Mark 2:1–12 — Able and Willing

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This sermon is from Mark chapter 2 verses 1 through 12 and is titled "Able and Willing."

Mark 2:1–12

It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, May 25th, 2025.

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So Mark showed us a lot in chapter 1 about who Jesus is.

He showed us that he is the Son of God with all authority.

He showed us that he came on a mission to call people to repentance,

all the while living perfectly as they could not. And then ultimately,

he came to suffer and die in our place, taking the penalty

for our imperfection so that we could be made clean.

We already have a better idea of who Jesus is and what he came to do than his

disciples did at that time. Certainly a better idea than the crowds

and the religious leaders, thanks to Mark. And in today's

passage, we see Jesus return to Capernaum after

preaching abroad for a time. So Peter's house

functioned as kind of a home away from home for him.

And people found out that he's back. Jesus is back in town.

And this crowd has gathered in the house and it says even around the door

in Jesus' preaching to them. And the story that we're covering today

is really pretty short and to the point, but it's packed

with responses by different people. And so that's what we're going to spend a

little bit of time looking at. This is a little different crowd

than the one he had the last time. And I suspect it's because

instead of standing at the door performing signs and healing,

he's inside preaching the word to them. We'll talk about that a little more

later. Some of these people in this story will identify with. And some of them

will learn from, but all of them have some kind of

problem that they bring to Jesus. And this is something that we can definitely

all identify with. And individual struggles and problems are frequently

something that comes up in house church discussion. So I want you to think

about this for a moment. When you have a problem, where do you go?

My guess is that the answer to that question kind of depends on what the

problem is, right? For kids, we usually go to our parents.

Or we go to a teacher or an instructor kind of depending on the issue.

The problem dictates who we go to. For example, my kids are in dance and karate.

And so if they have a ballet or karate question or issue,

they can sure come to me and I'm willing to help,

but they know full well that I'm usually unable. I'm not qualified

to deal with that particular thing. It's not that I'm unwilling,

I just don't have the ability to help. As an adult,

if you get a speeding ticket, you might choose to go show up in a court

and can test the ticket. And you can come prepared to the courtroom with

the greatest excuse about why you were speeding and your

headlight was out and you really just needed chocolate milk at 11 p.m.

Right? The judge does actually have the ability

to make the ticket go away, but they may not be willing

to do that. For a problem to be solved, you have to have both, right? You have to

have someone who is both willing and able to solve the issue.

And in today's passage, we're going to see that Jesus is both willing

and able to deal with our issues, particularly though

the issue of our sin. And it's we who have the issue

recognizing our need and bringing that to Jesus.

The good news is that grace is offered to us abundantly

in Christ should we choose to come to him. So with that thought on our minds,

let's go read this passage. This is Mark chapter 2

Mark 2:1–12

verses 1 through 12.

And when he returned to Capernaum after some days,

it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together so that

there was no more room, not even at the door, and he was preaching the word to

them. And they came, bringing to him a

paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because

of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.

And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic

lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the

paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now, some of the

scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts.

Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately, Jesus, perceiving in his

spirit that they thus questioned within themselves,

said to them, "Why do you question these things in your hearts?

Which is easier to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven?'

Or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.'

But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins."

He said to the paralytic, "I say to you,

rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and immediately picked up his

bed and went out before them all so that they were all amazed

and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this."

So, as I mentioned before, we're going to look at three people

in this story and see how paralysis seems to be a common problem shared by

them, though they are not all aware of it. Let's start with the physically

paralyzed man. His problem is the most obvious out of

all of them, and really it's the problem presented in this story.

The man can't walk, and the only way he gets anywhere

is when his friends carry him around. Truly, what's unique about this man

is his friends and their concern and care for him.

In a culture that largely sets aside the lame and the sick,

as we saw with the leper, and we'll see in other parts of scripture with the

disabled kind of hovering around the temple gates begging for a living,

this man is set apart by his friends.

They hear that Jesus has come back to Capernaum, and they know

about the healing that happened the last time Jesus was there,

and so they pick up their paralyzed friend and they carry him to the house.

