“Jesus Teaches and Heals” Mark 2: 1-22

I don’t know about you, but there are some lessons from kindergarten Sunday school class that just stuck with me throughout life. Maybe it was the catchy pictures on the cover of the Cokesbury Sunday school pamphlets or the texture of the pieces we put on the felt board when we heard the story being told, but there are a handful of stories from scripture that have borrowed their way deep inside of my heart and my head. This is one of those stories. 

The story of Jesus healing the paralytic kicks off a series of five stories that all take place in Capernum, ending with Jesus healing the man with the withered hand. Here’s the thing about these healings, no two are exactly alike. In fact, Jesus says and does different things for each person, meeting them right where they are at. 

Except for this story. In this particular story, the people come to meet Jesus where he is at.

Jesus is at home, teaching so many people that it’s standing room only, the whole way back to the door. People are crammed in to hear what Jesus has to say. Only they don’t notice the people trying to get their friend through that jam packed door. 

Can you imagine it? I can see the friends trying to elbow their way through. Saying excuse me. Please let us through. We have to see Jesus. But no one noticed them. Or at the very least no one let them through. 

One commentator put it this way (and I paraphrase) - the good church people were blocking these friends way to Jesus.

Ouch. Oh friends. Can we sit and dwell with that for a while? Here is a man who is desperately in need of healing from Jesus and the good folks listening to Jesus are in the way. When I read that, the question that kept coming to my mind is where and when has the church, the good people who want to love and follow Jesus, actually got in the way of someone who needs the Lord? It shakes your very soul a little bit, does it not? 

But thankfully, these friends, this man’s community. They will not give up. The go up on the roof, cut a hole in it, and start to lower their friend down. Now here’s the thing, roofs aren’t usually meant to have holes cut in them, are they? No. They are meant to keep things out. But these folks are already fed up with the crowd blocking them below so they aren’t going to let the roof prevent them from coming in from above. In other words, these friends will do absolutely anything to get their friend in the presence of Jesus. 

Friends, who do we want to be today? Do we want to be the good, well meaning crowd who block people from coming to Jesus or do we want to be the friends who will do absolutely anything to get people in front of our Savior? 

Because when that friend came to be in the presence of Jesus, absolutely powerful things started to happen. Jesus saw their faith (the faith of this man and his friends) and said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” And all of a sudden those good-church going people who were blocking the door, they weren’t so pleasant any more. Instead, they started questioning in their hearts who this person they were just listening to a minute before was. Who was he to say that this man’s sins were forgiven! The paralytic didn’t even ask to be forgiven of his sins. He didn’t repent. He didn’t bring forth the proper offering. And surely this teacher didn’t have the power to forgive. 

I started chuckling as I recalled his part of the story in preparing for this sermon. Forgiveness is always a controversial thing is it not? Something that is really easy to say, but so much harder to do. Other people always have opinions. Did you really forgive that person? Why did you forgive him? Why are you having such a hard time forgiving her? Friends, have you been there? Have you known the struggles with forgiveness in your own life? Does it make you a little more sympathetic to these good-church going people?

But Jesus did say that this man’s sins were forgiven. Then he healed his body and told him to stand up in walk. 

Friends, do not be confused. This man was not sick because he had sinned. When we think that is what Jesus is saying here it can lead us to judge others in our lives who are ill or to ask why God caused illness in our own life. Instead, through this man, Jesus showed exactly why he came - to bring hope. To heal. To forgive sin. To bind up the broken hearted. And friends, the exact things Jesus showed us through this man is what the world is still in need of today. 

The question is how far are we willing to go to be bearers of that hope, friends. Are we willing to be a community of faith like those friends, who will do anything? How are we as a people of faith bearing the hope of Jesus in the world?

Today is a special day in the life of the church. It’s Baptism of the Lord Sunday, when we remember the day that Jesus was baptized by John. We remember because that story is directly connected to the day we were baptized, when we found our identity in Christ. 

For the paralytic man, he went from being sick to healed, because of Jesus. 

For Levi, he went from probably being called awful names and known only as a tax collector, to being a disciples. 

For you and me, we went from what the world said about us, to what Jesus says about us, that we are his beloved who are bearers of his name - Christ. 

But sometimes friends, we need a space to remember that. We need a space to remember the convents that we are part of, whether we were baptized when we were a child or as and adult. Whether we took vows of confirmation of that baptismal covenant as a teen or as an adult. We need a space to remember again who Christ says that we are. 

So we are going to take time in a moment to do just that. This is not a re-baptism, because the God’s grace and cleansing that met you in your baptism, friends that keeps going. God does not screw up. I love how the United Methodist’s website puts it, “Because baptism is a sacrament of God’s grace and a covenant that God has initiated, it should not be repeated. However, God’s continuing and patient forgiveness, God’s prevenient grace, will prompt us to renew the commitment first made at our baptism.”

But when we remember our baptism. We remember who Christ says that we are. That we have our identity in him. That he says that we are his. 

And we remember the vows that we have taken. The vow to help each other uphold our baptismal covenant. The renouncing of sin and belief in forgiveness. And we remember what comes next - that we promise to support the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. 

Friends, if you need to remember who you are - come, the waters are ready. If you need to remember what you promised - come, and find refreshment. If you need to hear anew today that you are forgiven, come - Jesus is waiting. Friends, will you come? Amen.