Sermons

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Razing the Roof
April 7, 2002
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

Most Bible scholars believe that the gospel of Mark was the very earliest one written, and that Matthew, Luke and perhaps John had it available when they wrote their gospels. And there's a very strong tradition dating back to the very early second century, that the writer of the gospel of Mark was the same (John) Mark who traveled with Paul on his missionary journeys, and that eventually this same Mark hooked up with the Apostle Peter. If this was the case, Mark wrote this gospel on the basis of the memories that Peter had of the events of Jesus' life. It is an intriguing idea, because Peter was an eyewitness to so much of Jesus' ministry. And this idea is strengthened by stories like the one we will read today, which has such incredible detail to it that you think "someone HAD to have been there to know all this!"

So turn with me to the gospel of Mark, the second chapter, a story from very early in Christ's ministry. Mark 2:1-12

At the risk of repeating some of what you just heard as we read, walk through this story a little bit with me. Though Jesus' ministry is very new at this point, crowds have begun to flock around him wherever he goes. And so, after being out and about in the countryside around the Sea of Galilee, Jesus has returned to the town of Capernaum. Perhaps he was thinking of slipping quietly into town, getting a bit of R & R, and remaining incognito for awhile. But no chance. Word gets out that "Jesus is back!" and before you know it there are people everywhere.

The house is jammed with people, absolutely packed. People standing in the doorway, people out in the courtyard, people sitting on the floor, and standing wherever they might hear. It is wall-to-wall people, and Jesus, we are told, "is speaking the word to them." Speaking God's word…wouldn't that have been something, listening to JESUS speak the Word?!

These five friends hurry as best they can up to the house, counting the one who couldn't move…a paralytic who was stuck, unmoving, lying on a kind of stretcher or bed, unable to help himself. Maybe you have been in such a place as that. Stuck. Maybe from something physical like this man, some debilitating injury or illness. Or maybe something equally paralyzing like fear, or guilt or depression. If you have been in such a place, or are right now…I bet you wish you had four friends like this guy did. Friends who had some amount of faith…which Jesus notices immediately. Friends who had enough faith, at least, that inspired them to take action, even radical action, on behalf of their friend. NOTHING was going to stop them from getting their friend into the vicinity of Jesus.

But there's a barrier…so many people, they couldn't push through. And so they head up the stairs which were usually built on the side of those houses, leading up to a flat roof on top of the one story place. Great. Now they're on the roof, but what they are after is inside. Well, what the heck … they've come this far…might as well plunge ahead. And so they tear apart that clay, tile and branch roof until there is a large hole in the roof.

[I've always wondered what the people inside were thinking? Dirt and clay falling in as the roof is dismantled from the outside in. Voices, noise, concern, interest. If I'd been really good, right at this point in the sermon, I'd have arranged for somebody to begin to lower themselves from up in the rafters. I didn't have quite that much time this week!]

Anyway, now there is a hole in the ceiling…a hole large enough to lower a 5- or 6-foot bed through…and down it comes. We're not told exactly how it's lowered…in my mind's eye, the four friends have tied ropes onto each corner of the wooden frame, and are gingerly letting him down…into Jesus' presence.

This story has been on my mind a lot these last couple of months. In fact, it has become my working model for ministry…for living by faith. Remember that last week, we talked on Easter about Jesus' very first instruction to his followers AFTER rising from the dead…it was his commission to them to go out and make disciples, to baptize, to teach. And all the rest of the New Testament is the story of how that happens.

Thanks to Jesus, all of life takes on a focus…of spreading the Good News, of living out the gospel. What does that look like for you? When I was in school, I was asked to write a 20-page formal paper, complete with Princetonian footnotes, on "my philosophy of ministry." I think I even received a good grade on it. And it had some good ideas in it. Right now, though, I find myself taking as a model something very simple….these 4 guys whose names we do not even know…who just ushered their friend into the presence of Jesus. That's all they did.

We don't know if they lowered him right at Jesus' feet. We don't know exactly how they did it. We don't know a lot of things. But what we do know is that they got him into the same room, the same vicinity as Jesus, the same space, the same area. Now that's ministry. It was an act of absolute faith on their part, to go to all that work to get their friend near Jesus. But it also demanded MORE faith. They had to trust that once he was in Jesus' presence, Jesus would take care of him. They had to recognize that THEY couldn't fix their friend, they couldn't save him… [I used to think it was part of my call as a Christian to save people, or help fix them…now I believe those things are for Jesus to take care of, not me. We participate…by helping walk people into his presence.]

So what's it look like to walk someone into the presence of Jesus? It takes lots of different forms, I think. Some of them pretty surprising. When we were in Minneapolis, we heard this amazing story of a group of men who cared for another, Bob Peterson. Bob had a form of severely degenerative arthritis that left him disabled in his early fifties, and in a great deal of pain much of the time. Since Bob's wife, Bev, was working so they could pay the bills, a group of men from the church there banded together and synchronized their schedules. Every day, one of them would show up to talk to Bob, to push his wheelchair out to take a walk, and to make lunch for him, to pray for him. For years this went on. I think that group literally walked each day with Bob into the presence of Jesus…so simple.

Sometimes getting people into Jesus' presence means clearly talking about the gospel with them. But sometimes it's simply asking someone you've had a conversation with if you could pray together. I wonder if you've had an opportunity this week with a colleague, a family member, a friend, a neighbor…to just say, "Why don't we pray together?" More and more, I think that a great deal of ministry happens as we pray with people…as we bring them before Christ. As I do premarital or marital counseling with couples, I honestly have come to believe that the BEST thing I can do is pray for them at the end of each time we're together, saying, "Jesus, I want to just present these friends to you."

