The Authority to Forgive Sins
Mark 2:1-12
[Imperatives in this sermon:
1. Heed the preconditions for forgiveness: faith and repentance.
2. Heed the purpose for forgiveness: putting our sinful past behind us so that we may be gradually transformed into Jesus’ likeness and thus represent him in active mission before joining him in his eternal destiny.
This sermon needs a good PowerPoint display from the movie: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Use your Internet search engine to find the pictures you want. One of the better sources of good quality Narnia pictures is this costume site: http://costumes.narniaweb.com The one picture most needed is: http://costumes.narniaweb.com/pevensiesfiles/edplay1.jpg ]
The Purpose of Narnia
C. S. Lewis’ seven volumes, The Chronicles of Narnia, offer a wonderful portrayal of Christian truth. Toward the end of volume titled The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the majestic, heroic, and wise lion Aslan, the Son of the Emperor Beyond the Sea, tells the children Lucy and Edmund that they will not be returning to the fantastic and wonderful land of Narnia, but must now stay in their native England for the rest of their lives.
Aslan: You are too old, children, and you must begin to come close to your own world now.
Lucy (sobbing): It isn’t Narnia, you know; it’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live never meeting you?
Aslan: But you shall meet me, dear one.
Edmund: Are--are you there too, Sir?
Aslan: “I am. But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”
Aslan Is Not a Tame Lion, and His Forgiveness Is Not Cheap Grace
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the Narnia volumes, tells how first Lucy, second Edmund, and finally their older siblings, Peter and Susan, arrived in Narnia to fulfill the prophecy that two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve would liberate Narnia from the White Witch, a sort of Satan figure who makes the land always winter but never Christmas (Boo! Hiss!). But, on arriving in Narnia, Edmund, in a foul mood, and full of selfishness, greed, and ambition, betrays their cause to the White Witch, a move that he soon discovers could destroy all that is valuable.
Just as the White Witch is preparing to kill Edmund to prevent the fulfillment of the prophecy, he is rescued by troops sent by Aslan. He is brought to Aslan. The other three children watch from a distance a conversation between Aslan and Edmund, no doubt concerning Edmund’s betrayal and the terms of his restoration.
A columnist describing the movie The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the Chicago Tribune said that he took his young sons to see the movie, and sat between them to aid their concentration on the movie. Although the sons enjoyed the battle scenes as boys will, it was as they watched the conversation of Aslan and Edmund, without being able to overhear a word—it was then that small hands from each side slipped into the columnist’s hands. It was an awful and solemn moment in which all of us, old and young, may find ourselves represented by Edmund the traitor.
Aslan restored Edmund, but not cheaply. First, there was the cost that Aslan pays. The White Witch shows up to assert to Aslan, according to the Deep Magic, “You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have the right to a kill.”
To the shock of everyone, Aslan acknowledges that what the Witch says is true. He goes off to talk to the Witch and once again we do not hear the conversation. At last, Aslan announces to the four children and the waiting crowd, “I have settled the matter. She has renounced her claim on your brother’s blood.” To our horror, we soon see that this renunciation of the Witch’s right to slay Edmund has been won at the cost of Aslan’s submitting himself to be killed in Edmund’s place.
The unimaginable cost is paid, but, because Aslan deserved no such death, there is yet a Deeper Magic that comes into play, and, for Aslan, death begins to work backwards.
Edmund is forgiven and restored, but he too must pay a cost. He fights in the battle that ensues between Aslan’s troops and the Witch’s troops. He delivers the decisive blow, destroying the Witch’s wand, but, in the process, he suffers what would have been a fatal wound had not Lucy been prepared with a healing cordial which she administered to the dying Edmund, restoring him to life.
Edmund represents us. We know that we have betrayed our cause. None of us has done anything that cannot be forgiven, but there is a cost that comes with the forgiveness. It is not a cheap grace that we are offered. But it is effective. It brings us to our royal inheritance.
Understanding the Scripture
Our text today comes from Mark 2:1-12:
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.
Jesus had left Capernaum so that he could fulfill his mission of proclaiming the good news of the reign of God throughout Galilee. Jesus now has a home in Capernaum. It is probable that his home consisted of a small section of the family compound of the fishermen/disciples Peter and Andrew.
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.