When they see the crowd around the door, they are not discouraged at all. They

know the only way is through the roof. Now, this isn't as strange as it seems to

us. The roof was likely accessible from the exterior

and was flat, often used as a kind of deck by those who lived there. If you

remember from the book of Acts, we get this story where Peter is spending time

in prayer up on the roof and someone comes up and calls him down

when the messenger arrives. And so they carry him up to this

roof and they get to work making an opening probably by removing

some clay tiles that were on the roof. And so the scene is a little less like a

man suddenly falling down through the drywall from the attic, which is kind of

the picture that I always had in my mind as a kid, and a little more like an

unexpected crowd surfer in a hammock that's being lowered to the ground in

front of Jesus. When you live in a house like we do with

either 10 or 12 foot ceilings, this seems a little crazier than it was. We're

probably talking about a seven foot ceiling that I would touch if I

lifted my hands. Smaller people at that time, smaller

architecture, not quite as far to lower this man

to the crowd below. Now let's talk about what is strange.

It's not the man in the hammock on the floor.

It's not the hole in the ceiling or the faces that are peering through it.

What Jesus actually takes note of here is their faith.

This gives us a really good working definition of what faith is.

It is not a feeling, as you may have heard, but rather it's an action taken

in response to a belief. It's a belief held so highly that it drives you

to take action, to take a step forward. This man and his friends believed

that Jesus could heal him so much that it compelled them to do something about it.

It compelled them to carry the man to the place where Jesus was,

to be undeterred by the crowd and head for the roof, to make a hole

and lower him through it. Notice it says, "When Jesus saw their faith,"

this is not just the faith of the friends, but the man as well. The man is

actually who he addresses. Don't get the idea that the man was

unwillingly carried all the way. He wanted to be healed.

When Jesus sees this man, he actually sees past

just the obvious need to have his legs healed.

He sees to a far greater need. Jesus sees a man who not only can't take a

single step on his own, but also a man who is

eternally separated from God because of his spiritual

condition, a man who can't take a single step closer to God

on his own. So Jesus does something that only Jesus can do.

He offers him a cure for the condition that goes past his temporary

physical one and offers him forgiveness. Before we go on,

let's just pause a moment to recognize some things that are worth

considering here. The actions of this man and his friends

were a kind of faith that Jesus recognized

and responded to by offering forgiveness. Don't miss how simple their faith was.

They believed Jesus was the one person who could help

and would stop at nothing to come to him. That's it.

They had a belief that compelled them to action and the action

was just to come to Jesus. There was no 10-step program. There was no additional

steps of penance. There was no quest with endless side quests.

So maybe you need to hear that today. That the kind of faith that saves us is the

simple kind that causes us to come to Jesus

because we know there is no other hope. It's the kind that knows our hope is in

this man who did what we could not and offers us the grace and healing that we

do not deserve. Yes, there's a life that we live out in

response to that forgiveness, but the kind of faith that saves

is the kind that moves us to come to Jesus.

So we know that the man gets healed of his physical brokenness,

right? And we'll get to that part in a minute. But before we do,

let's look at our next group of characters,

the scribes. If you thought some guy's making a hole in the roof and a crowd

surfing disabled man was going to cause a commotion, which it probably did,

wait until Jesus says your sins are forgiven

in front of the scribes who are the religious experts

of their day. That was the moment where everything really went off the rails

in that crowd. The scribes heard what Jesus said

and into their mind floods passages from the Old Testament, passages like

Exodus 34, 6, and 7. "The Lord, the Lord, a God, merciful and gracious,

forgiving, iniquity, and transgression, and sin."

The Lord is the one forgiving. Isaiah 43, 25. "I, I am he who blots out your

transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."

Micah 7, 18. "Who is a God like you, pardoning, iniquity, and passing over

transgression for the remnants of his inheritance?"

These passages come into their minds and they question in their hearts

with perhaps a glance from one to another, thinking,

"Who does this guy think he is? What is he saying?"

If God alone can forgive sin and he just claimed to forgive this man's sins,

he's claiming that he's God. They think that he's blaspheming, which is

lying and speaking as though he is God because the alternative

that he is actually God is just unthinkable for them.

Not even for reference, not even the high priest could make such a claim to

forgive someone's sin. That was not even something that they could do.

