Be the Sheep-Sick Part I
What kind of friends do you have surrounding you?
This sermon message could have been titled “Be the Sheep-Friends,” too. Our scripture comes from Mark 2. When I read verse 1, I couldn’t help but be thrown back to the 80s with the statement at the end of the verse, though slightly modified. “Jesus in the HOUSE!” If you know, you know. Yeah, I’m getting older, and that was kind of dumb, but it was funny to me.
Before I go too much further, let’s post the scripture.
1When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home.
2And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them.
3And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men.
4Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.
5And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts,
7“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?
9“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?
10“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic,
11“I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.”
12And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”
Mark 2:1–12 (NASB95)
The word “many” from verse two is interesting in that it gets translated differently depending on what part of speech it is; singular or plural, adverb, adjective, or noun. Here it is for you to read rather than me explaining it.
Greek Strong’s Number: 4183
Greek Word: πολύς
Transliteration: polys
Phonetic Pronunciation: pol-oos’
Root: including the forms from the alternate pollos
Cross Reference: TDNT - 6:536
Part of Speech: adj
Vine’s Words: Great, Greatly, Long, Many, Much, Oft, Often, Oftener, Oftentimes, Oft-times, Plenteous
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
many 210
much 73
great 59
miscellaneous translations 23
[Total Count: 365]
including the forms from the alternate pollos; (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) many; neuter (singular) as adverb largely; neuter (plural) as adverb or noun often, mostly, largely:- abundant, + altogether, common, + far (passed, spent), (+ be of a) great (age, deal, -ly, while), long, many, much, oft (-en [-times]), plenteous, sore, straitly. Compare <G4118> (pleistos), <G4119> (pleion).
James Strong, “Πολύς,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
Verse 2 sets the stage as Jesus began the event as hosting a home church but as He went on, more and more people showed up. First, they filled the room He was in. Then they filled any connecting rooms that could see and hear Him. That room must have had an exterior door because verse 2 mentions, “…about the door…” so they could hear Him outside, too. That meant whatever space directly outside that door was full as well. If that was the ‘front yard,’ then it spilled into the streets to where people could no longer hear Jesus’ voice, so they wondered what the crowd was about.
Verse 3 and enter the friends carrying their sick friend, confined to a pallet. The KJV uses the word “palsy,” while the NASB uses “paralytic.” In either case, the man on the pallet couldn’t walk on his own and had to be carried.
I don’t want to dig too deeply into the friends bringing the paralytic to the gathering here. We’ll get into that when this switches over to the sermon message. However, I think it is necessary and worthy to note how devoted a group of friends this is. The paralytic isn’t a rude or unkind person. Quite the opposite. A disliked person would never have had four people carry him to see a healer and even if they would, they wouldn’t have worked so hard or put in this much effort to get him to see that healer.
Verse 4 has the most amazing demonstration of friendship and a willingness to damage someone else’s home to get to Jesus. The four friends “uncovered the roof” of the house over Jesus. Consider being the home owner quietly listening to the Master teach in your home. Suddenly, dust begins to fall down. You look up, and four guys are opening a hole in your house! Some depictions show them simply opening some sort of hoist or lift access point with a door or hatch. That doesn’t feel dramatic enough to me, though it fits with what they did: lower their friend on his bed down to Jesus. I still like the imagery, and it does say in the KJV they “broken it up,” of them digging a hole through the roofing or pulling back the tiles to open up a space to lower their pal down to Jesus. I can just imagine the homeowner trying to get through the crowd, outside to the stairs on the side of the house, and up to the men on the roof. It was just as futile an attempt for him to get outside as it was for the friends with the paralytic to get inside, so he had to resign himself to let it happen.
Verse 5 glosses over the faith of the four friends, but I want to mention here how strong it must have been. These four friends were willing to take the heat and blame for damaging the other man’s home to get their friend down to the one they believed could help him. How magnificent is that faith these four guys had?
For any young men or women out there reading this, this is why the friends you surround yourself with matter. This is why your parents filter out the people of bad character they identify through their life experiences as being bad for you. This is why they try to put you in positions to meet people of quality. To everyone else, this is why you should surround yourself with people of quality because you never know when you will need to call upon them to stand and deliver.
Now we get to the doubters.
Verse 6 has the “scribes” mentioned. These were people who wrote down the things other people wanted committed to lasting records as a profession. Typically, they worked with religious folks like the Sadducees and Pharisees, so they picked up their opinions and mannerisms from those who employed them.
Verse 7 demonstrates to the reader that the people of the time considered Jesus to be claiming to be God. People who spout the argument that Jesus never claimed to be God are being obtuse to the fact that it was widely held that Jesus put Himself forth as God made flesh, and His followers believed this.
Verse 8 demonstrates the all-knowing power of Christ. The scribes did not say this to Jesus nor did they speak it loud enough for Him to hear. Jesus knew their hearts like He and God know our hearts. What I find interesting is that Jesus already knew why they thought the way they did, but He asked the question of them anyway. Why is that? I believe it is because He wanted everyone around Him to know what they thought and why, as He did.
