“Whatever It Takes”
Mark 2:1-12
At the church I served in East Ridge, we had this beautiful member named Tootsie Watson.
She had been a member of the church her entire life.
Now, granted, East Ridge United Methodist Church is this year, only celebrating its 25th anniversary, but the Church is the result of a merger between two congregations—St. James United Methodist Church—the site of the current church—and Ridgedale United Methodist.
Tootsie and her parents had originally been members of Ridgedale Methodist.
Ridgedale was located in East Lake, a deteriorating part of town.
And that is where Tootsie lived for her entire life—all 89 years of her life-- in the same house where she was born, in the same house where her parents died.
At age 4, she was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and the doctor told her parents that Tootsie wouldn't live past the age of 7.
As it turned out; Tootsi outlived everyone--her parents, sister, and 4 brothers--even her father--Joe who lived to be 101.
Tootsie was confined to a wheelchair her entire life.
She could not move her legs.
She could only barely move the wrist of one arm, and that’s it!
Nothing else.
She couldn't do life's basic necessities by herself.
A caretaker had to come and put her in bed, in a position that she would have to stay in until someone would come the next morning and get her up and get her dressed and back into her wheelchair.
And, amazingly, Tootsie managed her own affairs--she lived independently, in her own home.
This is remarkable for someone who was basically paralyzed.
Over the 6 years I was her pastor—she passed away while I was still serving East Ridge--I met people who told me that Tootsie was a sort of "counselor" or "mentor" to them.
She would, on occasion, call me up and ask me to pray for someone or speak with someone whom she was helping through a tough time.
A lot of people looked "up" to Tootsie.
She was an inspiration.
She was a mighty witness for God.
She always kept a smile on her face.
She had an almost magical gleam in her eyes.
Everyone loved her.
Her favorite song was “What a Friend We have in Jesus.”
Members of the church used to pick Tootsie up for church in their cars, but they finally bought the wheelchair accessible van that is still used today to bring a good 15-20 people, who otherwise would not be able to attend, to worship and other events every week.
Tootsie loved her church, and her church loved her.
Her church, and those who paid for and drove that wheel-chair accessible van were, in a very real sense, Tootsie’s “4 corner holders” shall we say.
The paralyzed man in our Gospel Lesson for this morning had “4 corner holders”—four people who carried him to Jesus.
And it wasn’t easy for them, nor was it convenient.
Imagine what it would be like, not only to push through that crowd to get to the roof of the house, but then to “dig through it” and “lower the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.”
These four-corner holders were—quite literally—willing to do whatever it takes to get this guy to Jesus!
And not only was this an extremely hard thing to do, physically, it was an extremely risky thing to do socially and religiously.
And that is because people with disabilities, in that day and age, weren’t a whole lot different than lepers, as far as being hustled off to the margins of society and religion.
According to Leviticus Chapter 21, they were people with “defects” and people with “defects” were not allowed to come near the sanctuary of God.
That included the blind, the mutilated, hunchbacks, dwarfs and any number of other persons.
The average person in Jesus’ day would have taken one look at the paralyzed man and said, “That guy is a sinner!”
It was just assumed that physical disabilities and other sicknesses were punishments from God for sinful behavior.
Remember in John’s Gospel when Jesus’ disciples asked Him, point-blank, whether a man born blind had sinned himself or whether his blindness was due to his parents’ sin?
That’s how people thought back then.
It’s just the way it was.
And remember how, in the Gospels, over and over again Jesus is accused by the religious authorities of hanging out with, welcoming and eating with tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners?
Well, who are the sinners?
They include the deformed, the disfigured, the blind, dwarfs, hunchbacks, eunuchs, the paralyzed—you name it!
So, the paralytic guy in our Gospel Lesson for this morning, he is someone whom both the religious authorities and the general public thought of as a “sinner.”
I mean, he must have done something REALLY bad in order for him to end up in the situation he is in.
This made sense to folks before the advent of modern medicine.
It also made it easier to “write people off” or not have to deal with the inconvenient people of the world.
They had done something to deserve their lot in life—leave them be!
