JAIL BREAK (Breaking the Chains of Unforgiveness) -
A Matter of Priorities
October 14, 2018
Mark 2:1-12 (p. 700)
Introduction:
One of my favorite stories of all time is found in Mike Yaconelli’s book “Messy Spirituality.” Chapter two is called, “The Place Our Messiness Meets Jesus.” And he ends the chapter with this story…where he was speaking at a college conference…
An older man with cerebral palsy sat in a motorized wheelchair, watching everyone else party. (He wasn’t a college student. Technically he wasn’t even supposed to be at the conference.) I was seated next to him, watching the students celebrate, when suddenly the wheelchair lunged into the celebration. The man’s arms waved, his chair careened around the room with a jerky, captivating motion, his mouth struggled open and shut making incomprehensible sounds. Somehow a man who couldn’t dance had become part of the graceful dancing of the crowd. Without warning, his motorized wheelchair lurched to the base of the stage, racing back and forth through a series of figure eights, twirls, and circles. He was laughing, lost in the joy of the Lord. His joy had taken a cold, ugly piece of motorized machinery and transformed it into an extension of his unconfined worship. He and his wheelchair had become one, a dancing, living thing. This man with a crippled body found a way to dance the undanceable.
I envy him. I want my crippled soul to escape the cold and sterile spirituality of a religion where only the perfect nondisabled get in. I want to lurch toward Jesus, where the unwelcome receive welcome and the unqualified get qualified. I want to hear Jesus tell me I can dance when everyone else says I can’t. I want to hear Jesus walk over and whisper to this handicapped, messy Christian, “Do you want to dance?”
Jesus began His public ministry by unrolling the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and reading “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Is. 61:1-2)
He rolls the scroll back up...looks around Him in the synagogue and says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)
The dance has begun and everyone is invited to it. The wedding party has started...and the groom is here!
But there were many religious people, especially the Pharisees who believed they had an automatic invitation to the party…and that the party was exclusive…and certain people got invited…and when Jesus invited everyone…the poor, the blind, the prisoner, and the oppressed, it drove them crazy…“Who is this man to do the inviting?”
The Good News…the gospel, is that everyone is invited to the dance, but some can’t get there on their own…It takes:
I. FRIENDS THAT ARE WILLING TO CARRY US
Our story finds Jesus teaching in Capernaum and when the people learn He’s come home…they gather in such numbers to hear His message that there’s no room left…even outside the house He’s teaching in…everyone wants to hear Him…And Jesus’ message… “Whoever will may come.” Everyone is invited…
But there is an individual that can’t get there on his own…He’s paralyzed…He’s trapped in a physical jail where he is confined to a mat.
He can’t get through the crowd…He can’t get to Jesus on his own…and the truth of God’s plan is…“None of us can!!!”
Here is the mystical paradox of salvation. Lost, hurting, paralyzed people cannot come to a saving relationship with God, through His Son Jesus Christ, unless someone cares enough to help them get there.
“Some men came bringing to Jesus a paralyzed man…carried by 4 of them.” (v. 3)
I love this verse of scripture…because I believe in it we see the picture of how every single one of us are saved…
ROMANS 10:11-15 (p. 788)
One of the most powerful truths of Salvation is found in verse 17…“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”
Everyone is invited…Jew and Gentile, but the only way anyone can be healed…set free from the jail of sin and shame is for them to hear Jesus’ message…someone has to get them there…no wonder God’s Word says…“The feet that do this are beautiful.” (v. 15)
Some men…at least 4 of them made an intentional decision to get their friend to Jesus.
It was a conspiracy of love.
Here’s my belief…if we had more of these conspiracies to win our lost friends to Christ, heaven would explode with applause.
George Barna says, “86% of people who are in a saving relationship with Christ have been brought there by a relative, friend or neighbor. People cannot hear unless someone cares enough to share it with them…and the most effective witnesses aren’t behind a pulpit on Sunday morning…and sometimes those folks hurt so bad, are paralyzed in their life so desperately, they need to be carried.
Compassion for people who were paralyzed with sin is exactly what motivates Jesus to come here. It’s why he ate and drank with sinners, touched lepers, and stopped funeral processions. It’s why he cried at Lazarus’ tomb and he came to stretch out His arms and carry us to the Father…Here’s the heart of Jesus
MATTHEW 9:9-13 (p. 680)
When Jesus tells the Pharisees “Go learn what this means…I deserve mercy not sacrifice” He is saying, sacrifice means giving up something…mercy, means “compassion extended to real people.” Go learn to love real people and stop thinking your money, your service, or your work is what God deserves.
Healthy people don’t need a doctor…sick people do…and if the world never experiences mercy first, they’ll care very little about the church’s sacrifice.
