Jesus and the Roof Crashers

Encountered-Follow-Changed

Jesus and the Roof Crashers

John started our series last week, and set up how we’ll be diving into the gospel of Mark together as a church, and looking at those who ENCOUNTERED Jesus, began to FOLLOW him, and were CHANGED by him.

As you’ll see with our story from Mark 2 this morning, if you want to turn there, we’ll be looking at vs. 1-12, we don’t know much about many of those in attendance in our “Jesus and the Roof Crashers” passage, or how their lives were changed by what they witnessed, but I’ve loved looking at this passage through that lens, and I’m excited to share with you about what I’ve been chewing on for the last several weeks.

John set up the beginning of Mark 1 last week, and if you missed that message, you can check it out on our website. John unpacked John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus, Jesus being baptized, the Spirit leading him into the wilderness to be tempted and preparing him for his ministry ahead…and that example for us to face sin, turn from it, replace it with Godly habits/spiritual disciplines, and repeat the process. I want to to quickly touch on a couple encounters from the end of Mark 1 before we get to our passage.

So, Mark 1 goes onto Jesus coming into Galilee, calling Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John to come follow him. Together, they go to Capernaum and Jesus goes right to the synagogue on the Sabbath and begins to teach…He amazed people with his teaching, Mark says teaching as one with authority…"NOT as the teachers of the law” taught. He heals a possessed man with an impure spirit, and Mark 1:25 says he silenced the evil spirit who knew who Jesus was and calls him “the Holy One of God!” Jesus tells him to be quiet and come out of the man, and the evil spirit listens. People are amazed and news about Jesus is spreading all over.

Next, they go to the home of Simon Peter and Andrew, and Jesus heals Peter’s MIL who was suffering from fever, and word spreads as people bring their sick, demon-possessed, diseased, to the point Mark 1:33 says, “The WHOLE town gathered at the door. Jesus healed them all, and drove out demons and would not let them speak because they knew who he was! Anyone excited yet! The whole town was! John asked us last week, can you imagine witnessing all of this, encountering Jesus! He heals them all, then goes to bed…I doubt anyone else did that night! Would you?!?!

I imagined these newly called followers as their minds are reeling with thoughts of “what are we a part of…what did we just witness…”those that were healed…”What just happened to me? WHO IS THIS JESUS!” Their lives were forever changed! Hope is restored! Guys, we’re not even to our passage yet, hahaha! I’ve already got chills!!!

I’m sure they’re all wondering, "What will Jesus do next?"…he gets up early in the morning, and again goes to a solitary place to pray, recharge, refresh in his Spirit. Before he even returns from prayer, Peter and the gang come to him and tell him everyone is looking for him. But, instead of returning yet, they slip away to Galilee where Jesus does it all again there…teaching and preaching in synagogues and driving out demons!

Now, before we get to our passage I want to quickly touch on one last encounter that Mark tells at the end of chapter 1…Every time I’ve read this story I’ve skipped over a word that I know Mark intentionally used that I’m sure Peter made sure Mark included is this account, and an important one for this morning’s message…He tells us that Jesus is begged by a man with leprosy, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Mark says, “Jesus was indignant” (NIV), ESV says, “moved with pity”…then, Jesus stretches out his hand touched him, and says," I am willing, be clean”…Jesus sends him away with a stern warning, not to tell anyone, but go to the priest, offer sacrifices as Moses commanded for cleansing. Well, he doesn’t listen, tells everyone…and as a result Jesus could no longer enter town and had to stay outside in desolate/lonely places. If I’m honest, I would have done the same thing! When you encounter Jesus, how can you stay silent!?! What’s is interesting about Mark’s account is that in the other 2 synoptic gospels that tell the story of the leper, neither speak about how Jesus felt, just that he healed the man and sent him on telling him not to tell about what happened.

Here are the two words depending on translation used: splank-knee-thayce and or-ghis-thayce)

ESV-σπλαγχνισθεὶς(splanchnistheis): Means to be moved in the bowels, deeply stirred with pity or compassion.

NIV- ὀργισθείς (orgistheis): Means to become angry or indignant, provoked to anger.

