The Gospel of Mark: On the Road With Jesus (8)

“Getting to Jesus”
Mark 2:1-12

1. in the Bible I use for my personal study I have a pencil notation in the margins of this story – June ’05 before the fire; my need of others. I remember feeling like the paralytic who needed friends to take him to Jesus.

2. this is a wonderful story about need, friendship, creative leadership, forgiveness, healing, conflict, amazement & Jesus.

3. I want to look at the story from 5 different perspectives – that of the people, the 4 friends, the paralyzed man, the teachers of the law & Jesus.

4. this is early in Jesus’ ministry. He’s living & working within a rhythm of city & wilderness:
* 1:21 – city
* 1:35 – wilderness
* 1:38 – city
* 1:45 – wilderness
* 2:1 – city
He expends himself in service – he retreats to solitude & silence & prayer

the people (2, 12)
1. the people – the facts:
* heard that Jesus had come home – probably Peter’s house
* they gathered in & outside the house. There was no room left inside
* Jesus preached the word to them – most likely, the time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news (1:15)
* following Jesus’ ministry they were amazed – praised God – said, we have never seen anything like this.

2. this story of Jesus will teach us that crowds/numbers are not always to be trusted. When Jesus started teaching commitment, the crowds diminished. When he was dying, the crowds vanished, including his disciples.

3. where would you place yourself? In the crowd? Or committed no matter what?

the 4 friends (3-4)
1. the 1st thing that hits me about this story is the paralytic’s friends.

2. commitment & compassion. This paralyzed man had 4 friends who loved him so much that they took him to Jesus. They did for him what he couldn’t do for himself.

3. faith. They believed that Jesus could heal him. They exercised faith on behalf of their friend. All of us go through times where our faith wanes & our hope disappears. We need friends to stand in the gap & take us to Jesus.

4. creative leadership. These 4 friends were inventive. Problem – the way to Jesus is blocked by the crowds. Solution – use the roof. The roof was built with wood beams. A thick covering of clay and/or branches lay on top of the beams.

5. this 4 man demolition crew removed the clay/branches & let the man down between the beams. Right in front of Jesus.

6. what a wonderful picture of love & friendship? We take each other to Jesus when we:
* pray for each other
* visit, encourage, support, listen, love each other
* give Scripture to each other

7. do you see yourself in the story? Sometimes we need friends to get us to Jesus. Sometimes we need to get our friends to Jesus!

the paralytic (3-4)
1. this man was paralyzed. He couldn’t walk so his 4 amazing friends became his legs. He wanted to be healed. He allowed his friends to take him to Jesus.

2. I think the paralytic is a universal figure. He was literally, physically paralyzed. Same as some today.

3. but in another vein, paralysis is anything that is hurting us or killing us:
* failures that haunt us
* deadly rush of our lives
* inability to move, decide
* poison of our possessions
* crushing poverty swamping our world
* fear of taking a risk

4. when we are brought to Jesus we are given the choice to take up our mats & walk. And even if our legs still will not work, we can discover how agile a healed spirit can be.

5. few of us can choose our circumstances but we can choose how we will respond to them (Barbara Brown Taylor).

6. the paralytic, in one sense, is all of us. He represents our need for healing – not just physical but emotional, spiritual & relational.

7. how bad do you want healing & release this morning?

the teachers of the law (6-7)
1. these are “the good guys.” They are the guardians of the faith. They are the defenders of orthodoxy.

2. Jesus comes along & shatters their theological categories. He didn’t fit inside their religious studies curriculum. He claimed to forgive sins. In Jewish theology only God could forgive sin (not even the Messiah). He was claiming to be God by claiming to forgive the paralytic’s sin.

3. what would you have done? It’s easy for us to be hard on these guys but we shouldn’t. They were simply doing their job as the keepers of the faith.

4. warning. I think there will always be teachers of the law – people who in their zeal to guard the faith or uphold the truth might miss the sometimes surprising, unexpected ways of God.

Jesus
1. what do we find of Jesus in this story? Son, your sins are forgiven + I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. Forgiveness followed by healing. Healing to validate forgiveness.

2. I have 2 comments I want to make about Jesus.

3. 1st, our sin problem is our biggest problem. This is the point Jesus makes by forgiving the sins of the paralytic before he even asked or made a confession of faith in Jesus. Paralysis was NOT his biggest problem; sin WAS.

4. same with us. Sin is a spiritual infection that comes to us by virtue of our being born into the human race. This infection taints all of our relationships – with God, with his world, with each other & with ourselves.

5. the words we all long to hear are your sins are forgiven. Can you imagine what it would be like to have Jesus look you in the eyes & say with love & tenderness & conviction, your sins are forgiven? I believe this is one of the greatest hungers of our lives.

6. 2nd Jesus is our greatest need. He & he alone can forgive our sin. He & he alone can heal our paralysis.

7. Jesus is both our stopping place & our starting place. By stopping I mean he’s the place we stop at when we come to church. We stop our week to worship him, pray to him, listen to him, give to him & respond to him.

8. then he becomes our starting place. Once the last prayer is said we start a new week as we leave this stopping place.

9. we go home to our neighborhoods. We spread out to the places we call work. We stand on the sidelines of baseball fields. We stand in line at the bank. We sit all day at a computer terminal. We sit all day at the steering wheel of a truck. We become citizens of our world.

10. and there we encounter the burden & the glory of life:
* joy & sorrow
* family & friends
* conflict & challenges
* work & play
* intimacy & estrangement
* certainty & confusion
* vision & blindness
* destitution & plenty
* pain & gladness
* life & death
* suffering & good fortune
* sickness & health
* riches & poverty
* war & peace

11. we meet up with sin – our own & others. We will need to forgive & be forgiven. As we cling to Jesus who saves us all from our sins.

12. we meet up with paralysis – literal & figurative, our own & others. We will need to be healed & be healers. As we cling to Jesus our Healer.

13. take someone to Jesus this week in their paralyzed state. Let someone take you to Jesus this week in your paralyzed state. For forgiveness. For healing. For the life of the world. Amen.