Scripture: Mark 2:1-12; Psalm 103:2-4
Title: The Story within the Story
Within the Story that John Mark shares in chapter two is the deeper story of the power of forgiveness – for healing and wholeness physically, emotionally and spiritually.
INTRO:
Grace and peace this morning from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Rarely do we watch a movie or read a story that is linear in scope. Most of the time we discover that while there is an overall story there are many different little stories that are being shared as well.
Think for a moment about a movie or a TV show that you have recently watched. You saw an overall story, perhaps the mystery was solved, or the family endured a great struggle but while you were watching or reading what was going on there were all these little stories also going on at the same time. The characters were dealing with all kinds of issues – family issues, work related issues and intertwined personal issues.
That is how life works. We all have the main things that happen to us each day. But intertwined with those main things are all kinds of little things that happen to us – we get a phone call from a family member, we talk to someone at the grocery store, we see something happening while we are driving down the street. The list could go on and on.
It’s that way with our Gospel story this morning.
There are all kinds of little stories that are going on in this passage. Let’s take some time to see if we can unravel some of them and see what they say to us.
1. It’s a story of a man coming home after a journey.
Mark starts off with telling us that Jesus had been gone for a while with His disciples.
+They had been meeting new people.
+They had been sharing the Good News – Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
+They had been instrumental in helping people be freed from the penalty and the power of sin.
Mark doesn’t tell us how long Jesus had been gone on his trip only that he had decided it was time to come back to Capernaum.
We all know what that is like. We have gone on a trip either for pleasure or for work. We have had a great time but there comes a time when we must come back home. We need to do some laundry. We need to see how the yard and the house are doing. We need to catch up on what has been happening while we have been gone.
That’s just life. And even though Jesus is the Son of God, He has chosen to live as one of us and therefore it was time to do some laundry, see how the house was doing and no doubt do some chores. It might have even been time to do some woodwork to get ready to pay for the next trip.
2. It’s the story of a man who just wanted to have some down time.
As you read the story you can glean that Jesus didn’t send out a message that he was coming back to Capernaum. He didn’t expect to be greeted by a brass band or have the paparazzi follow him around.
Jesus was coming home to rest. To take a few days off before deciding what to do next.
It’s just that simple. Jesus was tired of walking and traveling. No doubt the four disciples that he had with him at the time – Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John were road weary. After all, they had been fishermen not road warriors. They were exhausted as well and probably needed to get back for a few days to connect with family and friends.
3. It’s a story of interruptions
Jesus’ reputation was soaring. It wasn’t just his teaching or his message on salvation. It was His ability to free people from their physical, emotional and spiritual issues.
It seems like word got around quick that the carpenter turned healer was back home.
And all kinds of people showed up at his door and then inside his door.
In fact, Mark tells us that there wasn’t any room for anyone inside the house or around the house.
It must have been quite the sight.
People are looking at your furniture. They are picking up your cookware and anything else that they could get their hands on. They are sizing up your house and everything else that they could see.
I don’t know if I would have responded as Jesus did. He just opened the door, welcomed everyone in and started teaching them.
Did anyone have something to eat?
How about some donuts?
Did someone bring an extra chair?
Just how many people can you fit into this room and that room?
Where is the bathroom?
We don’t know if the other disciples were with Jesus or heard what was happening, but you have to imagine that as soon as they did hear the four men came over to help Jesus.
After all, they had been traveling with him for a few days and had begun to understand how to do crowd control and make sure people stayed civil to one another. You never know what is going to happen when you get a bunch of people together who all want their own five minutes with Jesus.
It is right here that Mark shares one of the great stories that happened that day.
By the time they began to hear the noise and see the straw coming down it was too late.
There was a group of four people who were determined that their friend would meet Jesus.
I call these men the bruised shoulder ministry team.
We don’t know how far they had carried the man who was their friend. We don’t know if it was one mile away or 30 miles or more away. We don’t know how long it had taken them to find Jesus’ house.
All we know is that these four men were determined. Nothing was going to stop them from getting some help for their friend.
We all need friends like these four men. Friends that will literally put us on their shoulder and get us some help. Friends that are determined no matter what they are going to help us get the best opportunity to experience healing and wholeness.
If you ever want to know what one of the perfect pictures of the Church of Jesus Christ looks like it is this scene. People that are willing to put themselves out for someone else. People that are willing to do the heavy job of carrying whatever and whoever they need to do to help others.
These four men were not in this for themselves. I am sure that they could have been doing something else that day. But their love and concern for their friend was what was driving them.
It’s this kind of love that causes people to want to work with children, teens, the poor and those who are going through tough times. It’s this kind of love that organizes food pantry ministries, homeless shelters and medical care stations. It’s this kind of love that reaches out and helps people who suffer from all kinds of addictions.
No one person can do it all. But we all can be a part of one ministry or the other. We all can and need to be a part of a vital ministry that helps people. It’s who we are called to be, and it is what we are called to do.
I wonder how the people below began to feel about seeing a portion of the roof as it started coming down into the room.
I wonder if that caused some of them to quickly get out of the house.
I don’t have to wonder about what the owner of the house felt because most scholar believe that it was Jesus’ home.
Jesus was not only seeing his home overcrowded with a bunch of people but now there was this group that was taking his ceiling apart.
What a day to be in Capernaum.
