MARK 2:1-12
A SICK MAN CAUSES A DISTURBANCE
I. THE PREACHER: * Mark 2:1,2
A.His Place. 2:1
B.His Popularity. 2:2
C.His Pronuncements 2:2
II. THE PARTISANS: ** Mark 2:3-5
A. Their Piety. 2:3
B. Their Persistence. 2:4
C. Their Payment. 2:5
III. THE PEOPLE: *** Mark 2:6-12
A. The Petulant. 2:6-11
B. The Pardoned. 2:12 C. The Penitent 2:12
In Chapter one, Mark says that many people of Capernaum were healed however, the man of our text was not one of them. In the second chapter of Mark, we find a story about a man who was so ill that he could not walk to meet Jesus. Mark opens his second chapter by telling us that many days later, Jesus came back to the area and this time this particular man was healed. While it is important to see the man healed and his sins forgiven, it is also important to see the faith of those four nameless men who carried this paralytic to meet the Master.
When all of these verses are combined, I see three things. I see THE PREACHER, who was Jesus. Next, I see THE PARTISANS, those who carried the paralyzed man to Jesus. Then, finally, I see THE PEOPLE who made up that congregation so long ago.
* THE PREACHER: I cannot help but note this Preacher-Jesus-as He was delivering a message.
Mark says that many days later, Jesus came and spoke to the people in a “house.” At this time, Jesus was not preaching in a synagogue nor the Temple, but in a common house. He did not care where He spoke just so He could preach the Good News. Since that time, the Good News about the redemption story has been given in store front churches, barns, tents, along side of a river, under brush arbors, trains, cars, hospitals, fox holes, and the list goes on and on. Here Jesus speaks to the people in a house, a common ordinary house and what a reception He received.
I then notice His Popularity. By the time He returned to Capernaum, the news about Him had spread far and wide. When He entered the house He drew an audience and so many people came to hear Him speak that there was absolutely no more room for one extra person to enter that house.
Then, I notice His Pronouncements. He spoke the Good News about God. He had to be a terrific Speaker to hold the audience’s attention as He did here. The first time He came to the area He healed many-now He comes to proclaim the Good News. It had to be a terrific sermon.
** THE PARTISANS: While attention is often given to the man who was crippled, the four bearers of the bed of this man have to be lauded for what they did and the faith they had.
It can be safely assumed, that these four men had either met Jesus on His first visit to the area and/or had heard about Him prior to this time. Maybe one of them or all of them had been healed when Jesus was there the first time. At any rate, these four decided that their sick friend was going to meet Jesus and that He would heal the broken man. What faith! What Piety these four men had. They knew that if their friend could just get to Jesus, he would solve everything. The same thing is true today-if we just can get our friends to meet Jesus, everything will be okay.
But, imagine their surprise when they got to the house and saw their way blocked! It would have been enough for ordinary men to throw up their hands and say, “Well, we tried.” Not these men. They had carried the man for some time and they were determined to bring him to Jesus. Their Persistence knew no bounds and when they found the way blocked to meet Jesus, they tried another way. Persistence paid off for them and will do the same for us if we really want to meet Jesus.
Then, I note the Payment they received-their friend was healed. What if they had stopped before they could get to Jesus? They would have had to carry the man home again and they were not about to do that. In spite of the house full of people, and in spite of the fact that Jesus was in the middle of a sermon, these characters ushered their cargo upstairs and began to remove the roofing tile. They were not going to go away without meeting Jesus. And, I note that instead of castigating these four men, Jesus said that their faith was what saved the soul of this man-He forgave the man his sins and as far as we know, this man never asked for forgiveness. The faith of the four was sufficient for this man’s salvation.
*** THE PEOPLE: One would think that the only man who would have been upset about this whole affair would have been the owner of the house. However, he is never mentioned, but the ones who were upset were the Pharisees, the Petulant ones.
Instead of rejoicing that one was now made clean on the inside, they began to mumble against Jesus for His act of forgiveness. These people, these Petulant ones, were sitting in the congregation listening to the Preacher of all preachers and they began to complain. Just because people go to Church does not mean that they are saints. Some of the most despicable and damaging sabotage against the Kingdom of God has often came from within the four walls of church buildings.
Ah, but the story does not end there. There were others in the audience who were believers, and they were no doubt the Pardoned ones who had heard Him speak before and/or who had been healed by Him and became believers in Him. The Bible says they rejoiced over the pardoning of this man’s sins. They could identify with his being forgiven of his sins. They once were held in the grip of sins themselves and now were free and they rejoiced that the man was made whole on the inside.
The passage closes with the Penitent one being made whole physically. Again, as far as we know, he never asked Jesus for anything, but boy what a day he had when he met Jesus. He took to his bed sometime ago sick and got up cured. He laid down in pain and got up in praise. He was helpless, hopeless and a hindrance-he got up without help, he had hope and he was no longer a handicapped. He laid down in sin and arose sinless. I even think, he yanked on the ropes from the hands of his friends and rolled them up with his bed while the men up on the roof began to lay the tile back down which they removed previously. He entered the house laying on a bed he walked out with the bed under his arms and walking on the rooftop-spiritually speaking. He entered the house at the mercy of his friends-he left with the mercies of a new Friend. He was whole at last.