I think it’s horrible that the church today has become primarily known for what it opposes instead of for loving like Jesus…if we’d love like Jesus, the truth will change hearts and lives.
When we as God’s people begin to be transparent and other’s focused in regards to our greatest hurts…it’s then I believe the Holy Spirit releases a power in our weakness.
Have you been through a divorce or separation and God has brought you to a place of healing and maturity that you can minister to those now going through the same struggle. [Mary in WV…I’m drowning, I’m lost…I feel worthless]
She needs someone who remembers that…and how God brought you through it…I’ve met people who, have never come through it…they stay in it…and there is no power or healing.
What if your co-workers mom has just died, she’s grieving…isn’t there someone who can minister…a ladies group or study that can say, “come share your heart with us?”
We must be intentional about picking up the mat…and sometimes it takes a group of us.
But please understand breaking people out of the Evil One’s jail is dangerous…bringing people who are paralyzed in sin isn’t comfortable.
II. GETTING HURTING PEOPLE IS RISKY
“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.” (v. 4)
Honest transparent question…Have you ever tried to get someone you love, someone who needs Jesus desperately to Him, and the crowd made it extremely difficult?
How big is this crowd? Usually four or five thousand showed up to be fed, Jesus has healed folks and it’s the talk of the community so maybe some have come for the show…The Pharisees are there…and we’ll see their motives in just a bit.
But please understand there will be a crowd of people between your friend, or child, or grandchild and Jesus…The boyfriend that uses them. The friends they party with, the family that thinks church is stupid…But it’s amazing what 4 loving people can and will do to get their friend to Jesus.
“Since they could not get him to Jesus, they made an opening in the roof.”
These friends are “all in.” It’s we’ll do whatever it takes…regardless of the consequences.
If we could all have this compassion through the week our church would be packed…and no one would ever complain about preferences…it takes teamwork to get people to Jesus…but it’s always worth the sacrifice and the risk.
By the way these guys could have found a million reasons to turn around…to maybe try another day, but they didn’t…It was worth their time and effort to help their friend dance.
It’s also risky but there will always be people who criticize the way it’s done over the why it’s done.
“When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, ‘why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blasphemy! Who can forgive sins, but God above?”
Blasphemy is claiming to be God…or claiming the qualities of God…and Jesus’ critics are right…only God can forgive sins.
Jesus discerns what they’re thinking in their hearts…I’m truly glad I don’t have that ability aren’t you!!
They don’t like what he’s doing…or how he’s doing it…so their attitudes change and they become critical…I think as part of our sinful nature we have this as a default setting in our human spirit…find fault, criticize, blame!
Jesus knew in His spirit…(by the way, I don’t think you have to be God’s son to discern this…or what people are thinking sometimes).
Jesus knows His critics so He asks them a question…“Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or rise take up your bed and walk?”
If you’re just speaking the words…it’s easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven.” No one can see that happen…it’s an invisible transaction between God and the sinner.
But if you say, “Get up, take your mat and walk” and nothing visible happens, you’re a fake.
Jesus says, “So that you will know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…I say to you get up take your mat and go home!”
And the paralyzed man…got up…bent over and picked up his mat and started home in full view of them all.
By the way…I bet he had a dance move or two on the way out.
And I wonder which one he was celebrating more…his forgiveness or his healing…I think I know!!!
Please…please care more for the one friend that can’t get to Jesus without you than the 3 that walk just fine. Take the risk…what would have happened if they’d given up…thought it was too risky…left their friend paralyzed and lost…and went to get a bite together instead.
Verse 5 says “When Jesus saw their faith…” (plural not singular). When Jesus saw not only the faith of the paralyzed man…but the faith of his 4 friends He said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
By the way I think we can know for sure Jesus is taking care of things in order of priority. Forgiveness is more essential than physical healing.
But the Pharisees criticize Him…who does He think He is forgiving sins?!! Blasphemy!!!
When Jesus starts forgiving sins…things get messy…because sin is messy and religious people aren’t real crazy about that.
But something really amazing happens when paralyzed people start to dance and sinners are forgiven…the crowd says:
III. WE’VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS
When someone whose been forgiven of their sin and healed of what paralyzes them get up off the floor and walks, runs, and hopefully dances - it amazes people - it fills them with wonder…and thanksgiving to God.
This is what happens when 4 friends make a hole in the roof to get past the crowd and the critics, so they can help their friend to Jesus.
What would happen in our churches if people of faith started fulfilling their mission to carry their friends to Jesus?
4 Christian friends conspire in love and faith to do whatever it takes to help someone they love get up off the mat of addiction, greed, lust, grief, PTSD, or any multitude of paralyzing things.
It’s happened before…and the power of Jesus causes the world to explode with praise…saying “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”
May God help us each grab a corner of the mat!
