Forgiveness | Mark 2:1-12
Read the story.
The background to this story is that Jesus has drawn crowds, partly because of the authority of his teaching but mainly because of his healing ministry - his authority over creation, natural and what we'd call supernatural creation.
A mark of the earlier and later healing stories is that they are indiscriminate - he heals everyone of anything; Jews, Pagans - anyone who seeks him is offered mercy, but in the two stories here he goes beyond that to offer forgiveness. First to the ill and poor, then to the rich and corrupt.
In the first house (possibly Peter's) a room is literally 'un-roofed' so that friends can get the paralysed man in before Jesus.
Q: Whose faith does Jesus commend?
Q: Why do we need other people to have faith for and with us?
Jesus forgives as he speaks: son (literally - child) your sins are forgiven. He welcomes the paralysed man into the Kingdom of God because of the faith of him and his friends in seeking Jesus.
Q: Normally the person or people who are hurt are those who need to forgive. Jesus is also not declaring that sins can be forgiven if certain requirements are met (sacrifices for example); what is he assuming when he actually forgives sins?
Verse 9 has caused concern throughout church history. Some argue it is harder to heal - which is true for us. Others argue it is harder for Jesus to forgive - as ultimately that course takes him to the cross. Of course, in the Bible forgiveness and healing are linked. The spiritual and the physical echo each other in Genesis and Revelation 21 & 22. To me it seems that Jesus heals with ease but the cross, forgiveness, was not easy.
It can drive some people to despair when they finally have what they have always felt they needed only to find, as life moves on, they are left unchanged and unsatisfied. A lonely woman may find love but experience soon teaches her that happily-ever-after will depend upon deeper habits than that initial flush of love. A career may be successful at the cost of a family, a paralysed man may regain his ability to move and work but as the months pass and the euphoria fades he will still find he is essentially still himself; and if that self is discontent, covetous, rude, bitter, unforgiving, hateful ... he, and others, may wonder what is the point?
Q: If the first coming of Jesus was ultimately about our healing rather than our forgiveness - what would be different?
The second house is at the larger home of a wealthy customs official. These tax collectors did not charge set fees but charged what they could get. Capernaum was a border town where levies were collected by these Jewish men who were working for the occupying Roman forces. If we draw a parallel with Vichy France during the German occupation of that country in World War 2, it is not hard to imagine how most Jewish citizens would view these men. Yet Jesus eats with them, which, in a middle-eastern context implies acceptance, friendship, sharing and forgiveness.
Q: What does Jesus need to see in people to forgive them and why is this not constrained by the things that constrain us from relating to each other?
A pastoral note
Q: Why is forgiveness important? One reason is that many of us are life’s victims; our health, our parent’s divorce, our wealth, education or social abilities define us. If we had the things we longed for we think we’d be happy, in the meantime we justify the way we are to ourselves and others because of what has happened to us.
The forgiveness that Jesus offers us liberates us from this victim mentality because his forgiveness defines us, not our circumstances. Once we know forgiveness for ourselves we begin to learn to forgive and even the hardest parts of our lives turn into an opportunity to shine by serving him. If we have the company of God we have hope and if we have hope we have resilience to change, take risks, love and live. The resurrection power, like the Kingdom of God, is a seed that first grows from within us.