Today we continue our preaching series on miracles in the Gospel. And as we look at the passage about the Paralysed Man today – I want to suggest that the theme is NEWNESS … something new is going on. There are definitely recorded miracles in the Old Testament but in the Gospels there’s an explosion … seventy-six passages in Matthew, Mark and Luke alone. And in Mark’s Gospel which we are looking at today 209 out of 600 verses are about miracle stories (30% of the Gospel). Which suggests that this is an important area to reflect upon and learn about …
Today’s passage is in Chapter 2, and the whole Gospel of Mark moves at this very quick pace (a bit like the holiday I just had …). So in the space of one chapter, we begin with John the Baptist, Jesus is baptised by John in the Jordan, Jesus is then tested by Satan in the wilderness for forty days, Jesus returns preaching in Capernaum, he performs an exorcism, heals a man with a physical disability, great crowds gather around him and he performs many more miracles, Jesus then goes on a preaching tour around the neighbouring cities and then today’s passage begins with him re-entering Capernaum.
And the content of his preaching we find in Chapter 1, v 15:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;repent, and believe in the good news.”
So our theme is NEWNESS – the newness is this teaching materialising in the person of Jesus (which was difference from the Judaic Temple practice which emphasised strict observance of complex laws). So to understand how DYNAMIC and NEW this is – we will reflect on:
THE MESSAGE, THE MAN & THE MIRACLE … and particularly how this relates to the healing of the paralysed man.
So before we do that, a brief quiz about popular culture.
Do you know what some of the top 10 highest rating television programmes of the past ten years have been in Australia?
Television Programme Aus. Viewers
1. 2005 Australian Open: Men's Final (Hewitt v Safin) 4,045,000
2. 2003 Rugby World Cup: Final (Australia v England) 4,016,000
3. Masterchef Australia (25 July 2010) 3,962,000
4. Masterchef Australia (19 July 2009) 3,560,000
5. 2006 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony 3,560,000
6. 2005 AFL Grand Final (Syd Swans v WC Eagles) 3,386,000
7. 2004 Australian Idol: The final verdict 3,344,000
8. 2009 Masterchef Australia: Finale night 3,313,000
9. 2006 Australian Idol: The final verdict 3,330,000
10. 2006 AFL Grand Final (WC Eagles v Syd Swans) 3,145,000
(stats from Wikipedia)
What I notice as I look at this list is that most of them (with the exception of Masterchef) are part of a season of sport or reality tv, etc. and yet the final night is when a large percentage of Australia is viewing … what does this mean? Many of us cash in for the ‘spectacle’ but it doesn’t make us ‘followers’. If we were followers, we would be at the Australian Open with the other 63,000 people EVERY MATCH (… still a very high number I hasten to add), but still less than 2% of those who watched the final on television.
In 2009, I did not watch a single Masterchef episode – I still don’t watch the show – but I was at a Masterchef party on the Finale Night at a friend’s house watching the show … I’m not a follower of Masterchef but I was part of the crowd.
1. The Message
And Mark is keen to make that point today.
Mark tells us – v2 – so many gathered around the house that there was no room for them
… usually a celebrity goes to a public place that enables a crowd to gather – public places are where people speak to crowds … the miracle and the teaching that Jesus is about to give happens in the relative intimacy of a house.
There is a crowd gathered around the house where Jesus is and there is a much more intimate gathering inside the house where the real “action” is. In fact … in Greek … the words Mark uses for house and crowd rhyme … so even linguistically or aurally there’s a parallel going on here.
vv3-4 – a group of four begin to dismantle the roof and lower this paralysed man on a stretcher through the roof. Can you imagine the instability of a Palestinian home in the first century and hauling a paralysed man on a stretcher up the side of a house, risking more harm to him if they dropped him? And then the brazenness in physically breaking part of someone’s roof (a fairly substantial part to fit a whole stretcher through) and lowering him down to this Jewish preacher?
You’d have to believe that it was worth it …
THESE, if you like are the 2% who go to the Tennis Centre to watch every game of the Australian Open. The message is not worth tuning into once, the message is transformational, worth tuning into EVERYDAY.
