JESUS GETS US: WHAT IS HARDER?

Forgiveness is an increasingly rare event in our society.  Yet it is more needed than ever.  Consider all the things in our society that would be helped if there was forgiveness.  Think about the number of relationships that would be altered by the act of forgiveness. In the sermon series Jesus Gets Us our sermon is What is Harder? It is based on Mark 2:1-12 in which 4 friends tear a hole in the roof in order to get their paralytic friend before Jesus.  What happens next is a moment of healing and forgiveness that causes great concern for the Pharisees.  They did not understand the power of the Son of God to forgive as well as heal.  Healing may help us but forgiveness will transform us.  Jesus gets us because he understands what we need in our lives.  We want many things and the world tells us we will only find joy through accumulation.  Our Lord reminds us that the path to wholeness can only be found in his will, and joy is a fruit that grows as we are in his presence.  Our ardent prayer is that you will find the transforming joy of Lord and share in his healing presence as you read Mark 2:1-12:

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ² They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴ Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷ “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” ⁸ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ¹² He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”