I love the story of when Jesus heals the paralytic in Mark 2:1–12. In this story, Jesus’ popularity has grown to the point where there are so many people coming to see him that the paralytic and his friends cannot get to him. The crowds are blocking the way!
Jesus’ popularity was soaring because he was meeting their physical needs. This is interesting to me. When Jesus was meeting people’s physical needs, they couldn’t get enough of him; when he was dying on the cross, on the other hand, they were no where to be found. This seems to indicate that people are much more interested in Jesus making them comfortable than dealing with their sin problem.
There were so many people that had come to see Jesus that the paralytic’s friends couldn’t get to Jesus. This, however, didn’t stop them. They decided to take their friend-in-need to the roof and lower him down in front of Jesus.
What an act! Are you willing to do whatever it takes to get your friends to Jesus? Are you willing to innovatively work around the obstacles that stand between your friends and Jesus so that they can meet the Savior?
Once they lowered him down in front of Jesus, Jesus did something surprising. Rather than doing what was expected (heal the man’s legs), he said, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5, ESV). Everyone was wondering at this moment, “What does religion have to do with this? This man’s problem is physical!”
Did you know that every problem in the world is a sin problem at its root? There is no problem today that did not come from the reality of sin in the world. This is why Jesus and Jesus alone can provide a solution to the brokenness of the human condition—because Jesus alone provides a solution to the problem of sin (God’s forgiveness).
The scribes didn’t like what Jesus said. The text reads, “Now some scribes were sitting there, questioning in their heads, ‘Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?'” (Mark 2:7) The scribes didn’t like what Jesus said because he was making himself equal with God! (cf. John 5:15)
So what’s happening here? I believe that Jesus was looking for an opportunity to teach the people who he was. He couldn’t just show up and say, “Greetings, everyone; I’m God.” If he did it that way, they would have killed him on the spot (and they did kill him for this eventually). This explains why Jesus’ teaching about his own divinity was so subtle—so he had time to teach them before they took his life. This means that Jesus needed an opportunity to teach them that he was God.
The bottom-line is this: this man’s need became Jesus’ opportunity to testify to the world what who he was and what he was capable of.
This gives me great hope! In the midst of the problems abounding in the world today, every problem is an opportunity for Jesus. Your problems, my problems, the world’s problems are all a means for Jesus to demonstrate who he is and what he can do inside of our lives. He is, after all, God.