And based on their understanding of who the Messiah was going to be,

they didn't even think he was going to be able to forgive

sin. Remember, they were expecting some kind of earthly warrior king to free

them from Roman oppression and establish a kingdom on

earth. They weren't expecting somebody who was

coming to deal with a far greater issue than Roman

occupation, someone who was coming to deal with the issue

of their separation from God. So Jesus does not just one thing, but two,

to give them just a hint that he might actually

be God in the flesh. First, he tells them what's happening in their hearts.

Remember, they haven't said a word yet. The glance from one to another that I

just inferred, that's just my assumption. The text doesn't say

that. They haven't said a word and yet Jesus knows

what they're pondering within themselves.

Psalm 4421 says that God knows the secrets

of the heart. First Samuel 167 says that man can only see the outside appearance,

but the Lord Yahweh looks at the heart. Jesus is here doing something

that only God can do, seeing the hearts of these men who are doubting him,

and he calls them on it in front of everybody.

Second, he gives them a kind of ultimatum. He knows

that they question his ability to heal, and they also question his ability to

forgive sin. So in classic rabbinic style, which just

means a classical style of teaching of a rabbi of that time,

he gives them this kind of equation that looks something like this. If

thing A is a big claim that's hard to prove, and thing B is a big claim that's

easily proven, then I'm going to do thing B

just to prove that I can do thing A. For example, I think back to the movie

K-Pax. The main character claims to a psychiatrist

that he's an alien who can travel faster than the speed of light,

and so they tell him to prove it, and he says, "Okay," and he looks up,

and after pausing, he says, "You see?" And they say, "You never left,"

and his response to them is, "I'm already back."

No one is impressed in that moment. They don't believe him a bit,

because it wasn't a proof that he actually was able to do

what he said he could. Until a few days later, he simply disappears for a few

days from the locked building and then shows back up again, and then they start

to wonder, because there was some physical evidence that he was able to do

something. So Jesus says, "I'm going to perform

a miracle for a purpose so that you know I have

the authority to do something even more miraculous."

And he heals the man, and they are astonished.

Another aspect of this that makes it interesting is

the cultural assumption that the man has done something

to earn this physical condition. We touched on this last week a bit with

the leper, but even for the disabled man, there was a belief that either they

or their parents had sinned and therefore caused this issue as a

punishment, that it was some kind of divine judgment.

And so the Scribes certainly would have seen this unfolding with that unspoken

judgment in the backs of their minds on this man,

when in fact they were under the same judgment the man was under,

and the rest of humanity for that matter. So what does Jesus do?

He performs a visible physical healing so that people might believe that he is

able to perform an invisible spiritual one.

Jesus saw the physically paralyzed man laying in front of him,

but he also saw the spiritually paralyzed men in the crowd.

Their paralysis was far more serious. This man would be healed of his

paralysis, but more importantly would be forgiven

of his sin. That kind of healing leads someone into

walking with Jesus for eternity. His healing was

more complete than he ever imagined, but these Scribes in the crowd

actually needed the work of Jesus just as much as the paralyzed man

did, and they don't see that. The biggest difference between the Scribes

and the paralyzed man wasn't their physical condition,

their social status, their education. It was that one saw Jesus as their only

hope and came to him, and one disbelieved him silently.

The greatest irony here is that the paralyzed man, even in his paralyzed state,

was more alive in that moment than the Scribes.

The best news, though, is that Jesus came for the man and the Scribes alike. He

came for both of them. He came for people like

Mary, who loved him well, and he came for people like Thomas,

who doubted him. The question that remained for each of these people, and

for each of us, is how will we respond? What shape will our faith take if faith

is recognized by Jesus as a belief that compels us to take action?

What action will we take? Will we come to Jesus

for the forgiveness of our sins, or will we hold on to our own

self-righteousness in silence?

This leaves us with one final group as we finish this miraculous account,

and it's the crowd. It's not, again, the same crowd as before, and part of that

could be due to what the people were gathered for. I kind of hinted at this

earlier. Some of the commentators on this passage point out that the people are

gathered to hear Jesus preach the word to them, indicating that there's a great

spiritual hunger. I don't disagree with them. I think they're right,

but I want to point out something else. This crowd

is significantly smaller than before. Remember the last time he was in

Capernaum? The whole town was at the door of the

house, and people were getting healed, demons getting

exercised. It was a whole thing. We're talking a thousand people likely,

but when Jesus comes back to Capernaum, which was the closest thing he had to a

hometown outside of Nazareth, where he's originally from,

it's a crowd maybe a tenth the size. Why?

