Imagine that you are inside your local prison. You have just been sent down for a long sentence, the gates have clanged shut behind you, and it dawns on you that you will have many years to get used to these walls and bars, to this dreary routine. If only there was some way out! Time passes, and then one day you are told you have an unidentified visitor. “Another do-gooder come to tell me to mend my ways,” you think gloomily as you slouch along behind the guard to the visiting room.
Your visitor seems glad to see you. As you sit down with him, he smiles and hands you a very official-looking document. “Whatever is this?” you ask him.
“Look at it,” he says. “It’s what you have longed for . . . it’s a full and complete pardon for all your crimes. You’re free to go!”
Well, this seems like good news, but surely it’s a bit too good to be true! You study the document more carefully. “Hold on, whose signature is this at the bottom?”
“Oh,” says the visitor, “That’s mine. I’m pardoning you; you’re free to go.”
Now, your visitor has no identification, no badge, no uniform, apparently he is just a member of the public. What are you going to say? Who is this strange man who can wander in and claim to tell you that you are free to leave, simply on his say-so? Who does he think he is?
Seems far-fetched, yet that is exactly what happens at the beginning of Mark 2 when Jesus looks at a man lying paralyzed on a mattress and tells him, “Your sins are forgiven. You’re free!” Who does He think He is, to dare to claim that He can forgive people their sins? This however, is just the first of a series of five stories, concluding in Mark 3:6, which are linked together by the theme of opposition to Jesus and His ministry. Jesus’ opponents are challenging His authority: first to forgive sins, then to break the traditional religious rituals, and finally to redefine the Jewish Sabbath. Mark seems to be particularly concerned with the opposition Jesus faces: he emphasizes it as part of his very stark portrayal of the challenges which Jesus’ followers can expect to face and of which Jesus faces all throughout the Gospel of Mark.
Who Is He to Forgive Sins?
Please read Mark 2:1-12 for the background to this section.
The first story I want to cover, takes place in Capernaum by the Lake of Galilee. Jesus has been touring the region, moving from place to place, but has now decided to come home for a while. He has probably entered quietly, under cover of darkness, and is once more based at the house of Andrew and Simon Peter where He stayed before. But His presence cannot be long concealed. Word soon gets out, and once more the crowds gather. After all, it’s only been a few weeks since He was last here, that Saturday night when it seemed the whole village assembled outside the house and everyone who was sick or controlled by an evil spirit was healed on the spot (read Mark 1:33-34). Very soon, there is Jesus inside, with the house full of people and crowds around the door and at every window. Soon no one else can even get near to Jesus.
Jesus is not actually healing today. Time and again He makes it clear that His priority is to declare this message: the Kingdom of God is near.
To Be Continued
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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