyzed man, but what's he responding to? He's responding to their faith. Are you with me here? So, this is unique in all the stories in the Gospels. Usually, it's whoever the person is seeking Jesus, he'll talk about your faith. But here it's like this community's faith and trust in Jesus is what's carrying this man right now. It's a very beautiful picture about how there are times,

who knows, we're going to see, I think, in the story that this guy likely has lost hope for why Jesus says what he says to him. And so I think it's actually what Jesus is saying. It's the faith of his friends that's carrying this man right now. And there are seasons in following Jesus where it's like the man whose son was under the influence of a demon, and he said, comes to Jesus, and he says, Jesus, I want to trust you. Help my lack of trust. I believe, help my unbelief. And there are seasons where you actually need the community around you, because their faith will carry you in your lack of faith. There's something like that going on here. He sees their faith, and then he forgives that guy.

Okay. This is the best story in the world. Verse 5. So Jesus saw their faith. He said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now stop. Put yourself, like I said,

put yourself imaginatively into the position of the paralyzed man. All this energy, demolition, get in front of Jesus. Yahweh is returning as king, and I think it's this guy, and so on. And Jesus says to you, son, your sins are forgiven. How are you feeling about your life right now? Be really honest. Don't be religious and pious. Be really honest. What do you want Jesus your life right now? Be really honest. Don't be religious and pious. Like, be really honest.

What do you want Jesus to say to you? Get up and walk, right? I was just like, that's great. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus, for forgiving my sins. I've got this thing here, right? Like, I can't walk. I can't walk.

Trying to make it funny to help it sink in. Like, do you see? I can't walk. I can't walk. Trying to make it funny to help it sink in. Like, do you see? I can't walk. And you've been healing people, and I'm here in front of you, and that's wonderful to be forgiven. But, okay, so what's going on here? I don't know if that's ever occurred to you in reading the story. You know, when I was a new Christian and reading these stories for the first time,

that totally stuck out to me. It's like, well, it's wonderful to be forgiven. My legs don't work. And that's what I came here for, Jesus. So here's the thing. Jesus is for sure going to heal this guy that's been in his attention the whole time. He's been healing lots of people. He's going to heal this guy.

His very next thing that he was going to say to the guy was, get up, take up your mat, and walk home. But he was rudely interrupted. And that's why the forgiveness is separated from the healing, because he got rudely interrupted by some religious people in the room. And he's got to deal with that before he takes it forward. And so, but there's something significant here. Why didn't he say, you know, you're healed and you are forgiven? What's going on here? Why does he say this to this man and why does he say it first?

And I think it is significant. It's worth pondering. So I think there's a few reasons. First of all, this is just part of the good news. It's announcing to the whole people of Israel and to every individual Israelite that as a people, they were on the outs with Yahweh, but their sin has been dealt with. And Yahweh's good news is that his heart,

his disposition towards his people is this right here. And he's come personally to bring forgiveness of sins and to announce good news and justice and mercy and the whole thing. So Jesus begins here with saying that you and Yahweh are on good terms. Your sins are forgiven. And how do you know that's true? I'm standing here talking to you right now,

telling you that. Now that raises a whole bunch of other issues here too. Why did Jesus think he needed to say this first to this man? And I think the story makes it clear. He can read your mail. He can read. He has discernment into what people are thinking in situations because he's about to do it to these religious guys

who apparently are standing by the guitar. I don't know. I just pointed there. Let's pretend they're right there. And so he knows that this is what this guy needs to hear, I think. And so what's going on here? What's going on here is a big, big whole theme in Jesus' family scriptures about the relationship between sickness and tragedies and bad things happening to your family or to your health, and the relationship of those things to sin and to wrongdoing. And this is not unique to their culture. I think this is actually a unique thing. Well, it's not unique. It's universal. If it's universal, it's not unique. It's a universal thing in human cultures in general, or at least religious cultures, which is to say this, just generally, if bad things happen to me, if there's a lack of health,

or health disaster, family disaster, or something, it must be that the gods are trying to tell me something, or that the gods have it out for me, that they're angry at me or whatever, and this is how it's being taken out on me. And so I think that's a fairly universal way that people tend to think. And so what's the view of sickness and sin in Jesus's family scriptures? And when you turn to the Old Testament scriptures, you find actually a really sophisticated, kind of multi-faceted way of thinking about these things. And so you have stories in the Old Testament scriptures where someone does something wrong. They wrong Yahweh. They wrong another human made in God's image. And part of Yahweh giving consequences or visiting his justice on what they did is that they become sick. There's not many, but there are some stories like