Sometimes walking someone into Jesus' presence is inviting a person into a community, into new friendships. Sometimes it's just picking up the phone to call someone you know is lonely. I've been reminded this week, that for some people, their phone NEVER rings, the doorbell NEVER rings.

Sometimes walking others into Jesus' presence means…using your time and talents in a way that might seem routine, or obscure. I was struck by looking at this sheet (a flyer on pledging our Time and Talents at Bethany) …that quite literally everything ultimately has to do with people…people outside this community, and inside it. The things on this sheet are not things to keep an institution going…I have no interest in that…they are things that will help others come into Jesus presence.

When you say you'll teach Sunday School, it shouldn't be an obligation or duty…instead, you're saying, "Lord, here are our children. We want them to be with you, we want them to know you." When you help decorate the sanctuary, it's because people like US will be coming in here, and we want to say, "Lord, help us come into your presence." When you wait tables at the Wednesday Night Dinner, we want to feed folks a meal, but we're saying, "Lord, in a little while 250 people will be coming in here…we want them to be with you, to experience your love." These things…setting tables, and praying…and making baloney sandwiches…these are the shovels that dig the hole in the roof. These are the ropes that have to be tied to the stretcher, to let someone be near Jesus.

Now, here's where it gets even more interesting. When we love enough, trust enough or are desperate enough to take someone into Jesus' presence…can we trust that Jesus will do something? Because that can be pretty surprising. It was pretty surprising here! The four guys on the roof breathe a sigh of relief… "Whew! We did it! He's in Jesus' presence!" And then as they lie there on the roof, panting, listening in…they hear Jesus' first words to their friend: "Child…your sins are forgiven!"

"Whoa! Wait a minute! Who said anything about sin, for God's sake? Jesus…it's our friend…we just wanted you to touch him, and hope that you might heal him…so he could walk a little bit" (or not be alone, or depressed, or whatever).

But no, Jesus starts in on this sin deal. It's…it's inappropriate, it's irrelevant, maybe blasphemous. Certainly a surprise, at the very least. Are we still willing to trust our friend to Jesus? It wasn't what we anticipated. What if it doesn't go the way we had planned?

"My child, my sick, paralyzed child…your sins are forgiven." Always in the scripture is this uncomfortable connection between sin…and sickness and death. What seems undeniable is that there IS some sort of connection. What is less clear is whether the connection is a direct one, or that the correlation is one-to-one. Was there some particular sin in this man's life that caused him to be sick? There's absolutely no indication of that at all. And in another place, Jesus is asked about a blind man, whether he was blind because of his sin or his parents'? And Jesus says… "Neither. But I'll do something to bring glory to God."

The connection is hazy and hard to detail. Sometimes in scripture, a person is healed but there's nothing about forgiveness. Sometimes, there's forgiveness, but no healing. Here, it is dealt with all together. The only clear thing seems to be that there IS a connection between sickness and the sin of humankind, even if not the direct sins of one individual bringing a specific disease.

What I'm saying is that God did not design life to be plagued by sickness and death…it was not part of His created plan. No, sickness came into the breach opened by the sin of human beings, and remains in a sinful world. In that way we all share responsibility, and we all stand in need of forgiveness and all kinds of healing. G.K. Chesterton seemed to understand something of this when a newspaper in England in the early part of the 20th century asked for responses to the question: "What is wrong with the world?" And Chesterton sent in a letter which read simply: "Dear Editor: I am. Sincerely, G.K. Chesterton."

At least in this instance, Jesus recognizes that the key to physical healing is a spiritual healing…which is another way of describing forgiveness. And Jesus' life, Jesus' ministry, Jesus' death and Jesus' resurrection are ALL about forgiveness. Sometimes we Christians can even overlook this. Words like grace and forgiveness become such a part of our vocabulary. Or even worse, we take them for granted, assuming that we deserve the grace that upholds us.

The French philospher Voltaire once said flippantly, "God will forgive me…that's his business." No, it's not His "business." It's His heart. We see that heart in Jesus. And so, Jesus says "Child, your sins are forgiven you." The Bible teachers of the day, the scribes and Pharisees, object. And noting their discomfort, Jesus says, "What's easier for me to say, "Your sins are forgiven," or "Get up and walk?" And nobody answers. The right answer is: It's easier to say "your sins are forgiven." No one can see that visually, no one can know for sure if anything happened. And so Jesus says, just so you know BOTH that I AM one who can forgive…AND that God is in this: "Stand up, take up your bed…and go home." And the man did. And what a party that must have been when he walked through the door to his house, when he WALKED through.

So, for these four who brought their friend…hoping, perhaps, hoping against hope that Jesus could at least help a little bit. They are shocked. They are taken aback. It wasn't at all what they had in mind. Jesus heals their friend on the inside, draws him close, breaks religious convention, shows himself as the Son of God…and oh, yes, heals their friend on the outside.

They were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!" I'll say.

All because four guys brought their friend into the presence of Jesus, and waited to see what would happen. I pray for friends like that in my life. And I pray for friends like that in your life. And I pray that we in this room, in this community, could be friends like that for those around us. People willing even to raze the roof, and simply take others to be with Jesus.