Grace For Your Day March 4

In the opening chapters of the Gospel of Mark, we are told that Jesus heals people on six separate occasions. For example, He heals:

1) The demon possessed man in the synagogue (Mark 1:21-28)

2) Simon’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31)

3) Various people from the town of Capernaum (Mark 1:32-34)

4) Various people throughout the province of Galilee (Mark 1:39)

5) An anonymous leper (Mark 1:40-45)

6) An anonymous paralytic who was lowered through a roof by his friends (Mark 2:1-12)

We have already covered the first five events in our series on Sunday mornings. However, we have not discussed the sixth one yet. Mark 2:1-12 describes it this way:

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?’ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”

So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

When it says that the crowd was amazed by this miracle, that means that they were shocked. Not only because this man’s friends lowered him through a roof in order to help him but also because Jesus was able to cure him instantly. In the blink of an eye, Jesus took a man who could not move his legs at all and He enabled him to walk “in full view of them all.”

This event also left some of these people dumbfounded because Jesus told this man that his sins were forgiven (verse 5). The reason He did that is because the Jews often equated paralysis with sin. They believed that, if you could not walk, it was on account of the fact that you did something wrong in the eyes of God so Jesus tells this man that He is going to help him with that problem too because He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Such an idea would prove to be too much for the teachers of the law because they would scoff at it. In their minds, it was blasphemous for a mere man like Jesus to say something like that. However, Jesus showed them that He could do it because He was not a mere man. He had the power to do miracles which is what we are going to look at this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to talk about “The Man Who Went through the Roof to See Jesus” in order to study one of the most fascinating stories in the Gospel of Mark because this man literally came through the ceiling in order to meet Christ. He descended from the rafters so he could sit at the Savior’s feet because he believed Jesus was worth it.

In fact, he and his friends were so passionate about this that they would have done anything to get to Jesus. Tear up a roof? Sure. Dig through a ceiling? Yes. Make a scene in front of everyone? No problem because they believed that He was worthy of anything. Their love for Christ overcame every obstacle.

Do you have the same sort of passion today? I hope so. Does your love for Christ overcome every obstacle too because you believe He is worthy? It should but, if not, I believe that this passage will help to rekindle your fire because it is hard to read it without walking away with a greater appreciation for Jesus and how much He should mean to us. We should all be willing to tear up a roof in order to get to Him.

Please join us as we discuss that together over the weekend. The service will begin at 9:30 on Sunday morning and the sermon will be recorded and placed on our You Tube Channel afterwards for all those who cannot make it in person.

- Jeremy Cagle