that in the Old Testament scriptures. So on a Wednesday morning, our Wednesday morning 6 a.m. Bible study, for example, just a couple weeks ago, we studied a story about Moses's sister, Miriam, and in front of all the people of Israel, she shames her brother. She questions his authority and undermines him in a really humiliating public way. And Yahweh is ticked because he chose and appointed Moses as the leader and so on. And so she gets a skin disease from that. Now she gets healed from it and so on. But there you go. Here's the story. And you just got to like, oh, that's in the Bible. You got to deal with that. So you have stories about the whole nation of the people of Israel

and about how this downward spiral. They signed on the dotted line and said, dude, Yahweh will obey you. We love you. Thank you for rescuing us. And Yahweh said, yeah, dude, if you like follow the terms of the covenant, it's going to be great. There'll be rain and lots of cows and milk and honey and so on. And there won't be any sickness. But if you violate the terms of the covenant, there won't be any rain, and there'll be plague and mildew and blight, and you'll get sick, and this kind of thing. And so it's on an individual level, like Miriam, or for the whole nation, that sickness will be a result of sin. So you have that perspective, but then in the very same Bible that is Jesus' family scriptures, you have whole books that are

dedicated to saying, now that might be true sometimes, but that's not always true. You can't assume that just because someone gets sick or is in a condition, paralyzed or something, that they've done something wrong. In fact, there is one whole book of the Bible dedicated to deconstructing that point of view. And what's the name of that book? It's the book of Job. It's the book of Job, right? And so you have a man who is innocent, hasn't done anything wrong, or at least in the moment, but that he has horrible sickness, family tragedies, and so on, and he hasn't done anything wrong. And you have another book that's paired right alongside it, the book of Ecclesiastes, that says, hey, you know, something really screwed up that I see in the world is that there's really wicked, horrible people, and they are healthy, wealthy, and wise. And then you have people who are really awesome and full of integrity, and they

love their neighbor as their self, and they, like, get sick and have hardship and go bankrupt or something, you know? And he says, that's screwed up. Why does the world work like that? So two whole books of the Bible that give a different point of view. And so it's not a contradiction. It's a statement that says this. Can you assume, as you see somebody sick, you see somebody paralyzed, can you assume that God's angry with that person? No. Could it be the case? Yes. Is it necessarily and always the case? No. And here's the thing is i think most of us tend to the world's very complex and relationships are complex and this whole question is complex and so the bible doesn't give you a simple answer right it doesn't give you a simple answer at all but because we want simplicity in our worldviews we tend to just camp out on one of those views or the other. And the Bible forces you to hold both of those in two hands. And so this is

why I think Jesus brings up this issue and brings it up first. There's a story in John chapter 9 where Jesus encountered a blind man who he's going to heal. And his disciples come up to him and they say, ooh, that guy's blind. Who sinned? That guy or his parents? And what is Jesus' response? He says, neither. Neither. Right? There's another option.

And another option is what's going to happen here is so that he could be healed and this whole thing will be for the good and helping the good news spread and so on. So neither. Jesus does not assume that. But if you grew up in a culture where that is the basic assumption, if you're sick, Yahweh must be ticked at you.

If you had a family tragedy, yeah, Yahweh must have abandoned you. I don't know. I don't know where you stand with Yahweh. And you grew up in that culture. And so just imagine what this paralyzed man, we don't know how I don't know where you stand with Yahweh. And you grew up in that culture. And so just imagine what this paralyzed man, we don't know how long he's been in this condition. Imagine what he knows other people think about him. Imagine what you might even begin to think about yourself

after years of this idea being what you swim in and so on. And so what Jesus does is, first, he addresses this man's spiritual, emotional, I think even psychological state by just saying this word. Son, God is not angry at you. You're forgiven. It's good news.

Yahweh's here announcing good news. Whatever is in your past, I mean, whatever, just because he's paralyzed doesn't mean he's innocent. Whatever, he's screwed up just like the rest of us are. And so whatever is in your past, wherever you thought you were with Yahweh, this is not an issue anymore. You're forgiven. You're forgiven. Yahweh's not ticked at you. He's not angry at you. And how do you know that's true? I'm here saying that to you right now. That's what Jesus is saying. And this is very, this is so powerful because what he's, he's not just claiming to be God and he's not, you know, just saying like, he is saying your sins are forgiven. There's so much more going on in this explosive line. I think he's redefining this guy's view of God. That God is not primarily

a God who's just waiting to bring the hammer on you. He's understandably grieved about the way that human beings destroy ourselves and his good world and destroy others. But Jesus is here saying, here's what Yahweh's doing about that. Your sins are forgiven. And so I just think again, how does this word, how does this story of Jesus speak God's word to us?