We do not know what kind of roof the four friends had to get through. The most common roof in Galilee was a flat sod roof. But there may have been large flat stone tiles that were laid over the ceiling joists to support the sod above them. We may think of the bed as a sort of bedroll or stretcher with a handhold on each corner and a rope tied to the handhold.
And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven."
What sins are being forgiven? Perhaps housewrecking? Actually, we are not told. Nor are we told that the sins are directly related to the man’s ailments. The man came to seek physical healing, and, before the story is over, he will receive it. But Jesus has in mind using the man’s healing to demonstrate to the critical scribes his own authority to forgive sins.
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?"
The scribes make a true point. No one can forgive but God alone. Jesus agrees with the claim that only God can forgive sins. But he also knows that he is one with the heavenly Father; he is divine.
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'?
The Pharisaic scribes were questioning within themselves, not making their complaints audible. Jesus knew about their complaints only because the Holy Spirit informed his human spirit. Jesus could have ignored the thoughts of the scribes and no one would have noticed. But his addressing and challenging their thoughts is precisely the point of this text, part of the purpose he intended to accomplish with this healing. So he presented them with a question. In effect, he asks, “Which offers the greater evidence of divine authority, forgiving sins or healing a paralytic?” He expects that they would consider the healing of the paralytic to be the greater evidence. He continues:
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."
We will come back to Jesus’ way of referring to himself as Son of Man in a bit. But, for now, it is enough to see that he uses the title as part of claiming the authority to forgive sins. He puts the authority to the test by ordering the paralytic to rise, pick up his bedroll, 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!"
Jesus’ proclamation of God’s forgiveness and merciful healing call forth faith from the paralytic, and faith is not merely something that takes place in our heads. Faith is a verb, an action word. If the paralytic has faith in Jesus, then he must receive the forgiveness and healing that Jesus offers by obeying the command to do the seeming impossible. He rises, picks up his bedroll, and goes out before the eyes of the whole crowd. As a whole, the crowd is amazed, glorifying God and saying, “We never saw the like!”
The Son of Man's Authority
Now, let us return to Jesus’ favorite way of speaking about himself as Son of Man. This is the first of 14 times in Mark that Jesus uses the title. He uses the term a similar number of times in John and about twice as often in Luke and Matthew. It covers his earthly ministry, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his return, and the final judgment over which he presides. The Son of Man’s authority to forgive sins is part of a total package aimed at the total transformation of believers and the total renewal of the heavens and the earth.
I am convinced that Jesus takes the title Son of Man from its use in Daniel 7:13-14:
I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
This Son of Man, in Daniel’s prophecy, was to be given divine authority to defeat evil and to reign eternally on behalf of the faithful people of God.
The Preconditions and Purposes for Forgiveness
There are preconditions for receiving the Son of Man’s forgiveness: faith and repentance. There is a purpose for the Son of Man’s forgiveness: enabling us to put our sinful past behind us and to focus on serving his kingdom. When Jesus forgives us, he calls us to be his disciples, to follow him, to be his representatives, to enter the process of being gradually transformed into his likeness so that we can represent him.
If we have not accepted Jesus as our Commander-in-Chief, if we have not responded to his calling of us into his mission, if we have not entered the process of being transformed into his likeness so that we can represent him, then his purpose for offering forgiveness cannot be met in our lives.
Grace Must Be Received by Faith, and Faith Must Be Lived Out in Obedience
Let me be clear. We do not earn our forgiveness. It is an unmerited gift. It is amazing grace. But the grace must be received by faith, and the faith must be lived out in obedience to Christ’s discipline.
Far too often, churches, liberal and conservative alike, have focused on forgiveness as if that is the whole point of what Jesus came to do. They reduce Jesus’ mission to being a dispenser of forgiveness. We seem to think that our mental assent to a statement of faith, perhaps with baptism tagged on, is a coin that can be inserted into the forgiveness vending machine and provide us with our free ticket out of hell and into heaven. I have one word to say to that: bunk!
Christian faith is not a forgiveness machine. Salvation is not a single moment of assent to a doctrine. Rather Christian faith is a lifelong journey of being transformed into the children of God we are meant to be. Salvation is our grace-led movement toward God through active faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Forgiveness restores us to mission for Jesus!
Losing Everything, Gaining More Than Everything
When Aslan forgave Edmund, it was not the end of the story; rather, it was the beginning of a process that would cost both Aslan and Edmund everything, but in the end, they would gain more than everything. So it is with Jesus and us.
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