7th Sunday after the Epiphany
Mark 2:1-12
"Faith Will find A Way"
2:1 ¶ And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.
2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them.
3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay.
5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven."
6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,
7 "Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question thus in your hearts?
9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ’Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ’Rise, take up your pallet and walk’?
10 But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" --he said to the paralytic--
11 "I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home."
12 And he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"
Our gospel lesson this morning centered around three different characters. Jesus, a man who was paralyzed, and his four friends. Jesus had just return to Capernaum and was probably in Peter’s house. He began to preach to the people and people gathered all about the house inside and outside to hear him preach.
Then it happened. Four men brought their friend who was paralyzed to Jesus. They got to the door and saw that they could not get in that way, so they came up with an unique idea. They would carry their friend to the roof, then remove some of the roofing and lower the paralyzed man down to Jesus.
These four men were really go
od friends of the paralyzed man. First of all they had to decide they would put their friend on a stretcher and carry him to Jesus. Second, when they saw the way was blocked, they came up with an ingenious idea of how to get their friend to Jesus, they carried him to the roof, removed part of the roof and lowered him down in front of Jesus.
Good friend indeed. I marvel at their friendship. I marvel at their faith, their belief that Jesus could do something for their friend. And when obstacles got in the way, their faith in Jesus allowed them to proceed, to carry on.
Their faith in Jesus is like the faith shown in the following:
"A group of small boys were playing sandlot baseball. One was asked the score, "ninety-eight to nothing in their favor," replied the breathless youngster.
"You are getting beat pretty badly, aren’t you?" said the bystander.
"No,no," the boy said with emphasis, "our side hasn’t even been to bat yet."
These four men had faith that if they could only bring their friend to Jesus, somehow, some way, Jesus would do something to help him. So their faith, their hope, their conviction, that if only Jesus could see their friend, something could be done. So no matter the difficulty, they were willing to do their level best to get their friend to Jesus.
And they did get their friend to Jesus. And notice something very special in the text. It says: they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay.
5 And when Jesus saw their faith,
They let down the pallet. The text does not say that they shouted to Jesus, heal our friend, it does not say that asked Jesus to do anything. They just let down the stretcher, period.
This was faith in the utmost. They did not ask Jesus to do anything, they did not beg, they did not persuade Jesus to act. They just lowered down their friend in front of Jesus and let what would happen, happen, period.
Their faith must of been working over time. First to have the courage to gather up their friend to take him to Jesus, second, to get the idea of taking him to the roof and removing part of the roof and lowering their friend down to Jesus, with not word from them, just their actions.
Sometimes when things seem to be the roughest, our faith calls up a reserve of energy, or power inside of us to handle the situation.
It is like the frog in the following:
"There were two frogs who were hopping along a wet ,deeply rutted country road. Then all of a sudden one of them fell into one of the deep ruts and was unable to get out. He kicked and scrambled mightily, but to no avail. Finally, he said to his buddy, "You go on my friend, I’m a goner, I’m done for, I can never get out of here."
His buddy sadly started on down the road, but then all of a sudden he heard the sounds of a long-leaping frog coming up behind him, fast. Turning, he saw that it was his friend from the ditch.
"I thought you couldn’t get out of there," he said.
To which the other frog replied in a panting voice, "A big truck came along and I had to!"
The frog did not have faith in himself to get out of the rut until that truck came by, and then he found that faith, that energy to explode out of the rut and save himself.
Faith in Jesus can let us bear up under the brokenness of this world so that we can find the strength to carry on with life.
These four friends found the strength to carry their friend to Jesus when it seemed it would be impossible to do so. But somehow, somewhere inside of themselves, they found the power to come up with the idea to go to the roof, remove some of it and lower their friend to Jesus. They did this hoping and believing Jesus would act, but with the courage of not demanding that Jesus act, just the faith to allow Jesus to act.
Then we come to the man himself who lies on that pallet or stretcher. What do you think was going through his mind? The scriptures do not say anything about his thoughts about this whole matter. Did he have the same kind of faith in Jesus that his friend did? Did he want his friends to do this? Had he asked or was he just a willing bystander, or maybe he was not willing at all, but had no choice as he lie there on his pallet unable to move, unable to protest, unable to have any say in the situation at all.
