Whatever It Takes
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If you are anything like me you have probably thought about what it would have been like to live in Israel during the time of Jesus. Or have you ever thought about what it would be like if Jesus showed up today and spent some time right here in our community?
After word got out about Jesus, this man who has the power to heal and perform miracles, what would be the reaction from the community? As I thought about this question I decided that our communities reaction would probably be very similar if not identical to the reaction of the people of Capernaum.
But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
During Jesus ministry as was alluded to in our scripture reading, spent his time during his ministry ministering, healing and inviting people to be a member of his kingdom.
He went from town to town healing people of their ailments and at times even bring people back from the dead.
Because of this, news spread quickly about this man from Nazareth, called Jesus. No matter where Jesus found himself large crowds would find him seeking a chance to have their ailments healed.
After spending countless hours ministering to people Jesus snuck away to a small fishing village with a population of about 1500 people. While there, Jesus found himself at a home where he was hoping to spend some time praying and catching up on his sleep.
On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.
But becasue news travels fast the whole town learned of Jesus whereabouts shortly after his arrival.
On this occasion not only did people from this small fishing village show up at his house but people from the other neighboring villages showed up at Jesus location.
Rather than getting some much needed rest Jesus found himself once again teaching and healing those who had gathered.
Now part of me feels bad for Jesus and I want to be able to say to these people, just give the man a break. But can you really blame these people? I mean after all if Jesus was here today in our community wouldn’t you do anything for the chance to meet Jesus, this man who could heal you or those that you love?
And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,
In fact on this particular occasion there was a man who was paralyzed.
And thankfully for his sake he had four friends who had heard that Jesus was in town. So I envision one of the friends getting together with the other three and saying, hey, did you hear that the healer is in town. This may be a crazy idea but what if we go get our friend and carry him to where the healer is.
Guys you know that if our friend could help us in anyway he would help us without hesitation. Its the least that we can do, to give our friend a chance at being healed by Jesus.
After a little convincing all four of the friends were on the same page and so they headed over to where their paralyzed friend was and told him the crazy plan.
So off the go down the road carrying their friend through this small village.
Now you got to remember that over 2000 years ago there was no such thing as wheelchair accessible vehicles for them to just load their friend up in. Rather, they had to carry him through the streets on his bed.
Now I’m sure when these friends came up with this idea they just envisioned bringing him to where Jesus was and simply laying him before Jesus.
but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd,..
But unfortunately that was not going to be possible. By the time these four friends reached the house where Jesus was there was already a large crowd gathered outside the house because there was no more room to fit a single person inside the house where Jesus was.
Realizing that their initial plan to simply lay their friend before Jesus was not going to work they had a choice to make.
Choice number one, turn around and go home and say well at least we tried.
Choice number two would have been to wait with or leave their friend outside the house hoping that Jesus would see their friend and do something to help him.
Or choice number three. Come up with another plan to get their friend to Jesus immediately.
At this point I envision one of the friends asking their friend hey, man sorry we can’t get you any closer to Jesus but would you be OK if we just left you over across the street from the house so that Jesus would have to see you when he comes out.
If I was the paralyzed man I would be grateful for all that my friends had done up to this point and would have said absolutely.
But thankfully for his sake there was at least one friend who liked to think outside the box.
So after hearing all the different options one of the friends speaks up and says, are plan was to get our friend in front of Jesus as soon as possible right? Now, I know what I am about to say is crazy but hear me out.
You see those stairs over there. What if we take our friend up those stairs and then what if we bust through the roof and then lower him down so that we can accomplish what we set out to do.
After telling this particular friend he was in fact crazy they all decided that, all though crazy, his plan would work and that it was what had to be done for the sake of their friend.
but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.
So off they go through the crowds and up the stairs to the roof of this house. At this point they most likely had a large crowd watching them wondering what in the world they were going to do with this man on top of this house.
And then at once the chaos began.
These men started tearing through the roof of the house that Jesus was in.
At this point all the commotion was from outside the house but now it was focused inward.
As Jesus was talking particles of the roof began to fall, and then clumps of dirt, and straw and whatever else the roof was made of began hitting people in the face.
And then out of nowhere four heads appeared as they look down at Jesus and the crowd that had gathered in the house.
If that wasn’t crazy enough after making the hole big enough, down came a grown man laying on a bed.
If this event happened at your house or a house that you were visiting what would your reaction or response be?
Whatever your initial reaction would be I bet it wouldn’t have been what Jesus’ reaction was.
You see the normal response of most people would be to go ballistic on these men.
Like, what are you doing? Do you realize how much damage you have caused by tearing a whole in the roof of this house? Not only that, what were you thinking to interrupt me like this while I was teaching?
