7th Sunday after Epiphany February 10,2006
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Gracious God, through the gift of your Son, you have come among us to offer us your promise of pardon and the hope of new life. Yet all too often, we allow despair to quench our hope, and resignation to blind us to the future you have envisioned for us. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds that we might see your transforming power at work in our lives, and through the fellowship of your church. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
This morning, I would like to acknowledge that many of my thoughts and words have been derived from Steven H. Delzer’s sermon, entitled NEW LIFE, published in Augsburg Sermons 2, published in 1984.
Can you imagine what it must have been like for the paralyzed person in our Gospel lesson for this morning? How would you feel if you knew you would never be able to take a quiet walk along the sandy beach on a warm summer night, never walk through a snow-covered forest, or never skate across an ice-covered lake.
All day long, day after day, this person probably replayed his life in his mind. After all, his mind was all that he had left. His body was nothing but a limp dishrag, dangling down from his eyes. He couldn’t move, but his mind was filled with pictures – images from his past. Some of those images may have enabled him to experience a little joy in his life, as he relived happier times.
But he also may have rehearsed images of all that went wrong in his life. He may have scanned those images, searching for some reason, some clue, some understanding as to what he had done to deserve this fate. Perhaps his paralysis was God’s punishment for some sin that he had committed.
No one knows how long this person had been paralyzed. I would guess from our text that he was not born in this condition, since we are told that he had several mobile friends who really cared about him. Even in today’s culture, it is hard to make friends when you can never get out of bed and circulate among the people.
I would also guess that this person had tried many different cures. Perhaps he had gone to other so called “healers” who had tried to give new life to his dead limbs. But it had never worked before. And so we might imagine that this man had given up hope. Why set yourself up for more disappointment, which became harder to bear each time he allowed himself think that he might walk again?
Then one day Jesus came back to his home in Capernaum. The friends of this paralyzed man had heard about Jesus. They had heard how he was able to heal many others who were sick with various diseases. Maybe he could help their friend. And so they rush to tell their stricken friend the good news. “Guess what?” they said. “Jesus is in town. We want to take you to see him. We believe he can heal your paralysis.”
“Oh, that’s just great!” their friend replied. “That’s just what I need, another disappointment. How many times are you going to build up my hopes, only to have them come crashing down, and leaving me more depressed. Face it. I’m paralyzed. Why just you just go and leave me alone.”
“Why?” his friends responded. Because we believe Jesus is different than all the others. Jesus preaches and teaches with an authority unlike the scribes. We have even heard that he can cast out demons. Maybe this time you will be healed and able to have your life renewed.”
So they set off down the road to the house where Jesus was staying – four men carrying the pallet that bore the paralyzed body of their friend – four men full of hope and faith, and one man barely hanging on to his last hope.
But when they got to where Jesus was staying, they couldn’t even get close to the door. They tried to push their way through the crowd, but the crowd wouldn’t budge. They came all this way, their poor paralyzed friend bouncing and twisting on his pallet, and they couldn’t even get anywhere near Jesus.
But these were no fair-weather friends, who could easily be deterred. They procured some rope and a ladder, then went around the back of the house and climbed up on the roof. Then they carefully lifted their friend up on the roof, and proceeded to tear a hole in the roof, large enough to lower the friend on his pallet into the house where Jesus was teaching.
And can’t you just imagine their paralyzed friend’s reaction to all of this. “What are you guys doing! I thought you wanted me to be cured of my paralysis, not kill me by hoisting me up on a roof! And just what makes you think that this Jesus is even going to consider wanting to heal me after you have ruined his roof! Have you guys totally lost your mind! If I could move, I would get out of here, and let you nuts face the consequences of your actions on your own.
To say the least, the people who crammed Jesus’ house that day to hear him teach, must have thought they witnesses to the most bazare thing they had ever seen. And yet Jesus seemed to be unfazed by the hole in his roof, or the interruption to his teaching that resulted from these four men lowering this paralyzed man into his presence.
Instead of being angry, Jesus looked up at these four men on the roof, and saw their love for their friend, and their hope and faith that Jesus could bring God’s power to heal him of his paralysis. Even though the man on the pallet was filled with anxiety and fear, Jesus looked at him and said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
At first, we might wander what Jesus meant by these words. Was he trying to reassure the paralytic that he forgave him for the hole in his roof through which he had entered his home, or was Jesus reassuring him that no matter what sins he had committed in his past life, which he thought might have angered God and resulted in his paralysis, were forgiven?
Of course, our text tells us the answer to that question. As the scribes that had gathered to hear Jesus teach that day began to question whether anyone but God had the authority to forgive the sins of another, Jesus said to them, “Which is easier to say to this man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Take up your mat and walk?’”
I really doubt if the paralytic was at all interested in this theological debate between Jesus and the scribes. But I am sure that he found comfort in Jesus’ words of forgiveness. And then, when Jesus turned to him again and said, “stand up, take your mat and go home,” and he, for the first time in years began to feel tingling sensations in his toes and fingers, looked at Jesus with eyes filled with tears, even before he attempted to get off of his pallet.
Here was a man, who received far more than he had even dared to hope for, when his friends brought him to Jesus. Here was a man who had lost hope that he could ever regain a meaningful life. Here was a man who felt that his life was paralyzed, not only by his dead limbs, but by his past sins, which he believed enslaved him and restricted him to continue his life without hope.
I believe that each of us have felt like that paralyzed man, whom his friends brought to Jesus that day in Capernaum. Oh, we may have never experienced physical paralysis, as he did. But there are many kinds of paralysis. There is the paralysis that makes us captive to our negative emotions, makes us captive to the feeling that nothing can change our way of life, makes us captive to the idea that we can never overcome the wrongs we have done in the past.
But we, like that paralytic in our Gospel lesson for this morning, are in the presence of Jesus, who says to us, “Your sins are forgiven,” and “Take up your mat and walk.” This morning, we are in the presence of friends who care about us, because they have come to believe and know the power of Jesus to forgive and restore them to new life. This morning, we have gathered in the midst of a lot of forgiven sinners, who dare to trust in Jesus to bring God’s power into their life, and enable them to put their past behind them and embrace the future with hope.
Today, we all stand before Jesus. Through his spoken word, and in the bread and wine of communion, we gather in fellowship to celebrate our Lord’s presence among us, and strive to walk in the newness of life that he has promised to us. Thanks be to God. Amen.