We might have been a tad bit upset with all that was going on that day.
“Would you please put that down, I really don’t want anyone going through all my things, trying on my different robes and for the 10th time, please try not to break anything.”
“Could you step back just a minute, I like to have some elbow room.”
“Someone in here needs a bath really bad.”
“Oh, no they are going to literally tear my house apart.”
It seems like Jesus just takes it all in stride.
Maybe it’s because he knows that he can quickly refix the roof.
Maybe it’s because once he sees the men on the roof, he recognizes them. He has worked with them and knows the man that has been hurt. He had heard how he had been working on a similar roof, fell off it and that is how he ended up on this stretcher.
Mark doesn’t share with us the fine details.
All we know is Jesus welcomes the people who have just ripped open a big hole in his roof and lowered their friend down to see Jesus.
4. It’s a story of a full healing – a cure and a salvation
It’s a story of forgiveness.
Forgiveness that brings not only a cure but a complete healing.
Now, there were some scribes and other religious legal types that didn’t like what was going on in Jesus’ house and around his house.
They had already decided that Jesus was dangerous. They had already decided that Jesus was going to be a problem.
He was too unorthodox. He couldn’t be put into a box. He was going to upset the status quo.
Everything was going quite well in their world. There were rules and regulations. There was a proper order to how things should go.
Now, Jesus was talking about people being free from their sins.
Jesus was touching people and healing people.
Jesus was talking about forgiveness, mercy and love.
Who gave Jesus this right?
Did the Temple approve him? Had the High Priest anointed Him to do this type of teaching and ministry?
What will happen next?
What happens if this Jesus movement grows and others begin to have the same power and authority?
At the heart of all that we read here is not just a story about a person being cured but a person receiving a full healing.
Presently, there is a divide between the medical world and the spiritual world.
Not all in the medical profession are skeptical about the religious world and its attitude towards healing but a great many are quite skeptical.
There are a lot of reasons behind the skepticism towards both groups and between both groups.
But healing is more than just fixing a physical issue. It’s more than just setting bones back in place, taking out the infected parts and prescribing the right type of chemical composition that comes in either liquid or pill form.
And just the same spiritual issues are more than just pie in the sky ideology, the name it – claim it philosophy or saying a few mystical and magical words that might save us a great deal of money, time and pain.
Jesus reminds us of the power of forgiveness.
A forgiveness that richer and deeper than just physical healing although we never rule out the miracle of physical healing.
A forgiveness that those around Jesus said only the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY could do and Jesus shows that not only can God forgive but He has given us the power to forgive.
Again, it’s a part of the Lord’s Prayer – forgiveness.
The power to forgive and be forgiven.
At times we get caught up in the healing part – the physical part of this story and tend to overlook what was at the center of God’s heart.
At some point whether we are healed once or a thousand times we must put down this physical body.
It is deteriorating as we take every breath. Our skin wrinkles while we sit. Our organs are aging and our brains are ever so slightly shrinking. Our neck hurts, our feet hurt and our back hurts. Our vision changes and we find ourselves having more trouble walking and being mobile as we age.
Now, we do everything we can to delay the inevitable. We tuck, we pull, we stretch, we try this diet, we try this medication and we do anything and everything that we can to stay as mobile and as youthful as we possibly can. Some people even try to carve up themselves thinking that if they can only look 20 years younger then they can last 20 years longer.
But in the end whether it is in our 80’s, 90’s or even in our 100’s we will eventually run out of juice. We will one day draw our final breath.
It will only be then that we will experience one of the greatest miracles of creation.
We will not stay dead. We will do as the caterpillar does in the cocoon. We will leave the old cocoon behind and begin life as a new creation.
Jesus showed us this after His Resurrection.
Jesus still heal physical bodies.
But what good does it do to have a healed body if you still have a diseased and infected soul?
It all takes us back to the early chapters of the book of Genesis where we read how person after person lived to be 930 (Adam), 962 (Jared) and of course 969 (Methuselah). We go to those after the Great Flood and we still have Shem at 600 years down to Terah who lives to be 205 and finally Abraham who lives to be 175. Finally, we get to Jacob at 147 and Moses at 120.
But from those who lived to be in their 900’s to those who lived past 100 the same truth happens – they all died.
Jeanne Louise Calment died back in 1997 at the age of 122. Still living at the age of 116 is Maria Branyas Morera and Tomiko Itooka is right behind her at 115.
While that is nothing near Adam, Noah or even Abraham it is not that far behind Moses and a little more than Joseph (110).
But in the end, it is still all the same. We all will die. No matter how many times we are healed, no matter how many times we quote “defeat” cancer, heart problems or whatever.
So, as we look at this healing, we must see the spiritual healing that does not end. The healing that comes with forgiveness, the healing of the soul that leads to everlasting life.
That’s the greatest miracle in our Gospel story this morning.
The power of forgiveness, the everlasting nature of forgiveness.
So, as we close this morning, I would like for us to do two things:
+To pray for those who need physical healing
+To pray for those who need forgiveness – who need the forgiveness that leads to the New Birth and everlasting life.
Song https://youtu.be/QJ3eklr3fc0 Freely, Freely (God Forgave My Sin)
Or https://youtu.be/FtIvrvkJvAQ Jesus – Chris Tomlin
Prayer – Holy Communion
