Irvington Presbyterian Church PO Box 1336 4181 Irvington Avenue, Fremont, CA 94538 510-657-3133

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March 19, 2017

“Who Needs Forgiveness – I Need Healing”

Luke 5:17-2617 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

Big Idea: Jesus identifies with us in our human condition to accept, forgive, and heal us.

Today a big part of our story is about a roof. I heard this story many times as a child in Sunday school and it always bothered me that they wrecked a perfectly good roof because selfish people downstairs wouldn’t let the sick man in the door. I tried to imagine that they didn’t really wreck the roof and that it was probably thatched and it could be easily repaired. Well let’s talk about that roof.

Our story occurred in Capernaum on the north end of the Sea of Galilee. This happened to be Jesus’ home base during his adult years. Capernaum was the crossroads of international commerce and in a way kind of a prosperous place at that time in history.

It was a small town with about a thousand residents during New Testament times. For the time they had well constructed houses with dress stones and plastered walls. The houses would typically have three rooms with two courtyards. One room was for sleeping; another for cooking; and a third room for animals. Kind of small by our standards but they didn’t need a tv room or bathrooms for that matter.

But let’s get back to that roof. It was framed with wooden beams. Then they’d take saplings and place them across the top of the beams with briar branches in between the saplings. They’d use clay to put over those tightly woven briar branches. When the clay dried they’d have a good, hard-baked clay roof. They’re actually still making roofs like that in some very poor parts of the world.

To get to that roof houses would have an outside stairway. Residents would go on the roof to enjoy the cool of the evening, visit with each other, see the stars or enjoy the sounds of the city of Capernaum what little there was.

At that time Jesus was at the beginning of his public ministry. For the past few days according to the first three chapters of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus had been out teaching, and healing around the city of Capernaum. There had been ten consecutive healing miracles at the beginning of Mark’s gospel. This story was the fifth in this series of healings.

We’re not sure, but it may have come down like this. Jesus would have come home exhausted one night after teaching and healing for a few days. But people were lingering at his doorway. It was only a few and they just had a few questions about what they’d heard earlier. Pretty soon more people came to His door with a few more questions. What’s one more person, or two or three? It kept getting fuller and fuller.

Meanwhile some guys had probably seen Jesus heal other people in town that day and thought about their friend who couldn’t walk. Maybe, they thought, Jesus could heal their paralyzed friend as well if they could just get

him there. So when they heard there was a gathering over at Jesus’ house they thought this would be the perfect opportunity to help their friend. What they probably hoped was going to be a little intimate one on one time with Jesus in his home had turned into an event. By the time they got there the place was really jammed and they couldn’t get in. We don’t know this, but they may have first tried to get him through the doorway to the house but the crowds weren’t moving over to let them in.

I’m sure Jesus wouldn’t have turned them away. I doubt they could even get near his doorway. Besides, this guy was paralyzed. People in those days just assumed he was paralyzed because of some sin he or his parents did. How long had he been paralyzed? We don’t know the severity of his paralysis. The Bible doesn’t say that he was paralyzed for 38 years like the story of the paralytic in the Gospel of John. We know he was sick and paralyzed and they weren’t going to let him through.

So not getting in the front door, the friends carried the man on a stretcher up to the roof of Jesus’ home. Now what? So close and yet so far. One of them probably suggested they dig a hole in the clay roof and drop him down in front of Jesus. Think about how big a hole they would have had to dig to get a full grown man through it. What a mess that must have made. Can you imagine Jesus teaching in his living room when it starts to rain dirt in the house from the digging? That had to do some damage.

They lowered their friend right down into the living room, right into the presence of Jesus. At this Jesus saw their faith and used it as a teaching moment. This is one of the many stories where Jesus emphasized the power of faith. It wasn’t just the healed man who had faith but so did his friends.

Jesus saw their faith. Often our friends encourage and enlarge the faith we have. Friends are friends when we are sick. Friends are present to help us when we are sick, and these particular friends proved to be very good supporters.

Then Jesus said one of the most controversial things he could have said that day. He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now, that may seem an odd thing for Jesus to say, but not for his audience. The Jews of that day believed sin was the cause of illness and that sin caused their friend’s

paralysis. So Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven” as a means of beginning the healing process.

Listen to Jesus and his other similar words about forgiveness during other healings. To the woman at the well, Jesus said, “My daughter, your sins are forgiven.” To Peter’s mother-in-law when he healed her, “Woman, your sins are forgiven.” To the centurion’s servant, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

This line is the key to the story. Jesus has the power to forgive sins, and when sins are forgiven, there is healing in one’s life. This was true centuries ago and is often true today. That is, a particular sin or sins can work deeply in the psyche so much as to create physical paralysis. I personally have seen people literally paralyzed by guilt and sin. Perhaps you’ve seen such a person as well. Perhaps you are that person. Perhaps your life has been paralyzed by guilt or perfectionism or bad habits and it paralyzes you from doing what’s right. In that kind of situation, we’ve got to be freed of our paralysis and often forgiveness is an important step to becoming healthy again.