What’s the Message?
1:15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
And if we think in terms of crowd vs house …. There is a longing expressed by these five – to be part of Jesus’ intimate group, to listen to his words and be transformed by his message.
They’re not passive … they believe that the preaching is true and worth risking ridicule and failure to pursue this belief.
We, here, are all believers – BUT IS OUR BELIEF ALWAYS AS PROACTIVE AND COURAGEOUS AS THESE GUYS? Sometimes we feel powerless. The Paralysed Man was absolutely powerless.
Yet even with our comparative ability – our passage today directs us to have this sort of FAITH in Jesus that his MESSAGE is more than words!
v5 – When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Which, though a little puzzling, is consistent with the message: (1:15)
“The kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
The coming of the kingdom is marked with signs, but the currency of the kingdom is repentance and forgiveness … Which leads us to our second point!
2. The Man
And so I imagine that if you lined up a group of people here as a bit of a panel: people of different religions or of no religion, people of different ages, genders, ethnic backgrounds, etc. … and we asked them a few questions … when we scratched beneath the surface … I think … every one of them would be concerned with some area of their life that is out of balance with how they generally view themselves. Basically some area of sinfulness … And for some, I imagine, that if they had a time machine and they could travel back and take back that word they had spoken in anger or that action they had taken in a moment of conflict – they would.
And I mention this because, I think Christians are accused of being ‘obsessed with sin,’ certainly this is one of the many criticisms that Richard Dawkins makes of Christianity, and yet … look around … everyone’s obsessed with sin (they might not call it “sin”). Why does bad news sell newspapers and magazines? Why is our society so interested in the personal lives of our sports personalities and Hollywood celebrities?
But for the Christian – sin is not just a slight against our character … it is an offence against God … HE is the life-giving God who gives us life, creation and all good things so that we may love and serve HIM and one another.
Even the most trivial of sins is a slight on God’s character.
And Jesus comes preaching that the Kingdom of God is coming near … it’s not ten thousand years away … unattainable … unimaginable … but is near. And God’s character and therefore the character of God’s Kingdom is holiness, goodness, faithfulness … sinlessness. Our character bears God’s goodness but is also tarnished by sin and that is why the CURRENCY of the Kingdom is repentance and forgiveness. WE repent and GOD forgives. This grants us access to God’s Kingdom,
And so in our story today … the man is lowered into the house on a mat by his four faithful friends and Jesus says to him: ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’
We don’t know his sins … We don’t know whether his disability is directly linked to his sins … it might be … But we do know that sin and physical infirmity ARE linked – because sin is corporate ….
My sins are primarily against God …. You’re sins are primarily against God … and if they’re against God … they’re against God’s creation … and Satan uses our weaknesses to propagate evil in the world and THAT’S essentially why “bad things happen to good people.” Because sin is not simply individual and moral, it’s corporate and spiritual.
The choices we make in this life have spiritually binding consequences in this world and the next. That is why the bible speaks both to our moral life and our spiritual life. Have you ever considered how many pages of the bible are dedicated to our spiritual state before God? Ephesians 6, for example, begins with advice to children and parents and then slaves and masters but then continues to say - v12 … for our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
And Jesus comes from the heavenly places, inaugurating the kingdom, by forgiving sin and breaking the stronghold of evil over the world — including in this case — this man’s paralysis. This is a foretaste of what will be achieved in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
But it also has a secondary outcome: it raises a controversy for the Jewish Leaders.
And Jesus engages with the Scribes in a theological discussion about who can forgive sins. They accuse him of blasphemy (which is also a foretaste of the crime Jesus will be convicted of at the end of Mark’s Gospel).
So Jesus does two things:
1. He gives them a theological answer to their theological objection
2. He proves the point with a sign (miracle)
The theological response is to equate himself with the “Son of Man” … Now the “Son of Man” of Daniel 7 is a human who ascends to the divine throne and receives authority from God to forgive sin. So Jesus identifies himself as having authority from God … he does not speak of his own authority. This is echoed in John 14 – if you know me, you know the Father. But this way of identifying himself may have possibly been more palatable to the Jewish Leaders.
