What is Faith? (Mark 2:1-12)

Rev. Joe Dentici

Transcript

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So I grew up in uh Birmingham, Alabama, uh with my sister, one sister who's 11 months younger than me, and she has cerebral palsy, which means that she has never been able to walk on her own. And when she was younger, she had a walker, and now she has a wheelchair. But I I tell you that because I have a distinct memory from when we were probably when I was five and she was four at the oldest. And for some reason, we were in our den watching a televangelist. And it was the 80s. I think they were just on all the time. We had like three channels, and they were on like two of the channels. And the televangelist at one point he says, There's somebody here watching today that cannot walk. And what I want you to do is I want you to come and put your hand on my hand on this screen, and I will pray for you, and you will be able to walk. And so I sort of like dragging my sister across the floor. I'm like, We're gonna do it, we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it. She's like, ah, we're laughing our heads off. I mean, it's hilarious. And I'm she's getting rug burns all over here, and we're laughing, and I'm like forcing her hands on the screen. And I'm assuming that it was her laughter that kept her from being healed on that day. You're like, is he serious? I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No. Uh or maybe it was the fact that we didn't send in money. And I say that I say that because we're gonna read a passage uh in just a few moments where we read that that Jesus healed somebody that couldn't walk. That there was somebody who couldn't walk and then could walk because Jesus decided that they could walk again. And this is an astounding claim because anybody today, if you heard, I know somebody who couldn't walk, and then miraculously they could, you would sort of be like, I got some questions about whether or not that really happened. And the Bible invites us into a world that makes very big claims, very big claims about who Jesus is and what he came to do and what he can do in the lives of people like you and me. And so what we're gonna read, we believe actually happened, which is astounding. And if you happen to be in here and you're like, I don't know if I can bring myself to believe something like this, that's okay. We're glad that you're here. We don't want you to pretend like you're anybody that you're not. But as we read this, my prayer is that the Jesus of this passage would become at least more appealing to you. That the Jesus of this passage in some way would become more believable to you, even if not all the way today. So let me read this passage and ask God to help us. And when Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home, and many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them, and they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, Why does this man speak like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus, perceiving in the in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, he said to them, Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your bed and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home. The word of the Lord. In freedom, to hear from your word. And what we ask is that you would dig out for us ears to hear, that you would give us eyes to see, the one in this passage who heals and forgives sins. And we ask that you would do this by your Spirit. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. So I want to look at this passage under three headings this morning. I want to look at the desperation, the twist, and the response. The desperation, the twist, and the response. Last week we saw Jesus' ministry begin. He comes on the scene after John the Baptist prepares the way. He and John the Baptist are both proclaiming, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus is baptized. He goes out into the wilderness, is tempted. And now we're here. What's happened in between these two situations, these two settings in Mark? Well, Jesus has begun to call together a few of his disciples. He's also healed a demon-possessed man, so he has authority over the spiritual realm. He's also healed some from some sicknesses, and so he has authority over sickness as well. And the point is, Jesus has been active. He's done some loud and powerful things, signs and wonders, and people are noticing. He's trending on social media. TMZ Jerusalem is on location, and people want to know what Jesus is up to. And so we find ourselves in this room here, and there are a lot of people, so many that the main characters that are the main sort of folks that we're watching, other than Jesus, can't get in. And so, alright. This is the Messiah, Mark wants us to see, the king, and he's the son of God. And so when we look at this man here, this God man, we see that he's the king, he's also the son of God. In verse 1, it says, He returns to Capernaum after some days, and it was reported that he was at home. Word is spreading. And many were gathered together, so there was no more room, not even at the door, and he was preaching the word to them. And so everyone is intrigued by him, at least. They may not be on the same page about him, that's going to become clearer as we go on, but they're intrigued. And you've got these four men who were desperate, desperate, to get their friend to Jesus. Now, there are lots of things that we think that we want to do, and then we realize I'm not as committed as I thought. I mean, I think if maybe you're like this with me. Like, I've made plans with friends. We should go to this music festival or this conference, and everybody's like, yes, let's do it. I actually like registered and bought a plane ticket once, and nobody else did because they were like, oh, that's really expensive. I thought we had this conversation. I thought we had this conversation. But then just a few weeks ago, my family was invited to a birthday party of another family. And I was like, yeah, okay, sure, let's go. But it was a Barbie and Ken themed party, and I was going to have to dress like Ken, and I said, I'm out. I'm out. There's lots of things that we think, hey, sure, we're going to do this. Oh, the how. These men are totally undeterred by getting their friend to Jesus. Just think about this. I mean, they probably live in this town, but we don't know how far they