Imagine if this happened while I was up here preaching this morning. I’m sure our reaction would not be the same as Jesus.
And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
Instead of going ballistic on these men Jesus probably without saying a word looked up at the four friends and then looked back down at the paralyzed man and simply said, your sins are forgiven.
What an interesting response to this situation. Jesus initial response is not, why on earth did you tear a whole in the roof, or why have you interrupted me or it wasn't even what the man was hoping for, Jesus response wasn’t, you are healed, but rather, Jesus response to this paralyzed man was your sins are forgiven.
Now thankfully the story doesn't end there.
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.”
After a brief discussion about Jesus’ authority to do such a thing, Jesus does giver this man what he wanted. Jesus heals the man and sends him on his way.
What an amazing story.
As we have revisited this story that is told in Mark 2 and Luke 5 I want to end this morning by simply making a few observations about this amazing story.
Observation number one: I want to suggest to you that maybe we need to be more like this man’s four friends if we want to be successful at bringing our friends to Jesus.
No we don’t need to go tearing holes in people’s roofs but we are going to have to be willing to take extreme measures in order to break through bearers or to break through the noisy world in which our friends and family live, in order to get them to Jesus.
You see just simply inviting someone to church or giving them a born again brochure would have been like these four friends simply leaving their friend outside just hoping that Jesus would happen to stop and help him.
Thankfully they knew that that wasn't going to cut it. They knew that if they wanted to get their friend to Jesus they had to go above (literally) above and beyond.
What is it going to take in this noisy world that we live to help our friends see their need for Jesus?
I’m not suggesting that helping people see their need for Jesus is like a business but I want to share this information with you to show what extremes businesses are going to, to try and convince people that they need to spend time with their products.
Recently the University of Nevada estimated that businesses spend between 12 & 20 billion dollars each year trying to convince teenagers that they need to spend time with their products.
My point is this. If businesses are going to this extreme to reach just teenagers, what extremes would we be willing to take to help our friends see their need for Jesus?
The second observation that I want to bring out is this. Bringing people to Jesus at times can be hard, inconvenient and sometimes frustrating. But it is always worth it!
The paralytic’s friends did not let the inconveniences of having to carry their friend through the streets and through the crowds and then up the stairs and then tearing a hole in the roof stop them from getting to Jesus.
But yet how often do we have opportunities to minister to our friends, whether its through personal opportunities or through opportunities put on by our brothers and sisters here, how often do we say man I would like to help but that is going to inconvenience me. If I help then that's going to mess up my schedule.
How do you think the paralyzed man would have felt if his friends chose not to help him becasue he was going to be an inconvenience?
Observation number 3: Our friends who are living without the grace, forgiveness and all the blessing that come with following Jesus need to understand that they need Jesus more than anything else in this world.
In this story what do you think the reaction was from the paralyzed man and his four friends when God forgave him of his sins?
The text does not say this but I imagine that they were at first a little disappointed.
After all they went to all this trouble so that the paralyzed man could be healed.
But just like our friends today I imagine that the paralyzed man did not realize that what he needed more than healing is what Jesus gave him first. More than anything this man needed Jesus. And that is what he recieved when Jesus forgave him of his sins.
The world around us does an outstanding job at telling people what they need most in life.
The world says that we need money, we need whatever the new and upcoming gadget is. We need a nice car or house. We need to be popular in school or our workplace we need to do whatever it take to be accepted we need you fill in the blank.
The world is doing a great job at telling people what they think they need but but if we want to bring our friends to Jesus we need to, like Jesus did on this occasion, do whatever it takes to help our friends see that they need Jesus more than anything else in this world.
Finally one more observation and the lesson is yours.
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.”
We didn’t get into this part of the story but if you look back at verses 21- 24 what you see is that right after Jesus forgives this man of his sins the religious leaders began to respond with hostility. They became angry and accused Jesus of blasphemy. They did this because they didn’t understand who Jesus was. They said only God can forgive sins, so who does this man think he is. Well, if they only knew, right? He was and is in fact God.
What I observed from this encounter with Jesus and the crowd is that when we start doing whatever it takes to tell our friends that they need Jesus more than anything else, the world will respond with hostility so we need to be ready and willing to stand up to that hostility.
So there you have it. Here are the five observations that I took from this story this week that I believe we can all learn from in order to do better at getting our friends to Jesus.
We need to be more like the four friends if we want to be successful at bringing our friends to Jesus.
2. Bringing people to Jesus at times can be hard, inconvenient and sometimes frustrating. But it is always worth it!
3. Our friends need to understand that they need Jesus more than anything else in this world.
4. When we start doing whatever it takes to tell our friends that they need Jesus, the world will respond with hostility.