We're in the place of these people trying to get to Jesus. And the first thing Jesus wants his people to know is that you are forgiven. That's where we start things. Whatever you think about yourself, whatever you think about God, whatever wreckage is in your past, so now we're right here, right now, Jesus is speaking to you. God's not angry at you. He's here to offer forgiveness and a new way forward.

Can you hear that today? These are the kinds of words that get certain people very angry at you. Look at verse 6. Now there were some teachers of the law sitting there, and they were thinking to themselves, what? What? Why? This guy can't talk that. You can't say that. Why is this fellow talking like that? He's blaspheming, which is a very serious charge. So blaspheming is about, in a very dangerous, flagrant way, dishonoring God, saying and doing and claiming things that encroach on God's prerogative. You're saying you are doing things that only God himself can do.

That's what's going on here. And they make clear, while he's blaspheming, who can forgive sins but whom? God alone. Yahweh is the one. What do you mean? Isaiah 40, Jesus. Yahweh said he will come himself and personally forgive people's sins.

Who are you to claim to be doing that? That's what's going on right here. So there's a whole, let's just stop right here in the story. Because again, remember this all happened in like seven seconds. So let's just remember that, right? So I've got my preach on, and so this is taking, you know, 15, 20 minutes or whatever. But so this all just happened instantly. Son, your sins are forgiven. Why are you guys saying that in your hearts? I mean, it's just like, right? These guys, it's instant.

They see what Jesus is saying, and they're utterly scandalized because that doesn't fit in their view of who God can be. And so Jesus instantly, he's reading their mail. And you would freak out. I mean, Jesus looks at, immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts.

And he said to them, why are you guys thinking that? And so this is so freaky. Jesus is freaky. He would totally scare you if you were around him. And so I was trying to think, how would you reenact a scene like this? To imagine the humiliation of being put on the spot like that. And the best I could come up with is you're out to eat and you think your server's shirt is really tacky or something like that. And the best I could come up with is like you're out to eat and you think your server's

shirt is really tacky or something like that, right? And so like you're totally thinking that. You're like, hi, welcome to the restaurant. Here are specials right now. And you're just thinking, ooh, bad green choice, you know, really bad. And then they just say to you like, why are you hating on my shirt? Like what are you doing? And you just be like, well, I didn't. I mean, green vegetables or something. I don't know. So that's the idea. Like, he just calls them out. Son, your sins are forgiven. Why are you guys thinking that? This all goes down very quickly. And they're scandalized because, and they just say it right here, who can forgive? You're claiming to forgive sins on God's behalf. Now, what do these guys represent?

They represent, they represent a whole cultural history and institution in Israel. And so, if you're an Israelite, and you know the family scriptures, like, how do you go about gaining God's forgiveness? If you steal your neighbor's cow, or something like that, or whatever, you, you know, you take some of their crops that or whatever, you take some of their crops or whatever, you covet their stuff. How do you get right with God? Well, if you live in this town, you've got to hike about 120 miles south and to the city of Jerusalem. And there's a big temple structure there at the high point of the city. And that's where Yahweh said His presence dwells, and you need to bring

some cash with you, because you're going to go into the courtyard, and you're going to get a goat or a lamb or buy something like that there, and then you're going to take that to the entrance of the courtyard, and there'll be a priest. You got to wait in line, thinking about what you did, and then there would be a priest who'd be like, hi, you know, my name's Abiathar or something like that. Welcome, you know, it's good to have you here today. What'd you do? What'd you do? And so you process through that, and you go to the altar. You put your hands on the animal's head, and you confess what you did aloud in front of the priest, in front of Yahweh, who's dwelling places right there in front of you, slitting of the throat, gurgling, bubbling blood, and so on. And the animal dies on your behalf.

That's how you do it. That's how you do it. That's how you do it. And it's not just you do it because it was their culture. You do that because like that's what Yahweh said to do. This is with the terms of the covenant agreement. And so here's Jesus. He's, you know, 120 miles north, and he's walking around acting as if he's a little mobile temple, essentially. He's acting as if he, just coming into his presence, is somehow coming into the presence of God, but also he's claiming this role of the priest. So the priest is where this humanity that comes to meet with God, and the temple is a place where God meets with people, and through the priest who represents God to you, the sacrifice is made and forgiveness

is offered to you. And Jesus, with just one sentence, does all of that right there in the room of that little crowded house. And see, these are the kinds of things that will make the people who represent this institution so angry at you and so threatened by you. This is the beginning of the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders, and this is ultimately what's going to lead him to being publicly executed on trumped-up charges on a Roman execution rack. This is where it begins, a charge of blasphemy.

