Who But God Alone? Series

I’m intrigued by what people consider important today; priorities. For instance, college students are people who are apparently concerned with finding a job – something than has been getting tougher over the past few years. The average college student is also concerned with Texting, Facebook, and Twitter. What happens when the social media world and the job market conflict?

When work vs. Facebook and Twitter, who wins? I ran across an interesting press release from Cisco Technologies, put out in April of this year:

During job interviews, 2/3 of college students will ask about their policy regarding social media policies. 56% of them will not accept a job that bans the use of social media, or they’ll find a way to circumvent the policy. Doing the math, that means that over 1/3 of them value social media freedom over salary. Cisco also found:

• 2 of every 5 said they’d accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard to device choice, social media access, and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility

But here’s the one that got to me:

• 1 of every 3 college students and young employees believes the Internet is as important as air, water, food, and shelter. Wow! Priorities, people!

The story we’re looking at in Mark 2 today gives us an interesting look into the priorities of Jesus as he lives life on purpose. And I think it should help us have a set of priorities that are better informed than the 1of every 3 college students who believe they can stop breathing but not stop using the internet!

I. (Jesus' priority - to forgive sins) (v.1-5)

Mark 2:1-5 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered 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 paralytic, 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 and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Joke – Kevin had shingles. Too often, it seems like the dr. isn’t really tuned in to what we see to be the need of the moment. Anyone who has spent much time in a dr’s office can appreciate this. Here's what happened to Kevin.

Kevin walked into a doctor's office and the receptionist asked him what he had. Kevin said: “Shingles.” So she wrote down his name, address, medical insurance number and told him to have a seat and fill out a medical history chart.

15 minutes later a nurse's aide came out, called Kevin back, and asked Kevin what he had. Kevin said, “Shingles.” So she wrote down his height, weight, took some more medical history and told Kevin to wait in the examining room.

15 minutes later a nurse came in and asked Kevin what he had. Kevin said, “Shingles.” So the nurse gave Kevin a blood test, checked his blood pressure, scheduled an electrocardiogram, and told Kevin to take off all his clothes and wait for the doctor.

A half hour later the doctor came in and found Kevin sitting in the buff, waiting patiently. He asked Kevin what he had. Kevin said, “Shingles.”

The doctor asked, “Where?” Kevin said, “Outside on the truck. Where do you want me to unload 'em??”

Jesus was in Capernaum. Mark calls it “coming home.” Notice that so many people want to hear Him, they’re even crowded outside of the doorway of the house where He’s speaking. There’s also a pan of the camera here to tell us what was going on inside the house. Mark doesn’t say, “They had the most attractive and comfortable house in town,” or “Their youth program was the best,” or “The worship time and music in this house was the best in town.” No. The crowds were gathered that day for some other reason.

Mark simply says Jesus “preached the word to them.”

There are these 5 guys. One of them is a paralytic. We don’t know why – only that he can’t walk, and that he has 4 friends who care enough about him to carry him to Jesus that day. All 5 of them believe that Jesus can help the man’s situation. But when they get to the house, they can’t get in. It’s tough enough carrying around a stretcher with a person on it. It’s tougher still to try to get it through a crowd. It’s interesting to me that the thing that kept these men out, temporarily, was the crowd. It wasn’t that they were offended, or they didn’t like the music, or that no one greeted them at the door. In fact, no one was polite enough to even help them get in the door.