Reasons to hate Jesus: He forgives

Mark 2:1-12 When Jesus again entered Capernaum some days later, people heard that he was home. ²So many people were gathered together that there was no more room, not even by the door, and he was speaking the word to them. ³Some people came to him bringing a paralyzed man, carried by four men. ⁴Since they could not bring the man to Jesus because of the crowd, they dug through the roof above where he was. When they had made an opening, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralyzed man was lying. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

 ⁶But there were some experts in the law sitting there and thinking in their hearts, ⁷“Why does this fellow speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

 ⁸Jesus immediately knew in his spirit that they were thinking this way within themselves. He asked them, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? ⁹Which is easier: to tell the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your stretcher, and walk’? ¹⁰But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralyzed man, ¹¹“I tell you, get up, take your stretcher, and go home.”

 ¹²At once the man got up, picked up the stretcher, and went out in front of everyone. So they were all amazed and glorified God. They said, “We have never seen anything like this!

“Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Amen.

Amber Guyger was a Dallas police officer who was found guilty of murder in October of 2019. Ms. Guyger thought she was entering her apartment, which was actually one floor below. She encountered Botham Jean and mistook him for a burglar. She fired two shots and killed him in his own apartment.

When I teach about the power of forgiveness in my Catechism class, I show a video of Brandt Jean, the 18-year-old brother of Botham Jean. During the sentencing of former officer Guyger, while Brandt was on the witness stand, he said, “If you truly are sorry, I know … I can speak for myself, I forgive you. And I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you. Again, I’m speaking for myself, not even on behalf of my family, but I love you, just like anyone else. I’m not going to say I hope you rot and die just like my brother did, but I, personally, want the best for you.”

“I wasn't going to ever say this in front of my family or anyone, but I don’t even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you, because I know that's exactly what Botham would want you to do. And the best would be, give your life to Christ.”

Then Brandt turned to the judge and said, “I don’t know if this is possible, but can I giver her a hug, please?” At first the judge said “no.” Brandt pleaded again, “Please?” The judge relented. Then tears flowed from those in the courtroom, the judge, Brandt and Guyger as they hugged. This was a wonderful and visible display of forgiveness.

But not everyone was so impressed with Brandt’s forgiveness. His mother told reporters, “What Brandt did was to cleanse his heart toward Amber. I do not want it to be misconstrued as a complete forgiveness of everybody.”

Plus, hundreds of protestors outside the courthouse and thousands on Twitter mistook the forgiveness for leniency. A horrible crime and injustice had been committed. Many were not willing to forgive so easily.

What if something horrible had been done to you. A family member murdered. Your savings account depleted. Your reputation destroyed. Your child harmed. Would you be able to forgive? How would you feel if someone else offered forgiveness for the crime committed against you and your family? Would you be able to forgive the forgiver?

Today we see another reason to hate Jesus. He’s so easily offers forgiveness. That’s the opposite of our sinful nature. The wounds are too fresh. The pain is too sharp. We want to hold onto our hurt and anger for a while longer. We want to punish people with our passive aggressive lack of forgiveness.

Mark presents the scene in his gospel. There’s this new rabbi traveling around teaching about God. The teachers of the law, who were regarded as experts in the study and application of the Scriptures, send a delegation to check out this new teacher.

Jesus has set up a classroom in someone’s Capernaum home this day. So many are gathered that there is no room left. Jesus is teaching to a packed house.

People were clamoring for the gospel. They wanted the good news. They wanted to hear about God’s forgiveness. That’s very much like today. It may seem like our culture is totally devoid of God and his Word – which it is. But that’s why people are starving for the Bread of Life. They are parched for the Water of Life. They usually don’t know it, but they are depressed and melancholy without God’s forgiveness.

The house is filled with people listening to Jesus teach about God’s forgiveness when they hear a scratching from the roof. Some dirt falls down before sunlight is seen from above. Four men have cut a hole into the flat roof of the one-story home. They lower their paralyzed friend down on his mat.

When Jesus sees the faith of these four friends in action, he says to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Jesus leads with forgiveness. He doesn’t even lead with sins. He knows what this man needs. He needs healing. But healing for his soul before healing for his body.

“Son, your sins are forgiven.” But what right does Jesus have to say that? Has Jesus ever met this man before? What has this man done? Whom has he hurt? Does he have a family he’s neglected? Has he gotten drunk and abusive? Has he ruined someone’s reputation? Could he have wounded other people in an accident that caused his paralysis? If he has done any of these things, shouldn’t they be the ones offering him forgiveness? What right does Jesus have to toss around absolution so freely?