This is a politically, theologically charged moment where Jesus is offending these guys deeply, because what he's claiming is that, yeah, you know, Isaiah 40, you guys read your Bibles, and that's happening right now, and here it is. Look at it. Here we go. It's right here. You're looking at it, and they had no categories. We had no categories whatsoever for that. And so here's how the story wraps up really quickly. It's awesome. He says, this is what he says to them. Brilliant. Jesus is brilliant. He says, why are you thinking these things? You tell me. He always puts the ball in other people's courts here. Which is easier? To say to this paralyzed man, To say to this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven,

or to say, get up, take your mat, and walk on home. Now just stop. You think about this question. You're in the charged moment. Jesus says to you, which is easier, to say this guy is forgiven or to recreate his body so that he can walk out of here? Which is easier? What do you think?

That's good. This one always stumps a crowd. That's good. So, no, he doesn't say which is easier to forgive this man. Which is easier to say this man is forgiven or to remake his body? Which is easier? Yeah, just say it, right? Because anybody can walk around saying, oh, God forgives you. God forgives you. Hey, can walk around saying, oh, God forgives you. God forgives you. Hey, it's a nice day today. God forgives you. You know, like anybody, anybody could say that. And that's exactly what they're, that's exactly what they're challenging is you can't say that. You don't have the authority to say things like that. After all, you're just the carpenter's son from up in Nazareth. And so it's wonderful. So he's like, okay, so okay, that's the

easier thing to say he's forgiven. And so he says, he goes right from there, I want you to know that the son of man, which is his favorite way of referring to himself, it means me or I, and also go read Daniel 7. That's also what it means. So the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and walk out of here. Boom. Boom. Just right there, right? Right there. Now think. This all happened in eight seconds. Son, your sins are forgiven. Why are you guys thinking that in your hearts? You tell me, which is easier, to say to this guy that his sins are forgiven or to remake his body so that he can walk out of here. But I tell you so that you know that I am who I say I am,

get up, go home, bro. You're healed and your sins are forgiven. You know, I mean, it's just that's how it went down. And so these guys are just like, well, so we, you know, that's what's happening here. So, and they're justifiably angry at him. Look at the crowd's response. He got up, took his mat, walked out in full view of all of them.

Everybody's amazed. No one has categories for this. They praise God, saying, we've never seen anything like this. Mark 2. What does it look like when Isaiah 40 comes true? What does it look like when Yahweh comes personally to announce good news to his people and to bring the healing reality that brings mercy to the weak, but also justice on the arrogant? What does it look like when that shows up and Mark says, here you go, this also justice on the arrogant. What does it look like when that shows up and Mark says, here you go, this is what it looks like. And it's not, it's, there's both a theological

claim that Mark is making about who Jesus is. He is the place where God and humanity meet perfectly together for forgiveness and healing and reconciliation. But it's not just theology to Mark. It's not just theology to the paralyzed man, is it? His whole view of God has been remade in about 10 seconds here. And all of his assumptions about who God was to him and why he's in the situation that he's in, that all Jesus just redoes all of that. And so how does this story speak a word of God to us? I think it makes this, it's the same one-two punch. It's this, who do you say that Jesus is? We read the story now. It's very clear who Mark says Jesus is, who Jesus is claiming to be. Who do you say that Jesus is?

And it's not just an idle question because your view of the world and your view of God and your view of yourself is what's at stake right here. And the first thing that Jesus comes and says to this man is, son, little child, that's what he calls him. He never calls anybody that. Little child, little boy, that's what he says to him. God's not angry at you. Whatever you think about yourself, whatever you've done, whatever trail of wreckage you happen to have, whatever, like that's not the issue right now. The issue right now is Yahweh brings salvation standing here telling you,

you're forgiven. Let's move forward into something new for you. And so I think that's where this lands for us. I don't know your story, and Jesus surely knows your story. He's been reading your mail for a long, long time, right? If this story is any indication of his insight into people. if this story is any indication of his insight into people. And his first word to you is, of course, like the downward spiral of the stupid decisions that we make. It's not as if God doesn't care or that he's indifferent. But Jesus comes to you and to me and saying,

that's happened. That doesn't determine who God is to you. He's not out to get you. He's not calling down curses on your life. Jesus is historical flesh and blood announcement that God's not angry with you. He wants to forgive you. And whatever guilt and whatever shame or regret that you were carrying,

you need to bring that to Jesus because he wants to make you new. I believe that's what Mark 2 has to say to a whole bunch of us this morning. And so as we come to the bread and the cup, I encourage you, again, not to allow this to become another repetition of the ritual, but to really make this a moment where Jesus's life and his death and his resurrection speaks to you a whole new view of God and a new view of yourself. Let it speak good news to you today. Let me close the morning. closing words. So there you go. God's grace and peace be with you guys today, and we'll see you next time.

Thanks for listening. Thank you.