I’m not going to try to figure out which translation is best, as I think both are powerful and can be true at the same time. Jesus sees a man with a skin disease, a perfect picture of the effects of sin in our world…a man who has been declared unclean, experiencing total social isolation, and OT Levitical law mandating them to shout, “Unclean, Unclean!” as to warn others to avoid them. So, lepers were avoided out of religious duty, fear, social custom, symbols of sin and death, and were forced to live outside the community with no hope…How else could the community maintain holiness!?! What!?! Jesus was moved in his bowels, stirred up with compassion and righteous indignation. He came for the hearts of man, so yeah he was angry! “I AM WILLING!” he declares and Peter notices his emotion and Mark includes it. Jesus is indignant and moved to compassion because even though this man has faith Jesus can heal him, he assumes Jesus, to maintain holiness or some other misconception being levied on him as a Jewish teacher or rabbi, that he wouldn’t have room in his community this unclean, skin-diseased man that the rest of God’s children have shunned.  He is moved to his core, and declares, I AM WILLING, BE CLEAN! For this man, it isn’t just a simple healing of a skin disease… it was a full restoration of life, hope when all he knew was despair, a future as he’s restored to his family, community, church…this is who Jesus came to save…the outcasts, and ostracized, bringing them healing and dignity.

This is the setting as we end Mark 1, with this leper not listening to Jesus’ instruction to say nothing to anyone…but instead becomes one of the first informal evangelists of the new testament spreading the good news… annnndddd causing Jesus to not be able to enter towns and stay in desolate areas. But people still found him and brought their sick, possessed, and those in need of healing.

Now, are you guys ready to get started this morning?!? I’m kidding, but lets dive into Mark 2:1-12

1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

WOW! Every time I read or hear this story, my mind goes all over the place. This crowd just waiting to hear the word that this Jesus of Nazareth has come back, and rushes to gather around the house (maybe Peter’s again). Shoulder to shoulder, on top of one one another, shoving and pressing to be as close as they could, in wonder and amazement at what Jesus was saying and doing. Chaos, to the point there wasn’t even room outside the door of the house…Bringing the sick, possessed, the hurting, seeking, searching, the broken, HOPING, when their world had left them hopeless. Will Jesus make room at the table? My mind goes to this group of friends, that would go to any extreme means necessary, because of their faith that Jesus could heal their paralyzed friend. As John mentioned last week, Mark uses the word immediately over 40 times, and when we see these four unnamed friends urgency to get their friend in front of Jesus, I think I understand why. They didn’t wait for Jesus to leave, or catch him along the road out of town, when they saw they couldn’t get to Jesus through the door, they decide it was urgent enough to dig through the roof and lower him on his mat in front of Jesus. Jesus sees the faith of these friends, and he sees the faith of the paralytic. We really don’t know anything about him. Has he been paralyzed his whole life, or recent injury, are his injuries life-threatening or is in pain, or where is his family? All we know is Jesus responds, as he aways does, to simple faith. These men and their paralyzed friend didn’t need a complex religious system of faith, or years of intense study, to be given a seat in front of him…He just needed faith, and a few amazing friends! Do you think this man was changed? I know he was forever changed, and given a hope that I’m assuming he had lost!

Remember our man with leprosy, and the way his community treated him…Law had no room for compassion! It was no different for a paralytic: Helplessness, isolation, dependence on others…a belief that paralysis might have been the result of one’s own sin or family’s sin, potentially causing self-blame and shame.

I love what Jesus does! Everything he did was intentional, and this was no different. Sitting around the room are scribes, teachers of the law…these guys are haters, challenging Jesus’ authority. They weren’t there out of curiosity, or to learn from Jesus, they were there to catch him, trap him, and were essentially taking a spot at the table (or room in this case), where those who were spiritually seeking and hungry could have actually been sitting…even this outcast paralytic and his friends.

Jesus says,

5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

NOT one person there could have expected that response…they may have assumed he would scold the friends asking who would fix the roof, or maybe at the very least show compassion and heal the paralytic’s body, but forgive his sins?!? This was intentional…and directed at the religious leaders…And it worked! I’ll get to them in a second, but I can’t help but wonder what went through the paralytic’s mind at first. Do you think he fully grasped what was happening? Did he think to himself, “My sins??? Jesus, what about my legs?!?” I think Jesus wanted the man, his friends, the crowds, the scribes, all to hear loud and clear…I know you think these healings are amazing…but what I’m here to show you is I have God’s power and Divine Authority…and guess what!?! I have come full of compassion, I’ll break Levitical law and touch a leper…I’ll forgive a paralytic’s sin…WHY?!?! Because I am God, and I have come with mercy over ritual, compassion and righteous indignation at how God’s perfect law is being perverted by those called to teach the Word. God saw this man’s hopelessness, his despair, his physical paralysis, but also his deeper need, and all of ours here today, our salvation! Then, goes on to prove his power over physical and spiritual realm, by healing his paralysis. I am God, and to help you believe the unseen, let me heal his legs and watch him dance out of this place…something that is seen!