But this guy is extremely blessed.
Jesus has been out and about healing lepers, driving out demons, and bringing back health to the sick.
And word is spreading fast.
And this guy has four friends who hear about it.
He has four friends who are willing to do whatever it takes to get him to this HEALER named Jesus—even if it means digging a hole in someone’s roof!
Even if it means making the religious authorities and everyone else sick and disgusted by their actions.
What a beautiful thing they did.
Are we willing to do anything it takes to bring people to Jesus?
And if we are willing, are we doing it?
We are told that when Jesus saw the faith of the “four-corner holders,” He “said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”
Now, why would Jesus say that?
He was speaking in the language of His day, was He not?
He was talking in a way that everyone could relate.
They thought he was a sinner and so Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven.”
But we are told that “some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that?
He’s blaspheming!
Who can forgive sins but God alone?’”
And Jesus, knowing what they “were thinking in their hearts, said to them, “Why are you thinking these things?
Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?’
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…’
He said to the paralytic, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’”
And the man did just that!
And we are told that “This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’”
Jesus has freed a person who has been marginalized by his disability.
Jesus defies the authorities who want to condemn those who are different.
And Jesus heaps great praise on those “four-corner holders” who are willing to do anything to bring this guy to wholeness.
Who are the “four-corner holders” who helped carry you to faith in Christ?
Are they why you are here this morning?
Are they part of the reason why are you a believer in Christ at a time in history such as this?
And who are the paralytics of our day, who are not here because they either don’t feel good enough to walk through these doors, they think that we will judge them for their sins or they don’t think Jesus has anything to offer them through this church?
Who are the folks in the homes surrounding this building who are either still asleep right now, watching television or their computer screens without a thought in the world about what is going on inside this humungous brick building that takes up at least a couple city blocks of space?
And what are we willing to do in order to bring them inside, to help them fall in love with Jesus and with life?
I was visiting one of our members who lives at the Terrace here in Red Bank.
I took her one of the Valentine boxes that Gayle Rathburn made for our shut-ins.
I asked her if she thought she might, someday, come back to church.
Her response?
“Do you all still run the van on Sunday mornings?”
I had to answer, “No.”
I wonder how many of the kids who come to our Safe House Program during the week, and also stay to attend Youth Group as well as The Fountain Worship Service would come on Sundays as too if we had van drivers to pick them up.
My guess is, some would.
And what a difference it could make in their lives to be a part of this loving community.
I know it makes a big difference in my life—it makes all the difference.
Have I ever told you that I used to own a rock and roll tee-shirt shop?
It’s true.
And it’s probably one of the main reasons I am here as your Pastor today.
After my stint as a t-v news reporter, I had a popular rock and roll tee-shirt shop in a mall.
It was popular, that is, with the misfit kids.
The skateboarders, the metal-heads, the punks.
They loved my store, but mostly, I guess, they loved me.
Because they would hang out in my store all day and into the evening.
And we got to know one another real well.
And the stories they would tell me of their home lives, and how they hated school, and life in general absolutely broke my heart.
These weren’t kids that went to church.
They weren’t kids who were going to be going off to college.
They were the marginalized, the outcasts, the sinners—shall we say.
And their plight changed my life.
It caused me to turn back to Jesus, and enter the ministry after running from it for a long time.
And it’s all because I wanted to make a positive difference in other peoples’ lives through my life.
And that is what Christianity is all about—at least it’s supposed to be.
If it’s not, then something is terribly wrong.
Who were the four-corner holders who carried the paralytic to Jesus that day when the house was packed and Jesus’ popularity was at its peak?
Who were those people who went to such great lengths, who were willing to do anything it takes to get this marginalized man back into society, to raise him from the dead so to speak?
We don’t know.
But when Jesus saw their faith…He said to the paralytic “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
As the followers of Jesus Christ who worship in this building, we are called by Jesus to be the “four-corner holders” who act on behalf of the people on the margins of this city, carrying them to Jesus so that they can be healed.
It’s not an easy job.
But it is the most worthwhile job in the entire world.
Are we willing to do whatever it takes to get it done?
