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Mark 2.1-12
Mark 2.1-12
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Shelton, WA
Through the Roof Faith
You know, when you think about it, it really does sound kind of ridiculous. I mean really. Here’s this paralyzed guy, it takes four men to carry him through the streets of Capernaum. Yet somehow they were able to climb up onto the roof… without dropping this guy on his head in the process. You need to stop and really think about it for a second; try to really get a picture of it in you mind.
180 pounds of dead weight… just laying there on this stretcher… it takes four grown men just to carry this guy on level ground. Can you imagine what a nightmare it must have been haulinghimup onto the roof? I can’t imagine it. How in the world did they manage to haul 180 pound of dead weight up the side of a building and up onto the top of a roof?
Oh, maybe they used some rope. Maybe the same ropes they used to lower him through the roof. Maybe, but I doubt it. Where did they get the rope from? Did they bring it with them? I don’t think so. That just doesn’t make sense. Why would they bring rope to go see Jesus?
Chances are they didn’t have any rope at all. Chances are they used whatever they had with them—maybe their belts, or maybe even their coats, or strips of cloth torn from the stretcher itself. Who knows, but do you see how ridiculous this is all beginning to look… how silly it all seems?
And then to cap it all off, once they finally do get this guy up onto the roof, somehow they’re able to find the exact spot where Jesus was standing. What did they do, poke a bunch of holes in the roof, look down through each one until the found the exact spot where Jesus was? Sounds kind of silly, doesn’t it? But how else could they know where to start raising the roof?
Oh, and there’s one other thing: don’t you think that once they started pealing back this mud-crusted thatch roof it would make a huge mess? Don’t you think that if you were Jesus and all this mud started to fall down on your head while you were trying to preach, you’d move? I know I would.
I don’t know, the whole thing sounds kind of ridiculous to me. It sounds kind of silly. And you know, I think that’s the point. Faith—especially athrough the roof kind of faith—always looks ridiculous. It always looks silly. It always looks out of place. Really, faith just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Yet even though it may not make a whole lot of sense, there is one thing that I am absolutely certain of: faith—a through the roof kind of faith like these four friends had—is always tenacious in its determination. It just doesn’t give up. And it really doesn’t care what it looks like. It isn’t concerned with what others may think. It doesn’t even care whether or not it looks orthodox or acceptable. Faith is steadfast, staunch, and unwavering in its intention.
You see these four friends were determined. They were going to bring this guy to Jesus no matter what. And nothing, not a crowd, not a roof, not any pretence of religious piety was going to get in their way. They would do what ever it took, no matter how ridiculous it seemed, to make their friend present to Jesus.
Present to Jesus: you know, I think that’s incrediblysignificant. As a matter of fact, that may be what this whole passage is all about. Faith, in and of itself,is not the point. The point is Jesus. The point is God. Faith brings us to God. Faith makes us present to Jesus. But faith is not really the point. Being present to Jesus is.
You see when we become present to Jesus—when we allow faith to lead us to that place where we are helpless before God—well,that’s when things start to happen. That’s when things begin to change. That’s when God starts to take over and things start to become very different for us. The funny thing is, though,they usually don’t happen just as we expect. Things become different, differently than we think they should. It reminds us that we’re not in control. It’s not about us—our desires, our wants, our needs. It’s about something much more.
You see these four friends brought their paralytic buddy to Jesus expecting Jesus to heal his body. They expected Jesus to meet his physical need… to restore his health… to perform a miracle. But there’s more going on here than just a miracle story. There’s more at stakehere than simply the physical brokenness of a person lying on a stretcher dangling by a couple of belts hanging down from a hole in the roof.
Becoming present to Jesus makes that abundantly clear… becoming present to Jesus shows us that life is more than just the sum of our days… becoming present to Jesusbrings us to that place of where something totally unexpected happens, and we become changed because of it.
You see a couple of things happen when we truly become present to Jesus. A couple of things happen when we present ourselves helpless before God. First of all, Jesus sees past the physical need. Jesus looks past the broken body to see the broken person.
In Jewish tradition there is a long history that associates physical sickness with sin. If you remember in John 9 the disciples asked Jesus about a man born blind. They wanted to know whose fault it was—who sinned—him or his parents. Jesus never gives them an answer, because in that particular story that wasn’t the point. But still, there’s this connection between personal sin and physical sickness.
Then,of course, in the Old Testament we have the story of Job… with his own group of special friends. These friends kept telling Job that if he would only confess his sins to God, God would heal his body. Of course, they didn’t really understand what was going on either—they missed the point completely. But still the connection between sin and sickness is there.
You see in Jewish thinking—as with most Eastern cultures—body, soul, and spirit is viewed much more holistically than it is in the West. There is a direct connection between what happens to us spiritual and what happens to us physically. Often physical problems have spiritual antecedents. As a matter of fact, the Talmud notes that “no man gets up from his sickbed until all his sins are forgiven” (Nedarim 41a).
Jesus looked at the man lying paralyzed in front of him on his sickbed. He saw the faith of his four friends looking down from a hole in the roof. But I can’t help but believe that he saw something else as well. He saw all the way through to this man’s spirit. He saw his heart.
That’s what happens when we become present to Jesus. The façade falls away, all pretence fades into the background. The masks we like to hide behind… the masks we like to wear thatcover up our blemishes, that hid our sin… suddenly turnterriblytransparent when we become present to Jesus. And helooks deep into our heart. He gazes past all the exterior stuff of our lives to look deep into our corners of our soul… just like he did with the paralytic.
And do you know what Jesus saw there? Do you know what Jesus saw in the heart of this paralyzed man? Well, it was somethingmuch more than the sin that left him lame—it was contrition… it was a broken spirit… it was the acceptable sacrifice of a truly penitent heart.
And so the words, “Son, your sins are forgiven,” reach out to touch, not his broken body, but his broken spirit. Jesus looks to our deepest need and begins his healing work there. Wholeness always begins on the inside—in the hidden corners of a contrite heart and a broken spirit. And wholeness always flows from the fount of forgiveness.
You see that’s the other thing that happens when we become present to Jesus—his forgiveness floods over us. His grace washes us. His mercy consumes us. And we find ourselves swept away in a love so vast… so deep… so wide… so unimaginable that all we can do is surrender ourselves to its currents. And let it take us wherever it will.
Would you stand with me? When was the last time you were truly present to Jesus? Not just a prayer time, or study time, but just present. When was the last time you found yourself helpless before God? Maybe it’s been too long. Maybe it’s time.
I’ve asked the worship team to come and softly sing that song, “God Will Make a Way,” one more time. Listen to the words. Make yourself present to Jesus. And if you need a touch from God—physical, emotional, or spiritual—take this time to come and present yourself helpless before God.
John GrantPage 111/17/2018