Forgiveness on the Floor

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Mark 2:5–7 (ESV)

Mark Chapter 2 finds Jesus returning to Capernaum, the area that became His headquarters in Galilee. One day, as He taught the word (Mark 2:2), the crowd grew to the point that there was no more room for anyone to get in. As it usually did, I am sure His teaching centered on “The long-prophesied about and long-awaited Messiah has arrived to wreck the power of sin and inaugurate the reign of God in the lives of His people.”

God often used miracles, signs, wonders, and healings to accompany Jesus’ teachings to validate His authority, message, and identity. In typical Markan brevity, we’re told that “they” brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus, could not get to Him, and dropped their buddy down through the roof right in front of Jesus (Mark 2:3-4. See also Matthew 9:2-8; Luke 5:18-26).

Jesus looks at the paralytic and declares, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Several big-shot religious leaders were in the crowd that day, and Jesus, looking at them, made a stunning claim: “[I do this] that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Mark 2:10). Then He looks at the paralyzed dude and says, “Rise, pick up your bed, and go home” (Mark 2:11).

I do not guarantee much, but I guarantee you that the nanosecond the sound waves from Jesus’ words hit the religious leaders’ ears, they lost their minds . . . went ballistic. “This is blasphemy. This man is a heretic. He is of the devil.”

When I read this for the first time, I read it again. And then read it one more time to make sure I read it right. I closed the Bible and put it away because, in that moment in 2000, I agreed with the Scribes, “This man was crazy.” After a day or two, I picked that Bible back up and pressed on.

Several months later, on the night of January 17, 2001, sitting in my parents’ living room, walking them through my last 13 months—confessing my surrender to Jesus as my Savior—I told them I was forgiven. Jesus forgave my sins. My dad looked at me like I was an outright fool. He didn’t say exactly what Mark records the Scribes saying in Mark 2:7, but he said it nonetheless.

My mom went on to say, “God forgives. That man never claimed to be God.” Notice that she used the phrase “that man” because she or my dad would never utter the name Jesus. To her point, is there any place in the Bible that records Jesus saying the words, “I am God”? Not exactly. But, asking the question this way is committing the fallacy of reading and questioning an ancient text through modern Western eyes. The better question is, “How did the original hearer of Jesus’ words in Capernaum in the first century hear them?” Without question, they heard them as a claim of deity. What do you think the charge of blasphemy was for? If only God can forgive sins and “this man” claims to have the authority to forgive sins, then “this man” is clearly claiming to be God.

Back to the couch in their living room, I had been a Christian for a whopping 12 hours. I could not adequately make some scholarly defense of the Christian faith. I wasn’t Ray Comfort or Lee Strobel or Josh McDowell or C.S Lewis. I didn’t even know what the word “apologetics” meant. In a feeble attempt to defend myself, the only words I could get out were, “All I know is that He forgave me!” To that, they both called me a bleeping traitor.

Maybe you’ve felt, for your entire life, like this paralytic—that you couldn’t get to God. You couldn’t get to Him. In your mind, He was too far away, or you were too far away, or the crowds were too big, or your sin was too great, or . . . If any of that is true of your thoughts or feelings, please understand that He wants to look at you lying on the floor paralyzed and say, “My son/My daughter, your sins are forgiven.”

Lord Jesus, I believe You are exactly who You say You are. I believe that You can do exactly what You say You can do. Thank You for forgiving me in the wee hours of that January morning in 2001. Lord, I lift up everyone who is struggling to get to You today. I ask that You remove anything that is in their way, whether real or imagined; please break down the walls between them and You. I praise You and honor You this day and every day. Amen.