Verse 9 Jesus continues to talk because, naturally, the scribes are surrounded by people who love Jesus. They are wisely afraid to speak disparaging remarks about Him, or they will be assaulted and kicked out. I wonder if they were there to spy on Jesus for the Sadducees and Pharisees or because they just wanted to hear what He had to say? Regardless, Jesus reveals why He asked a question He already knew the answer to and demonstrated He didn’t need the scribes to answer Him to accomplish what He intended.
I want to take a moment to talk about the word faith from verse 5. Recall it was the faith of the four friends that healed the paralytic, not anything he did or said on his own. What does that mean? What is faith? Let’s look at the Greek word behind it to see if there is a clue.
Greek Strong’s Number: 4102
Greek Word: πίστις
Transliteration: pistis
Phonetic Pronunciation: pis’-tis
Root: from <G3982>
Cross Reference: TDNT - 6:174,849
Part of Speech: n f
Vine’s Words: Assurance, Assure, Assuredly, Belief, Believe, Believers, Faith, Fidelity
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
faith 239
assurance 1
believe + <G1537> 1
belief 1
them that believe 1
fidelity 1
[Total Count: 244]
from <G3982> (peitho); persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstract constancy in such profession; by extensive the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself:- assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.
James Strong, “Πίστις,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
“Moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher).” “Believe.” “By extensive the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself.” “Fidelity.” I copied those to lend weight to them. Our faith in Jesus is supposed to come from a place of morality, of a belief that what is in scripture is true, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a fact, not fiction. We are supposed to carry a fidelity, a loyalty to that truth, which means being willing to base our actions upon it.
In short, we believe it, so we produce fruits in our lives based on what we believe as true.
That’s the faith of these four men for their friend’s healing. That’s the faith Jesus wants in His followers. That’s the faith we are supposed to reflect daily in our lives, that what we learn from scripture is real, has real meaning, and real effect in our fleshly world so we should act upon it.
Let’s look at another word from verse 5, “forgive.” If you thought faith was hard, this one is harder.
Greek Strong’s Number: 863
Greek Word: ἀφίημι
Transliteration: aphiēmi
Phonetic Pronunciation: af-ee’-ay-mee
Root: from <G575> and hiemi (to send, an intens. form of eimi, to go)
Cross Reference: TDNT - 1:509,88
Part of Speech: v
Vine’s Words: Alone, Cease, Forgive, Forgave, Forgiveness, Forsake, Leave, Left, Let (alone; go), Remission, Remit, Suffer, Utter, Yield
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
leave 52
forgive 47
suffer 14
let 8
forsake 6
let alone 6
miscellaneous translations 13
[Total Count: 146]
from <G575> (apo) and hiemi (to send; an intensive form of eimi, to go); to send forth, in various applications (as follow):- cry, forgive, forsake, lay aside, leave, let (alone, be, go, have), omit, put (send) away, remit, suffer, yield up.
James Strong, “Ἀφίημι,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
“To send forth,” “lay aside,” “leave,” “omit,” “(send) away.” All these words are how we deal with something we have forgiven. This is all-encompassed in what Jesus said was done to the sins of the paralytic and the healing done to him. I’ll get more into why Jesus had to say his sins were forgiven to heal him when we get into the message discussion. For now, it was necessary for the act of healing his palsy. But what we should take away from the understanding of the Greek word behind “forgive” is encompassed in understanding how God forgives.
21Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
22Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Matthew 18:21–22 (NASB95)
25“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.
Isaiah 43:25 (NASB95)
10He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
12As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:10–12 (NASB95)
10“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people.
11“And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all will know Me, From the least to the greatest of them.
12“For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”
Hebrews 8:10–12 (NASB95)
Jeremiah 31:33-34
“…and I will remember their sins no more.” That is the forgiveness of God. That is what Jesus meant, and that is what we are to emulate when we forgive people. That’s really, really hard to do.
Verse 10 explains why Jesus, knowing why the scribes are murmuring amongst themselves, asks the question He already knows the answer to, out loud. It is so everyone will know that He is who He says He is. It is to demonstrate that He does have power that people can see. He gives them a sign. We’ll go into this deeper when we get into the message about why this mattered in conjunction with saying, “Your sins are forgiven,” but for now it is enough to know they are connected.
Verse 11 is Jesus vocalizing what His power will do, which I think had already been done to the paralytic. He just didn’t know it until Jesus told him to get up and walk. When Jesus forgave his sins, I think the healing happened then. Jesus just put it into the man’s mind that he could walk now and told him to do it.
Verse 12 demonstrates a couple things. First, it demonstrates the outcome was what Jesus wanted on the scribes and the crowd. They were “amazed.” Then, they all glorified God, as it should be. Note they didn’t glorify Jesus, who was the one performing the act of healing. They rightly gave credit to God who is the one who gave Jesus the power to do it in the first place, and they all knew that. They were starting to come to terms with the fact that God and the man in front of them were one and the same. Finally, we have them noting this miracle was something no one had seen before. That will become important when we go through the message tomorrow. For now, understand that everyone was very impressed with what they saw, which was Jesus’ goal in doing it.