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

 When I was in elementary school, my parents had a decision to make - are we going to move or build an addition onto our family home. I remember, despite being young, going to visit several different houses - including one where you could pass food through a hole in the wall - which I thought was so neat at the time. 

My parents ultimately decided to build an addition onto our home - which meant that for a period of time we moved several rooms worth of stuff into our living room. My mom is not one  for messes, so as the project took longer and longer past the given deadline, and the mess grew larger and larger, her patience started to fray.

In the end - it was all worth it, but there was a lot of frustration in the process.

Jesus is now in Capernaum and is teaching in a home. His fame around teaching and healing is already beginning to spread, and the crowd is so large that it has filled out house and is pushing out of the door. Can you see it? The crowd pulsing with energy, pushing in, just hoping to be able to catch a glimpse of Jesus and hear what he is saying. 

The crowd was so large, that no one else would be able to get through. And there was someone who really wanted, no needed, to get through. There was a man who was paralyzed, unable to walk on his own, who was being carried by four people. But they couldn’t get in. All the well meaning folks wanting to hear and see Jesus were in their way. 

So when they could not get the man to Jesus the traditional way, through the front door, they got creative and cut a hole in the roof in order to lower the man to Jesus. 

Church, I don’t care what your roof is made of - you are going to notice when someone starts digging a hole in it. I wonder what the crowd started to do, as bits of the roof fell upon them. Did they start looking up - wondering what was happening? Did Jesus keep on teaching, or did he stop with his eyes gazing up as well?

These four men were so desperate to get their friend to Jesus, they were willing to do anything, anything, just so he could be in Jesus’s presence and have a chance of being healed. 

It may not have been practical, but it was effective, because when they had a big enough hole, they lowered that man right through it to Jesus. 

Only, when the man was safely on the ground, the first thing he was offered by Jesus was not healing but forgiveness. Ouch. What was the man in need of forgiveness for? A lot of preachers through the years have inaccurately connected the man’s illness, his paralysis, with his sin, but Jesus never says that. But he does say that this man is forgiven. 

Which made the religious leaders really upset. They claimed that Jesus had neither the authority nor the right to declare that sins are forgiven, but at least had the common sense to keep their mouths shut. Only Jesus saw right on into their hearts - so to make his point even clearer - about where his power and authority came from - he then told the man to be healed. To get up and walk. Which he did - rolling up his mat and heading out the front door that wouldn’t allow him in. 

A lot of times, I will hear folks say that they are willing to do anything to get those they know and love to Jesus. They desperately want people to come to know him as Lord and Savior, only there are some cavauts, unspoken as they may be, around the concept of “anything.” Anything, as long as its convient. Anything, as long as its practical. Anything, as long as it doesn’t require too much from them. 

To which these four men show up and speak truth into the “anything.” Anything really means anything for them. They were bold and imaginative, driven by their desire to get their friend to Jesus - trusting that he would take care of the rest. 

But the problem, church, is not just our limits on the word “anything.” It often can be that we are the people blocking others from coming to Jesus - crowding in around the door to the point where others cannot find a way in. 

One of the churches I served was located on historic route 6. It was not uncommon to have travelers stop in from time and time along their journey from one coast to another. One Sunday, a man showed up in biking shorts and a helmet, explaining that he was traveling across the United States and had run out of food and resources. Could we help?

Now, in some congregations, he may have been turned away because of how he looked - blocking the door to Jesus. Or there may have been questions about whether he was trying to rip them off - blocking the door to Jesus. And still others may have agreed to help, but would ask him to wait until it was a convient time for them - blocking the door to Jesus. But not this church. They raided their own cupboards, finding anything they could for him and blessing him on his journey. 

The folks blocking the door that day had really good intentions. They may not have even realized that someone was trying to get past them because they needed to see Jesus too. But not knowing that you are blocking the door doesn’t make it any less of a hinderance. 

The other questions this text asks us, is not just around the concept of “anything” or blocking doors, but also how would we feel if someone cut a hole in our roof? Maybe its not going to be a literal hole, but how would we react church, if someone was so desperate for Jesus, that they disturbed our orderly worship?

I think if we were honest, a lot of us would say that we have no desire to be interrupted in that dramatic of a fashion. We like things just the way they are, thank you. But when someone wants to see Jesus, friends, and we won’t get out of the way, then we need to be interrupted. 

One of the churches I served got a bit uneasy when I said I was going to make a sign asking people to come and have me pray with them at a local pub. They were afraid of how it would look - a pastor sitting at the bar, even sipping water. They thought that hour a week could be better spent ministering to them - they were the ones supporting the ministry, weren’t they. And I went anyway. 

They were right, not a single person I ever prayed with, ever made it to their church. But time and again people would say to me that they felt like Jesus was doing something in their hearts as they told me story after story of what alientated them from the church and how they felt like this was a way for them to find healing and return. 

Church, the bold, creativity of the friends that day created a mess. But it was all worth it in the end, even with all of the frustration in the process. Their friend was healed that day, but the crowds, even they were blessed to catch a glimpse of who Jesus is.

We may get frustrated, people of God. We may not realize that we are in the way. We may not want holes cut in our roofs and we may say “anything” when we really mean some pretty hefty conditions. But hear this - anytime someone comes to Jesus, it is worth it in the end.