Which Is Easier?

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Mark 2:5-12 “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ 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? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up, take your mat and walk”? 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. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’”

Think

Jesus once asked a room full of skeptics a question that sounds a little like a riddle: “Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?”

The first one is easier to say, by a mile. Anyone can say “your sins are forgiven,” and nobody in the room can check whether it worked. There is no X-ray for forgiveness. But if you tell a paralyzed man to stand up and walk, everyone will know within about three seconds whether you are the real thing or a fraud.

Imagine a girl in your class who mentions she can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under a minute. A few people are impressed. Most roll their eyes, because talk is cheap. Then someone digs a scrambled cube out of the bottom of a backpack, tosses it to her, and starts a timer on their phone. Suddenly nobody has to guess anymore. In sixty seconds, the cube is either solved or it isn’t.

That is the exact move Jesus makes in Mark 2. He makes a claim no one can see, and then he backs it up with something no one can miss.

The scene is packed. Jesus is teaching in a house in Capernaum, and the crowd is so thick that nobody else can get through the door. Four friends show up carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. When they can’t get in, they climb onto the roof, dig a hole through it, and lower their friend down right in front of Jesus. Everyone expects a healing. Instead, Jesus looks at the man and says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The religious teachers in the room immediately start thinking, “He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Blasphemy means claiming something that belongs only to God. And they have a point. If someone slams into you in the hallway and knocks your books everywhere, you are the one who gets to forgive him. If a random kid who wasn’t even there walks up to the guy and says, “Don’t worry, man, I forgive you,” everyone would wonder who he thinks he is. Sin hurts people, but ultimately every sin is against God, so only God can wipe it off the record.

So the teachers are half right. Only God can forgive sins. Their mistake is assuming Jesus isn’t God. And Jesus isn’t just passing along a message from God, the way a prophet might. He is claiming the authority to forgive sins himself.

You may hear people say that Jesus never claimed to be God and that his followers invented that idea years later. But look at this scene. The people in the room understood exactly what Jesus was claiming, and it offended them. Jesus doesn’t correct them. He never says, “Wait, you misunderstood me.” Instead, he backs up the claim.

“But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” “Son of Man” was Jesus’ favorite way to describe himself, and it comes from a vision in the book of Daniel of a heavenly figure who receives authority from God. Then Jesus turns to the man on the mat: “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Mark says the man “got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.” This didn’t happen behind closed doors. It happened in front of the very people who doubted.

Notice what Jesus did first, though. The friends hauled their buddy onto a roof and lowered him through it because of his legs. Jesus started with his heart. That doesn’t mean the man’s paralysis didn’t matter. Jesus healed that too. But Jesus knew that a man who walks out of that house on strong legs, still carrying all his guilt, isn’t really free.

Most of us come to Jesus for our legs. We want a situation fixed, a relationship repaired, or a problem to just go away. He cares about those things. But he will always go deeper. And the same Jesus who proved he could make a paralyzed man walk is the one who looks at you and says, “Your sins are forgiven.” If he proved himself on the claim everyone could check, you can trust him on the one you can’t.

Apply

Take his word – Before you go to sleep tonight, name one specific thing you need forgiveness for and ask Jesus for it, out loud or on paper. Then write the words he said in Mark 2:5, “Your sins are forgiven,” on a sticky note and put it where you will see it first thing tomorrow morning.

Pray

Jesus, most of what I ask you for is about the outside of my life. Thank you that you care about those things, and that you care even more about what’s going on inside me. I believe you have the authority to forgive me, because you proved it. Help me bring you the things on the inside too, not just the things I want fixed. In Jesus’ name. Amen.