Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for March 10, 2019

Guest Speaker: Dr. David Norman

Adventures in Missing the Point
Mark 2:1–12

We often do silly things with stories from the Bible. We make heroes out of minor characters. We project our own insecurities and emotions upon characters where the text is silent on those points. In Mark 2, we come to a story that is familiar to many of us. But the biblical author is making a very important point—one we dare not miss.

I. Do incredible things occur in Jesus’s house? Yes. Is this the point? No.

• After preaching and healing in Galilee, Jesus returns home to Capernaum.
• Jesus was preaching the word and had gathered a crowd.

II. Should we bring our friends to Jesus? Yes. Is this the point? No.

• Jesus’s preaching had gathered a crowd.
• Four men brought a paralytic to Jesus.
• They “unroofed the roof.”

III. Jesus forgives sin. Is this the point? Close. Jesus is God.

• Jesus’s claim to forgive sins is to claim his divinity.
• If he is not God, he is blaspheming. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
• Jesus’s healing of the paralytic is a sign to them that he has the authority to forgive sin.

In this morning’s passage, Jesus forgives sin, perceives the scribes’ thoughts, and heals the paralytic. But we miss the point of this passage—we miss the point of Jesus the Messiah—if we fail to grasp the world-tilting reality of Jesus’s identity as the eternal Son of God. When we recognize this central truth, we cannot help but be amazed and we cannot help but sing praises to him.