The text says: "And when Jesus saw their faith" whose faith, the four men or all five of them, the four friends and the man lying on the pallet. We just don’t know the answer to these questions.
Then we come to Jesus. The text says: And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven."
Did Jesus mean that somehow the sins of his man caused his paralyses? In the first century -- and even today -- there is a belief that suffering and illnesses are the direct result of one’s sins (or with birth defects, sins inherited from the parents). Does Jesus mean to support that view of suffering -- that this man (or his parents) must have committed some sin for him to be in the condition he is in? We know from Jesus’ discussion in John 9 with the Pharisees who held this view, that Jesus’ did not believe that individual handicaps were a direct result of someone’s sin.
Or did Jesus say this because he was the one who was victorious over sin and saw sin not as something that caused this condition, but was conscious of the condition of sin in the world which causes the perfection of this world to be less than God intended it to be.
I would like to believe that Jesus saw sin as the consequence of a broken world, a world that is less than prefect so then paralyses, sickness, and all the brokenness we see in this world is allowed to happen till the final coming.
As a person who has had to live with a disability all his live, I had polio at the age of 4, I find that many people do equate sin with brokenness. Did my parents not get the vaccine in time? No, it was not available when I had polio?
Are you trying hard enough to over come your disability? I had a seventh grade teacher say this in front of the class one day. He said, "Tim if you tried harder you would not need those crutches." Little did he know that during the summer when everyone else was having fun, I was in the hospital having surgery to make myself better. I wore a cast the whole summer, did numerous exercises, to just get back to were I was before the summer started, and we hoped, the doctor, my family and I that indeed one day I would get stronger and not need those crutches, but now i did. He implied that there was something wrong with me, my lack of courage to try. He blamed me, not the disease, but me.
I think this text shows us the power of Jesus to act. To act not only to heal, but to act to forgive sins, the sins of this world that bring all the brokenness to each of us. It would have been easier for Jesus just to heal as he had been doing, but he wanted to show the power, the authority he did have. So while he healed this man, he also proclaimed to those who were there that He had power to change the world, to forgive sins.
And then when the man took up his pallet and went home all the people marveled at what Jesus had done and gave glory to God.
I think the lesson from this text we must learn is to have faith, to believe that Jesus does have the power to affect our lives today, to bring a measure of His grace and glory into our sinful and less than perfect lives.
A closing story tells this well.
There is a story about some men of faith, some people of faith, not much different than most of us.. They lived in the hills and it was winter time, snow lie deep on the country roads and for four days there has been no traffic. Party-line telephone hum with neighborly chatter. There is talk about the weather, the livestock, how much milk and bread and sugar folks have left. The children were all home, because there is no school. A mood of adventure is everywhere, it is really a festive time and there is a lot of laughter in the homes along the valley.
Then comes the word-- from far up at the end of the road at the foot of the mountain; little Mary Ellen Jones is sick. Her mother is worried. The fever climbs and the pain in her right side grows and grows. By party-line phone, the doctor is reached in the village 20 miles away. Over the phone he asks some questions and he he says, ’’There is no doubt about it Mary Ellen has an acute case of appendicitis. "Up and down the valley, everyone knows that unless the child can have surgery soon, she will die.
Suddenly, the children are quiet in their homes. The party-line chatter yields to an urgency: Mary Ellen somehow has to be gotten to the hospital. For 20 miles up and down the snow-covered valley burly farmers talk in earnest tone-- and then it happens; every piece of farm equipment moves out onto the road, every tractor, every horse, every shovel and hoe and almost every man woman and child.
The party-line relays the news: they now have Mary Ellen in the farm truck, the one with the big snow tires and they are starting now. The journey is logged, mile after mile, moment by moment.
When there is a snow slide at Horseshoe Bend, when the Jones’ truck is delayed somewhere between houses, an electric hush falls upon the valley. And there is almost a shout of joy each time the truck passes another farm on it way.
Eventfully come the word: they have reached the village hospital now and the surgeon has arrived from the city--and then the operation is over and Mary Ellen will be just fine.
Can you imagine the joy in the homes of those people that night as weary folks gathered about their fireside and relive the day?
These men of faith had found a way when it seemed to be most impossible.
But faith will always find a way.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale Tuesday, February 11, 2003
