Mark 2:1-12
Four Friends and a Hole in the Roof
1A few days later Jesus went back to Capernaum. And when the people heard that He was home,
2they gathered in such large numbers that there was no more room, not even outside the door, as Jesus spoke the word to them.
3Then a paralytic was brought to Him, carried by four men.
4Since they were unable to get to Jesus through the crowd, they uncovered the roof above Him, made an opening, and lowered the paralytic on his mat.
5When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking in their hearts,
7“Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8At once Jesus knew in His spirit that they were thinking this way within themselves. “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?” He asked.
9“Which is easier: to say to a paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’?
10But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” He said to the paralytic,
11“I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”
12And immediately the man got up, picked up his mat, and walked out in front of them all. As a result, they were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Berean Standard Bible
Capernaum was a fishing town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, and the house Jesus was staying in was an ordinary house. It filled up. The doorway filled up after that, and there was no way in for anybody arriving late.
Four men arrived late. They were carrying a fifth man on a mat, and he could not walk.
A roof in that town was flat, and you reached it by a stair on the outside. Beams went across the walls, then branches and reeds, then packed mud, laid down fresh every year. People slept up there when the nights were hot and worked up there in the day. It also came apart for anybody willing to make a mess. The four went up, and they dug.
Underneath them Jesus was teaching, and the ceiling began coming apart over his head.
Everyone in the room could see what the four had come for. A man who cannot walk gets carried to a healer so that he can walk. Jesus looked at the four of them, and then he spoke to the man lying in front of him.
Son, your sins are forgiven.
Nobody digs through a roof to hear that. It answers a need the man never mentioned, in a house packed with people waiting for something else.
Scribes were sitting there, and what they thought, without saying it out loud, was that this was blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. They were right about that, and Jesus does not tell them otherwise. He takes the objection and answers it with a name for himself.
But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...
Daniel had seen someone described that way. One like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven, brought before the Ancient of Days and given dominion and glory and a kingdom that will never be destroyed, with people of every nation and language serving him (Daniel 7:13-14). Anybody in that house who knew the scroll understood what had just been claimed under a hole in somebody's roof.
Then he settles it the only way it could be settled in public. Nobody in that house could check whether the man had been forgiven. Every one of them could check whether he walked. So Jesus tells him to get up and carry his mat home, and he does, out through the same crowd that had filled the doorway against him.
One small thing is easy to read past. Jesus saw their faith, all of theirs, not only the man's. The four are not scenery in this story.
How We Know
Verse 4 says they uncovered the roof and dug an opening through it. That only works on one kind of roof, and it is the kind excavators found at Capernaum: wooden beams, reeds and branches packed with thick mud mortar and rolled smooth with a stone roller, firm enough to sleep and work on. The courtyards there had stone stairs running up to them.
The reaction in verse 7 fits its setting just as closely. "Who can forgive sins but God alone" is the objection Jewish teachers would raise, and Mark records it as an objection rather than explaining it away. Two independent kinds of fit support a real building and a real room.
- Matthew J. Grey, "Simon Peter in Capernaum: An Archaeological Survey of the First-Century Village," Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2014.
Questions
1 The door was blocked and the house was full. What did the four men decide to do about it?
AnswerThey carried their friend up onto the roof and took it apart until the hole was wide enough to lower him through. Mark says they did it because there was no other way to get him to Jesus.
2 The man was brought to be healed, and the first thing he heard was that his sins were forgiven. Why do you think Jesus started there?
AnswerBecause that was the deeper trouble, and Jesus dealt with it first. He gave the man what he needed most before he gave him what he came for. Mark does not tell us what the man expected, though the crowd clearly expected something else.
3 The scribes were right that only God can forgive sins. So what were they sitting and watching?
AnswerGod forgiving sins, in the room with them. Jesus does not correct their theology. He agrees with it and then goes ahead and forgives anyway, which leaves only one real question about who he is.
4 Is there someone you would carry to Jesus tonight if you could pick them up and carry them? Mark says Jesus saw their faith, not only the man's. What does that tell you about the four?
AnswerThat their believing counted for something. They did the believing and the lifting while their friend could do neither one. The text says Jesus saw their faith and stops there, without explaining how it works, and a family can let it stay that size.
What This Means for Us
None of the four could heal anybody. What they had was a mat, four sets of hands, and no intention of going home because the door was full. Mark calls that faith.
There is probably somebody near you who needs carrying rather than fixing. A meal, a ride, a seat beside them in a waiting room, or a name you bring to God every day for a week without ever mentioning to them that you are doing it. You do not have to solve anything.
And if you are the one on the mat tonight, the man in this account did not get himself there. Nobody asked him to.
Prayer
Father, you forgave this man before you healed him, because you know the order things go in. Thank you for seeing faith even when it belongs to somebody else. Give us friends who will carry us. Make us friends who carry others. And teach us to want most what you give first. Amen.