Fly: Daring New Heights
Mark 2:1-12
The story of the paralyzed man being lowered to Jesus from the ceiling in the New Testament is in all three synoptic gospels. It's an important story, it is definitely likely that you have heard it before if you have spent any time in sunday school class as a kid or an adult.
A man paralyzed to the point that he could not ambulate, or get himself from place to place, was with his friends who desperately tried to get him to Jesus. But Jesus was in a house and the house was packed full of people. There was no great way to get him in there.
So his friends take him to the top of a roof, dig a hole in it and lower him, on his mat right at the feet of Jesus. And then a few things happen worth noting detail by detail:
Jesus notices their faith, and then forgives the paralyzed man. (He doesn't heal the paralysis, yet.)
Skeptics in the crowd (there are always skeptics!) silently and to themselves question whether Jesus actually has the authority to forgive.
Jesus reads their minds, sensing their doubt, and poses a question: "Which is easier, saying "your sins are forgiven" or "take up your mat and walk?"
Jesus commands the paralyzed man to get up, take his mat with him, and to go home.
The paralyzed man does just that, surprising everyone in the room.
One thing that sticks out to me is how this story was about more than Jesus than the paralyzed man. Another thing worth noting is that we have to do some of our own interpretation work to resist what the gospel writer does in this story: turn the paralyzed man into a plot device. He doesn't speak at all, but seems to exist only to be healed so that Jesus can prove skeptics wrong.
It's ok to be suspicious or critical of the gospel writer here (at least Mark doesn't associate his paralysis with sin--Jesus actually treats the two things separately). We have to be careful that we don't dismiss characters with disabilities as simply plot devices or demonstrations of Jesus power--especially so that we don't do the same with people who live with disabilities among us.
But do you notice the urgency, persistence, and courage of his friends? Instead of seeing the crowd and believing they were powerless, they innovated. They tried something off-the-wall, even dangerous. Because getting their friend to Jesus was so important. I hope you have friends like that in your life!
The combination of urgency, tenacity, and creativity led to a miracle. The shared effort of friends unleashed the power of Jesus not only to forgive sin, but also to heal wounds. Imagine what our shared efforts as a church could lead to!
