No Easy Road
But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.”
- Mark 2:10-11
It is not hard to imagine the crowds clamoring for a peek at Jesus. Surely you have run into situations like this at some point. You are minding your own business, you hear a rumor, or you see a crowd gathering, and you want to see what is going on. These days it is often an athlete, a singer or movie star who generates such interest and draws a crowd. In those days, a rabbi or a healer might do it, and that is what happened here.
If we look at how the story fits into this part of the Gospel of Mark, it sure seems like Jesus is trying to get a message across to his followers. Think about those who draw large crowds and followers today. Patrick Mahomes. Taylor Swift. While they’re popular, while they’re on the top of their game, they’re easy to follow. It’s easy to be in their entourage. It’s easy to be one of their disciples.
So far in Mark it has been like that for Jesus and his followers. He has healed: Peter’s mother-in-law, the leper, the exorcisms in synagogues. Jesus is a popular guy, so much so that Mark says “he could no longer go into a town openly,” since “people came to him from every quarter.” But things are changing. This is his first confrontation.
Jesus starts a confrontation with the scribes because he knows what they’re thinking in their hearts. What is the not so hidden message to his followers? This will not be all fun and games – the scribes and Pharisees are going to be after us. Later he has several more run-ins with the scribes and Pharisees: dinner with sinners and tax collectors, arguments over not fasting, and eating on the Sabbath. Then he heals on the Sabbath and drives the Pharisees to begin to plot how to destroy him.
Maybe he’s trying to get a point across to his followers. Maybe he’s trying to get a point across to you. This is not going to be an easy road.
So where’s the good news in that? Well, it is a little comforting to me that maybe Jesus is already preparing them for this reality. And it is also comforting that he shows them—and us—his true identity.
What is that identity? Jesus is the one who forgives. Jesus is the one who heals.
Jesus forgives you when you think that what you have done is unforgivable. He forgives you when your sin has so crippled you that you’re unable to get up and walk to him. Jesus heals you when you’ve tried and tried to do it yourself, but nothing seems to work. As we see from this story, maybe sometimes you have to rely on your friends and their faith, but Jesus draws you in, and forgives you, heals you, and tells you to take up your mat and walk.
Jesus forgives and heals because he is the Son of God. He continues to forgive and heal you, even when the road is not easy. Sometimes the healing is immediate, but sometimes it is forged through the pain of a refining fire. Sometimes the healing and forgiving looks just like you want it to; sometimes you have to look hard for God’s grace. But either way, Jesus draws you to himself—by his words and deeds or by faithful friends carrying you on a mat. There is nothing that you can do, nothing that you will go through where he will leave you.
Who is this Jesus? He is not an athlete who will ditch you and the rest of his entourage as he ages and loses his big-time contract. He is not a movie star who will fence himself off from you and other adoring stars when fame gets to be a little too much. He is not going to leave you when the crowds flee, and when nobody else will stand by you. He is the Son of Man, who has authority on earth to forgive your sins. He is the Son of God, and he forgives, and he heals. Thanks be to God!