In the audience at Jesus’ house that night were some of the educated scribes sitting there, questioning in their hearts, "Why does this fellow speak this way? In the first three gospels, the “enemy” of Christ was almost always the scribes and the Pharisees, who were the leaders of the Jewish establishment. The scribes were the ones who had their advanced degrees in knowledge of the biblical laws of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. They and the Pharisees were partners in thought and attitude: they were the strict interpreters of the Old Testament Law for their daily lives. They thought that other people should live according to their strict interpretations of the Old Testament Torah.

We have seen the equivalent to the scribes and Pharisees in every religion and every century. They are those hyper-educated religious leaders who often love their religion more than the mercy of God. They love their interpretations of their Bible more than they love God. They love their own religious book and their own religion more than the sick people in front of them. These educated religious leaders (called scribes in this text) are found in all religions, in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. Their zeal is not for God’s mercy but for their religion.

And their reaction to this healing? Were they glad to see the paralyzed man healed? Were they delighted to see a miracle of God? Were they happy to see a man restored to health? NO. Instead they said, “Blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. Who do you think you are Jesus, that you have the power to forgive sins?”

Jesus knew what was going on in the hearts of these religious sour pusses. They had stoney faces and stoney hearts with no love for God. These scribes had no love for people who were hurting and no love for their neighbors. The only people they ever loved were religious stuffed shirts like themselves who were part of their religion and their interpretation of what they perceived to be the truth.

We have to realize blasphemy is the ultimate charge leveled at Jesus and what ultimately got Him crucified. Blasphemy is making one’s self equivalent to God. Human beings are not to elevate themselves to divinity. The scribes knew their Bible and knew it well. They had their PH. D. in Bible study and they knew well Leviticus 24:16. “anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death.The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death. The scribes knew their Old Testament law: ONLY GOD COULD FORGIVE SINS. NOBODY ELSE. Their comments lay the groundwork for what Jesus meant when he said that he could forgive sins.

At once Jesus perceived in His spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, "Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, "Stand up and take your mat and walk'? Jesus put the scribes and Pharisees on the defensive. Jesus, as always, put "the squeeze" on the doubters and trapped them in their own confessions.

“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" In this passage, Jesus identified himself as the Son of Man who not only comes at the end of history to be the final judge, but also has the power to forgive sins. In the Old Testament, only God had the authority to forgive sins. Now, Jesus was assuming that authority of forgiveness, making himself equal with God.

In the New Testament, did Jesus ever outright identify himself as the Son of God? No. Did he identify himself as the Jewish Messiah? No. One time, in Matthew, which is more of a Jewish gospel than the other gospels, Jesus identified himself as the Son of Man. Often, Son of Man was Jesus’ self-designation.

We are aware that Jesus spoke this particular word to this particular man. It isn't that Jesus said to all sick people to get out of bed and be healed. Real life doesn’t work that way. And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!" That is the way the people reacted to the healing miracle that happened to them and is also the way we also respond when we experience God’s miraculous healing in our lives. Of course, it is not inevitable that a healed person will praise God and share the good news of God’s healing. there is power to the testimony of God’s healing in one’s own life.

Let’s get back to that damaged roof. It now has a big hole in it. Who’s going to fix that before the rainy season? Who’s going to pay for that damage? It’s now dangerous to be on that roof. Someone might fall through and get hurt. Have you ever thought about that? Are those reasonable questions or not?

What I want you to notice is that Jesus didn’t seem to care about that roof. It wasn’t a problem for him. But notice what he cared about. The paralytic first and foremost. The people in his audience he was teaching, secondly. As Jesus was revealing that He had the power to forgive as God, He gave us a glimpse of what God cares about.

We care about the way our house looks, our car looks, our yard looks, our clothes look, our hair looks, our church looks, our bulletin looks and it’s a matter of a lot of discussion, time and energy.

But what does God care about? The well being of the human soul and the human soul is only well when it knows it’s forgiven. Do you know that you’re forgiven? Do you care?

The Son of God, who is He? Someone who cares less about a hole in a roof than a hole in our soul. While the paralytic would be able to walk again,

one day he would die and ultimately what has to happen is the hole in his soul needed to be fixed. That’s what Jesus dying on the cross did for him. As a follower of the Son of God, what do you care about?

TO LEARN MORE

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To learn and encourage one another

IF YOU’D LIKE TO KNOW HOW TO GET STARTED IN FAITH

1. Recognize that everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s ideal Romans 3:23-24

2. Know that the wages or payment for sinning is death Romans 6:23

3. But God loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die for usRomans 5:8

4. It is our responsibility to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and allow Him to become the master of our life

Romans 10:13

Invite Jesus into your heart by praying something like the prayer below… “Dear Lord Jesus, in many ways I have sinned against you. I am sorry and want to turn from my sinful ways. I invite you to come into my heart and begin to make me like yourself. I commit my life wholeheartedly to you now. Thank you for saving me.”