Secondly, Jesus provides a proof. It’s easier to say ‘your sins are forgiven’ because it is subjective, how can anyone be sure that this has actually happened (Dawkins?). But if the paralysed man walks (a visible sign that all the crowd will see). Then proof of one suggests the legitimacy of the other!
In fact in our age of advanced medical science, in some cases we perhaps can heal paralysis –
but we still can’t forgive sin.
Jesus is the SON OF MAN figure sent by God with God’s authority over sin and evil.
Both sin and disease are harmful to human life. We can over-emphasise the physical, Jesus emphasises the spiritual but brings wholeness to both areas.
And Jesus offers us this freedom from spiritual and physical paralysis NOW.
Every time we gather here, we confess our sins. However, there may be some area of brokenness in our lives where it may be helpful to pray and confess with someone. You may have a mentor or trusted person that you can go to for this. Alternatively, there is an opportunity after each of our services to receive ministry from a member of our Prayer Team.
3. The Miracle
And so Jesus says: v10
But so you may know that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins – he said to the paralytic – ‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’
And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them;
so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying,
‘We have never seen anything like this.’
When Jesus says, “so you may know …” he now addresses everyone, including his critics.
And what happens?
- The man responds to Jesus command to ‘stand up’
- He is completely healed of his infirmity -
no longer needing the help of his four friends to carry him
- The crowd are amazed
- The crowd glorifies God
- And they say – we’ve not seen anything like this.
In other Words, in Jesus, they saw God at work, and they saw a new teaching with authority that was liberating of both SPIRITUAL and PHYSICAL paralysis.
The Message, The Man & The Miracle are all intricately linked. We do not have the option of having one without the other. The Scribes didn’t take offence at the message so much, as they took offence at the man; no doubt some of the crowd weren’t as interested in the man or the message but went to see ‘the spectacle’ … signs and miracles being performed … the big show that rolled into town. The later passion narrative suggests that some of Jesus’ closest followers loved the man, but we’re uncomfortable with the implications of the message.
And we do that too, don’t we?
When we encounter someone or something that we really like … we want to somehow fit that person or thing into our own worldview. And if we are talking about AUSTRALIAN IDOL or MASTERCHEF, that’s possible. But if we are talking about FOLLOWING CHRIST, it’s not.
It’s important to hear today’s Gospel through the ears of the first hearers.
It was NEW, RADICAL and THOROUGHLY LIBERATING – and it still is today:
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR, REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS
When Jesus saw the paralytic and his friends – he saw in the friends, faith, and in the paralysed man, repentance. And he offered the crowd a VISUAL AIDE that the Kingdom of God is NEAR by healing the man’s paralysis – an example of the perfection of the Kingdom.
When I got up this morning – obviously this sermon was written – but I had a niggling feeling that I had missed something and as I did my daily devotion, I turned to Psalm 19
and at the end of Psalm 19 are these words – you may just like to close your eyes and meditate on them for a moment:
The revelation of God is whole
and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain
and easy on the eyes.
God's reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,
with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate
down to the nth degree.
God's Word is better than a diamond,
better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You'll like it better than strawberries in spring,
better than red, ripe strawberries.
There's more: God's Word warns us of danger
and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
Keep me from stupid sins,
from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
God, Priest-of-My-Altar. (Psalm 19.7-14, The Message)
This should be our prayer – that sin have no dominion over us.The one who has the authority & power to clear our hidden faults is JESUS …
I have been part of communities where people are on FIRE and I have seen those same communities come undone by human-brokenness … sin … no community is immune from this.
TODAY … we see a picture of the Kingdom, as Jesus, the Son of Man … the one given the authority of God, liberate a man from both spiritual and physical paralysis. The challenge for us is to not be “Masterchef” Christians or “Australian Idol” Christians, but to be “Paralysed-Man-like” Christians: PRO-ACTIVE, EXPECTANT, REPENTANT AND BELIEVING that Jesus is both Lord and Saviour who WITH AUTHORITY inaugurates a NEW, RADICAL and LIBERATING way of being the PEOPLE OF GOD.