have to go. I mean, so they've they've gotten four men together to grab their friend and they've put him on something that they can carry. And they have carried him, who knows how far? A couple hundred yards, a half mile? I don't know. And they've gotten them to their friend to Jesus or to this place where Jesus is. Now, is there a ringleader here? Is there somebody spurring everybody on? We don't know. They get to Jesus, they get to where he is, and the crowds are so big that they're just, they're not even on the periphery, they're just on the outside, and they can't look in. And I want you just to imagine, we've all been in situations like this. You find a line, here's where I'm going. Oh, the that's the line? Never mind. Somebody says, let's climb up on the roof. And they do this. Now, Mark is stingy with the details here, but humans in a room, I mean, as someone who speaks in front of people, there have been times where a noise or something is happening, and I've got this internal monologue going of how long can I keep talking before I have to address this, right? And most of the time you never get to that. But was it last week? Before I heard this like beeping noise, and then I guess I don't know if that's coming from those speakers or if that's coming from outside, and to ask, where is the beeping coming from? We don't know what happens here, but it's awkward. It's awkward. And somebody in there was the first to elbow their buddy and say, What's going on right now? At what point did Jesus stop teaching? Because he surely had to stop teaching as people were destroying the property of the house that they were in. It's awkward. They were undeterred from getting their friend to Jesus. Totally undeterred. They removed the roof above Jesus, and when they made the opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. So we can see the desperation. Let's talk about the switch for a few minutes. Friend of mine moved, he's a pastor, and he moved to Newtown, I don't know, last summer. And you know what a lot of us know what it's like to move. You're kind of getting your bearings, you don't know your neighbors yet, you don't know where the where the grocery store is. And he hadn't been there that long, but he had already gotten to turn away a solicitor. And nothing says this is my house, quite like being able to say, no, thank you, and shutting the door, right? This no, this is my house. I guess I live here now. I'm turning people away. And so he had already had that experience, and he's standing in the front yard with his son, and somebody walks into his yard and he says, Hey, I'm going to stop you right there. I'm not interested. And the guy says, Excuse me? He says, Whatever you're selling, we don't want. He's like, I'm your neighbor. I wanted to introduce myself to you. And he turned around and he went into his house next door. And my buddy was like, Can't wait for him to find out I'm a pastor. You know, it's like, how awkward. Okay. This guy won't. This passage reminds me of that. Okay. When Jesus saw their faith, he says to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. That's not why I'm here. To have my sins forgiven. I was at Harris Teeter last week, week before, and I was grabbing a bottle of wine for a fellowship night, and I had forgotten my ID. It was in my office back there. And the lady said, I can't, I can't sell this to you. You don't have your ID. And I was like, it's door policy, right? She's like, Yeah. I was like, can I ask you a question? She said, Yeah. And I said, What percent of you thinks that I'm under 21? And she just looked at me. I was like, it's zero, isn't it? It's exactly zero. There's zero part of you that thinks I'm underage. I was like, can we just buy the, you know, she's like, okay, fine. She was great. She was like, I could just tell you had no facial hair. I was like, hey, watch it, watch it. She was great. If you could pull the room here and just say, hey, what percentage of this room thinks that what this man is after right now is the forgiveness of sins? It's exactly zero. It's exactly zero. Everybody in there is wondering. They've heard stories Jesus can heal the sick, and now a man is being lowered down. And they're like, everyone's, is he going to do it? Is he going to heal this man right here? And Jesus says, Your sins are forgiven. That's a twist. It's a pretty big twist. That's not why they're there. That's as important as it is, that is not why his friends have brought him this way, this far. They've dug a hole in there for Jesus to make this proclamation. But the text tells us something important about this exchange. He saw their faith. He saw their faith. They approached him with faith. They could have approached him with demands. They could have said, We've heard that you can do this, do this. Heal him. But they approached him with faith. What does that mean? It means they trusted Jesus to make this man whole on Jesus' terms. And they came in humility. Jesus said, do for this man what you will. Mark and the rest of the New Testament present Jesus as the one who has all authority on earth. And faith before Jesus trusts, it doesn't demand. Faith before Jesus says, I know that you are king and I am not, and you will interact with me, but I want to understand, I want to come before you with deference. One of the great takeaways of this story is what these four men do. They do anything they can to get their friend to Jesus. But no one truly goes to Jesus, not in this sort of faith posture, without a tremendous sense of need. And not just need, a trust, however, you can meet this need is what I really need. That's what I need. I need you to meet me on your terms because I don't even trust what I want for myself. When I was in college, my parents divorced, and I don't know how many of you have experienced this. I was 20 when my parents divorced, and it rattled me. And I wasn't particularly close with my parents, but still it's sort of like finding out that a law of nature can just sort of be erased. Like gravity could let go. It's kind of what it feels like when your parents divorce. And I was not a believer, agnostic at best at the time, and yet I think that God used that season in my life to open my heart to him. And when I approached God, surprisingly, almost accidentally, he didn't put my family back together. What I would have asked for, can you put this family back together? He didn't do that, but he