The Galilean

“The Galilean: Good-bye Shame”

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□ The Black Angel

□ The Paralytic

 Mark 2:1-12

•   Desire of Ages: “Yet it was not physical restoration he desired so much as relief from the burden of sin. If he could see Jesus, and receive the assurance of forgiveness and peace with Heaven, he would be content to live or die, according to God’s will. The cry of the dying man was, Oh that I might come into His presence! There was no time to lose; already his wasted flesh was showing signs of decay. He besought his friends to carry him on his bed to Jesus, and this they gladly undertook to do.” (267)
•   Desire of Ages: The words “fell like music on the sufferer’s ear. . . . The burden of despair rolls from the sick man’s soul; the peace of forgiveness rests upon his spirit, and shines out upon his countenance. His physical pain is gone, and his whole being is transformed. The helpless paralytic is healed! the guilty sinner is pardoned! In simple faith he accepted the words of Jesus as the boon of new life. He urged no further request, but lay in blissful silence, too happy for words. The light of heaven irradiated his countenance, and the people looked with awe upon the scene.” (268)
•   C. S. Lewis: “Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men’s toes and stealing other men’s money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did. He told people their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all the offences. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin.” (Mere Christianity 55)

□ The Shame

•   Brene Brown: “Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are

  flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging.” It is the “fear of disconnection—it’s the fear that something we’ve done or failed to do, an ideal that we’ve not lived up to, or a goal that we’ve not accomplished makes us unworthy of connection.” (Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead 68)

•   Brene Brown: “Shame thrives on secret keeping, and when it comes to secrets there’s some serious science behind the twelve-step program saying, ‘You’re only as sick as your secrets.’” (81)

□ The Forgiveness

•   Lewis Smedes: “God invented forgiveness as the only way to keep his romance with the

  fallen human family alive.” (How Can It Be Alright When Everything Is All Wrong? 33)

•   Dostoyevski’s The Brothers Karamazov: “There is one who can forgive everyone everything,

  because he shed his innocent blood for everyone and everything.” (Smedes 35)

•   Luke 23:34—“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
•   Desire of Ages: “That prayer of Christ for His enemies embraced the world. It took in every

  sinner that had lived or should live, from the beginning of the world to the end of time. Upon

  all rests the guilt of crucifying the Son of God. To all, forgiveness is freely offered.” (745)

•   Steps to Christ: “When Satan comes to tell you that you are a great sinner, look up to your

  Redeemer, and . . . . tell the enemy that ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’ and that you may be saved by His matchless love. . . . We have been great sinners, but Christ died that we might be forgiven.” (35, 36)

  He who forgives our sin heals our shame.