The experts in the law hear this and they think, “Why does this fellow speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

They aren’t angry with Jesus’ teaching. They’re not angry with his healing. They’re angry that Jesus dares to forgive. Why? Because they took sin seriously. They know only God can forgive and God requires sacrifice for his forgiveness.  

The religious leaders would get so many things wrong about Jesus. This they get 100% right. Every time you sin, you’re not only sinning against another person, you’re sinning first and foremost against God. They knew that the psalmist confesses to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4)

Jesus knows what they are thinking. He looks around and asks, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to tell the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your stretcher, and walk’? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your stretcher, and go home.”

Jesus sets up a challenge, “Anyone can say that sins are forgiven. It doesn’t mean anything. But if I say, ‘Get up and walk,’ and he actually does it, that proves I have real power, right?”

How could we possibly be angry with Jesus for healing and forgiving? Yet, we are. We love to hold onto sins. It is much easier to clench our fist around the wrongs committed against us than to open our hands and let them go.

We make lists for grocery shopping and running errands, but there’s one thing we never need a list to remember – people who have done us wrong.

Ex-wives and ex-husbands. “Friends” who have stabbed us in the back. Criminals who have taken away a loved one. Mothers who abandoned us and fathers who abused us. The bullies who ruined our reputation on social media.

You know them. You don’t need a list. They’ve hurt you. Wronged you. Sinned against you.

Face it, you don’t like it when Jesus tells you:

·       “Forgive as I have forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).

·       “Turn the other cheek” (Luke 6:29).

·       “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

We don’t like to think about the consequences of this petition, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12). We would much rather hold onto trespasses.

But then Jesus gives us this chilling warning: “If you forgive people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15).

Here is what we need to understand and appreciate about Jesus. He loves forgiveness. He loves to give forgiveness to us. He loves for us to give forgiveness to others. He came to earth to win forgiveness for us from his heavenly Father.

Jesus proved that he had the authority to forgive when he healed the paralyzed man. Three years later, Jesus used this authority to lay down his life on the cross for this man who had been laying on his mat.

Forgiveness has a cost. It means that the person who should be punished for what they’ve done won’t be punished. Someone else will be. There is always a cost to forgiveness.

Jesus paid the cost for our forgiveness with his broken body and bruised head. He paid the price in blood and pain and condemnation. He paid his life so he could win forgiveness from God – forgiveness for this paralyzed man, for this man’s friends, for you, for me, for those who have sinned against you and me.

Psalm 51 is right. “Against you, you only, have I sinned.” When those bullies harass you on social media, they are first harassing Jesus. When your family is dysfunctional, they are first dysfunctional toward their heavenly Father. When the drunk driver took away your child, he first took away God’s child.

What does God do with those who have hurt him, wronged him, sinned against him? For Jesus’ sake, he forgives them.

“How can I forgive him if I can’t forget what he’s done?”

This was the question of a woman who was talking about her husband’s unfaithfulness to his marriage vows. The way she asked the question, however, indicated that it wasn’t so much of a question as it was a statement: “I will not forgive him until I no longer remember what he did.”

In her mind, for her to move forward in life, to not allow what happened in the past to impact how she treated him in the future, a specific condition needed to be met. She first needed to forget how she was hurt.

That’s not the only condition we might have before we forgive:

·       “I won’t forgive until he proves he deserves it.”

·       “I won’t forgive until I’m sure she learned her lesson.”

·       “I won’t forgive until I’m sure they’re really sorry for what they did.”

·       “I won’t forgive until I’m sure they won’t hurt me again.”

Those sound reasonable. But Scripture has only one condition for our forgiving – forgive … as God forgives.

·       Jesus didn’t decide to offer his life only if we proved to him we deserve it.

·       Jesus didn’t climb Calvary only after he was sure we all learned our lesson.

·       Jesus didn’t hang on the cross only after each person in the world said “sorry” for their sins.

·       Jesus didn’t wait to die until after he was sure we would never again sin against him.

Knowing our sins, Jesus carried each one to the cross, where he paid the price for every one of them. A sacrifice was required. Then God forgave every one of them.

Jesus knows that forgiving someone is hard. He knows that it often hurts. But by forgiving us he gave us a precious gift that could come in no other way. He gave us grace. He gave us a safe place where we can come whenever we sin. He gave us a way to start healing again.

And that is exactly what you give someone else, and your relationship with them, when you forgive as God forgives.

Rather than hating Jesus because he forgives so easily, let’s love Jesus because he forgives us so easily when we sin against him. Then we are moved to love others when they sin against us. We forgive as God forgives us. Amen.

“We go on rejoicing confidently in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation.” (Romans 5:11) Amen.