I wish we knew his future…we do know one thing for sure…he didn’t settle for a desk job! Haha, I doubt ever took his ability to walk for granted again.

Now, what about these scribes or religious leaders? They had the same encounter with Jesus…and you know what I love?!? He didn’t kick them out…he has a place at his table for the haters too, and so should we! I don’t know about you, but I am quick to wash my hands of the haters. Not Jesus! He gave them a little rhetorical question about what’s easier healing his legs or forgiving his sins, because he knew in his Spirit what they were thinking in their hearts… I wish we knew their personal stories after this miracle. We know the collective hardening of their hearts toward Jesus, failing to see the miracles as proof of his Divine authority…or you could say, they themselves were spiritually “paralyzed” and unable to see God’s work right in front of them, as they screamed blasphemy toward Jesus. This is Jesus’ claim to deity…I AM GOD!

He saying that to us this morning too! I am your God…I have come with compassion… For all! The haters and the hungry! The doubters and the confident! The in-crowd and the ostracized! Those on the mountain top, and those being carried by their friends because they are in so deep of a valley, they can’t see the light…until some friends start to tear through a roof just so a friend can meet Jesus. So their compassionate savior can change their hopelessness into rejoicing! He is asking each one of you this morning church…Will you come follow me and let me change your life!

Who are you in this story this morning? Are you in the valley? Are you buried under hopelessness that feels like you can barely keep your head above the water? Is is sin, illness, Satan’s lies, anxiety, brokenness from this world or loss of someone you love? Jesus says I am your compassionate God, and I AM WILLING to help you! I AM WILLING! Surrender it to me!

Are you one of the friends who needs to be bold enough to tear through a roof or barrier keeping someone you love from encountering Jesus. He says I see your faith, BUT DO THOSE YOU LOVE know you love them too much to let anything get in the way of them coming to a relationship with me? We don’t know the paralytic’s level of faith, but we know someone in the friend group that realized the urgency and climbed that roof.

Are you one of the scribes? Has this world hardened your heart that you can’t see what Jesus has done for you? Maybe you’ve been hating on Jesus, because you’ve been hurt by those that claim him. Jesus says that’s no excuse…I have given you a spot at the table, come and let me show you I LOVE YOU AND I AM YOUR GOD!

Or maybe you’re like me, and you’ve gotten caught up in amazement like the crowd? Wow! God you are so good…thank you for changing my life. I will follow you forever! Will they? Will you? Will I? Even when the healings or blessings cease. Even when all hope in this world seems lost? Mark 14 at Jesus’ arrest, the same crowds deserted him. Even Peter, who Mark is documenting his preaching and eyewitness accounts, denies and deserts him for a time. Be the roof-crasher friends…your faith might be all someone needs to have their own encounter with their savior.

As we prepare this morning for communion, I can’t help but think how our passage reminds me of

Isaiah 55:6–9 ““Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God’s ways are always higher? The paralytic wanted to walk…Jesus forgave his sins…a deeper need than his mobility.

If you guys haven’t heard the story of Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie from her Memoirs “The Hiding Place”…It’s an incredible story of this Dutch family, the ten Booms, in the Netherlands that saved over 800 Jews during Nazi Germany invasion. The whole family is arrested, her father, Casper, dies less than two weeks later, but Corrie and Betsie finally end up at Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, a women’s labor camp in Germany. There’s a story that the place was infested with fleas, and Betsie kept reminding Corrie from 1 Thes. 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances” to which Corrie quipped…I’m not thanking God for the fleas. The story goes on that Corrie check her luggage and the guards had not gone through it, so they didn’t confiscate her Bible. The sisters help Bible Studies and Worship gatherings for months, bringing countless Jews to Christ, and couldn’t figure out why they were assaulted or prohibited by the guards to have such meetings. Only to find out later that Barracks 28 was deliberately avoided by the guards and unmonitored by the supervisors because of what?________The fleas!

You see, Jesus knew what the paralytic needed…he knew what Corrie and Betsie and Barracks 28 needed…he knows what you and I need today…and he said once and for all on the cross…I AM WILLING! LET ME BE YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR. If you haven’t let today be the day. Come and encounter him, and let him change your life! If you have follow him like the Roof Crashers, and bring others to know him too!