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Mark 2:1-12 - A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ² So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. ⁴ Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." ⁶ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷ "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" ⁸ 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? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? ¹⁰ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." He said to the paralytic, ¹¹ "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." ¹² 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!"

I don’t know how exactly the gospel of Mark was written – the consensus is that it was written by John Mark, the ministry companion of the apostle Peter. But you just know that when they decided to write up the story of Jesus’ life, that the two of them must have been sitting around reminiscing on Jesus’ life, and one of them must have said “remember that time those men dug through Jesus’ roof to get their paralyzed friend to him?” This story has that quality to it.

Jesus has come home, and being the celebrity that he is now, the people have crowded around to hear him. And these four men are bringing their paralyzed friend, who is obviously slowing them down to the point where the crowd has already surrounded the house, and they can not get in. Undeterred, these friends go up to the mud and thatch roof and dig through. You can just picture Jesus teaching when all of a sudden dirt begins to fall on his head. The men lower their paralyzed friend through, obviously hoping that Jesus will heal their friend And Jesus says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Huh?

Again – picture the paralyzed man: “That’s great, Jesus, but I still can’t move my legs!”

The men go all this way for a healing, and Jesus forgives their sins? What does this mean? Could it be that there is something more important than physical healing, than relieving suffering? Could it be that there is a disease worse than any physical disease, a malady that cripples worse than even paralysis? We all have struggles, trials, things that cause us to suffer. Probably none of them is worse than being paralyzed. And Jesus, seeing this paralyzed man, does not heal him of his paralysis at first but forgives his sin. Jesus is communicating to us that there is something much worse than paralysis, much worse than any sickness or disease. There is a spiritual sickness and disease called sin that has separated us from God and is keeping us from becoming the people God has created us to be. And this is the reason Jesus came – to forgive our sins and to destroy it from our lives.