Mark chapter 2 narrates the story of four men, a paralyzed friend, a roof, and a transformation. One day Jesus was coming to Capernaum to preach the word of God. When the four men hear this news, they become determined to bring their paralyzed friend to this Jesus guy they've heard rumors about. They want Jesus to give their friend the ability to walk. The problem is that when they get to the house Jesus is speaking at, it's full. The crowd is so large that men and women are overflowing out of the doorway and the four men and their friend are unable to even squeeze their way through the door. The men begin to get creative and decide to climb to the top of the roof, pull out their shovels, dig the roof to shreds and lower their friend down to Jesus on a mat. When Jesus sees their faith, he says to the helpless man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." At this point in the story, I can imagine the friends thinking, "What?!? Come on, aren't you going to allow him to walk? What do his sins have anything to do with anything?" The rest crowd questions the validity of Jesus' response to the paraplegic. "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Jesus answers both questions by saying, "Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority...I tell you son, get up, take your mat and go home." At this cue, the depleted man stands to his feet, walks, and praises God (Mark 2:1-12).
             In this story, four men bring their utterly powerless friend to Jesus and he answers their prayer; he heals the man. In addition to their request, he forgives the man of all sins. Jesus takes this opportunity to tell the defenseless man that he doesn't have to wait until the Day of Judgment; at this present time, he has the full assurance of forgiveness. Jesus tells the man, "God ...