It's the same Jesus, but this time, instead of being outside doing miracles,

he's inside preaching. I don't want to make too much out of this, because

I don't think it's the main point Mark is trying to get across, but I do think

it gives us a little insight into how people will repeatedly respond to Jesus.

Even during his earthly ministry, and I think it helps us with our expectations

today too. When Jesus stops doing miracles and

starts teaching them about the kingdom of God,

a large majority lose interest. They weren't there to hear the preaching.

They were there for the spectacle. When Jesus starts talking about sin

and his unique ability to forgive them, some people rejoice,

but others are going to walk away offended. Now, in this story, it looks like

even some of the scribes in this crowd respond positively.

Glorifying God, being amazed, but we know that this charge of blasphemy will be

one that keeps getting brought up by this group of people. In fact,

it's going to be the thing that comes up later.

It's going to be the thing that Jesus is accused of

that gets him sent to the cross.

Another thing that we don't see is the crowd ever portrayed as

massively coming to faith in Jesus and following him. Even the majority of those

who rejoice at what God has done in this group of people and are amazed,

they don't decide to follow Jesus for the next two years or so.

So I think the takeaway here is twofold. First, you cannot find saving

faith in Jesus by passively observing from the

sidelines. Saving faith in Jesus by definition

requires actively responding to him and stepping out in faith, saying,

"All my hope is in you."

This is why we talk about baptism so often because we want each person in our

family, in the church, to take a step forward in faith,

to put all their trust in Jesus and to declare that in baptism.

You cannot be born into saving faith. That is not what the Bible teaches

anywhere. You personally have to respond to the call of Jesus

by stepping forward in faith and saying, "I believe that I am a sinner.

I believe that Jesus is the only one who can and did pay the price

for my sin, and I believe that repenting and following him

is the only way to eternal life." You don't have to have it all figured out.

You don't have to have every answer, but you do have to believe

that to the point where you step out in faith and say,

"This I know is true. Jesus is my only hope,

and he is both willing and able to save me." And if you haven't done that today,

I would love to have a conversation with you about it.

Second, for those of us following Jesus already, doing our best to follow the

command of Jesus to go and make disciples, the crowds

that come for the spectacle will not often stay to hear the truth.

You can have the biggest stage, the most talented

musicians, the most enigmatic speaker, and the most entertaining kids and youth

programs, all the spectacle and all of the lights,

and you will bring people in. But if you were to take all of that away,

how many would stay to simply hear the word of God

preached? And of those who will stay and listen,

only a few respond by following Jesus. I know this sounds like I'm being kind of

a pessimist here, so why am I sharing this? Because

while I know it's exciting to see crowds of people coming to some of the

spectacles you see being put on, I want us to know that the crowd

is not a reliable measure of success for those on a mission to make disciples.

By the same measure, it is easy to feel discouraged

when you are struggling to keep up with the few people

that you're trying to love and lead closer to Christ,

and you're comparing yourself with entertainers and mega church pastors

and Christians who seem to have all of the influence.

But for people called by Jesus on the mission to make disciples,

our success must be defined by how well

we bring people to the feet of Jesus. To be clear, this is not a condemnation

of churches with large gatherings of believers.

It is a clarification that the size of a crowd

should not encourage us or discourage us, because we are not called to gather

crowds, but to lead people to Jesus. You know what the greatest

miracle, though, in this entire account is? This man had his sins

forgiven. His body was one day going to break down again, and he was going to

die, but for those who put their faith in Jesus

and have their sins forgiven, we get life abundant and eternal.

This is something that Jesus is willing and able to give us. Should we come to

him in faith and recognize him as our only hope, this is the greatest

miracle that Jesus came for people like you and people

like me, so that we could be forgiven and

reconciled with God. This undeserved grace of God made available

to us through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus

is the greatest miracle, and it is one Jesus is willing and able to do

for all who would come to him and put their hope

in him.

Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in

Councilbloss Iowa and in homes throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered

church focused on preaching from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus.

You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact a pastor by

visiting ecclaseachurches.org