reunited me with himself. That what I actually began to find myself doing, which surprised me and everybody who knew me, that I began to read my Bible so that I could hear from this Jesus. And I began to go to church by myself so they could hear from this Jesus. And the point is, I was led to him almost against my will, and he didn't do for me what I would have asked for. He did something altogether different. Faith, trust that however Jesus decides to act, that is right. And as a pastor, I have this conversation, it's not that rare of a conversation. It's not weekly or monthly, but I've had it a bunch over the last 15, 20 years. And that's talking to somebody who's skeptical of Christianity, maybe has been burned by Christianity or the church, and you realize that they've gone through some stuff, as we all have. You live life long enough and you go through it. And eventually they'll say, look, I tried Christianity and it didn't work for me. It might work for you, it didn't work for me. What do you mean it didn't work for you? And they'll end up saying, My sister still died. I prayed and prayed and prayed for God to save my sister, and my sister still died. So it didn't work for me. It's heartbreaking. And I think that nobody would laugh at somebody who says something like that. That's we know what it feels like. At the same time, coming before Jesus in faith doesn't say, do this thing, or else. No, it says, you're the you're the I trust you more than I trust myself, or I want to trust you more than I trust myself. I want you to work in my life on your terms. That's the difference between saying, I tried Christianity and actually coming before Jesus in faith. And so that's what Jesus does with this man. They've brought him to heal him. And Jesus says, What I'm actually going to do for you runs far deeper than what you're asking. I'm going to cut through everything right now because I see your relationship before God. That's a staggering thought. Like the room can melt away, and it's just you before your maker, and I can tell you how this shakes out for you on judgment. That's what's happening. How does this shake out for you on judgment? Your sins are forgiven. He's not saying something casually or cavalierally. Like, this is, he's cutting through everything. He says, Let me show you how this shakes out in judgment. You don't have you've not earned this. And yet the grace of God is for you because God forgives those who come to him in faith. Your sins are forgiven. And everyone who hears Jesus say this immediately understands what's happening. Either this man is blaspheming or he is who he says he is, the Son of God. Now, does this mean we can never ask God for things? Of course not. Jesus tells us all the time, ask me for things. He says sometimes like, ask a lot, like someone in desperation. But asking in desperation and demanding and saying, I hang my faith on what you will do in response to me, those are two different things. Ask. He urges us all the time. You do not have because you do not ask. I won't pretend to know how to tidy that up with a bow. Two things are true. We should ask, and he doesn't always give us what we ask for in the way we want. But ask with deference. Thy will be done. And Jesus gives a glimpse of the kingdom that he comes to bring in this passage. He's the source of all life, and he comes into a world that is broken and marred by sin. And Jesus comes to give us a glimpse of what this renewed kingdom will look like. What are the biggest problems that you're facing right now? Put it another way. If Jesus could change any one thing in your life, what would you ask him for? What this passage teaches us is that, yes, we're called to trust Jesus. But to trust him in a way that however he responds to our request, that he's still the one and the only one that can bring wholeness to us in a world that is unbelievably fractured by sin. That the wholeness that we long for, which is what we're asking for in whatever we want changed, this broken thing, this hurtful thing, this damaging thing, I wish it were put back together. We're longing for something good. And Jesus is saying there's something far more profound than that because everything began to fall apart when sin went through one heart. Adam and Eve sinned, and that sin went through their hearts and it fractures everything. It brings disharmony and disunity everywhere. That's why we have storms and divorce and illness and death and decay. It all started through sin and one heart. And what he's saying is, I have come, my kingdom is coming, and I'm going to restore all things. But doesn't it make sense that the restoration that I bring must run through human hearts as well? Human hearts that are sinful. Human hearts that are part of the destruction. Because if you're like me so often, you get overwhelmed with the brokenness that you, when you turn on the news, why is this happening and this happening and this happening? And it's easy to distance ourselves from the brokenness and the tragedy in the world as if we haven't left our own wake of destruction relationally with others. There are so many sins that we wish that we could undo because they haunt us and we cannot undo them. And that's what Jesus is saying. What I can do is I can cut through it all and I can show you how you stand before your Maker. That by sheer grace your sins can be forgiven if you approach me in faith. But Then he authenticates what he can do. Everyone's like, why who can do this? Who can proclaim sins forgiven? How dare you act as if you could just put God on yourself and act as if you could act like God? How dare you? This is unbelievably wicked if Jesus isn't who he says he is. But he is. The good news for us is that Jesus has the authority not just to put this world back together, but to forgive the sins that caused it to look like this in the first place. And so he says, this is the response. People are freaking out. And it's not like Jesus can't read the room. He can read the room and he can read the individual hearts and minds in the room. You're blaspheming. He says, which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven? Or to say, Rise, take your bed and walk. And this question used to really throw me because I used to hear it as if, which is a bigger deal? The forgiveness of sins or being able to walk again? And it felt like, well, the Bible's answer is the forgiveness of sins is a bigger deal, so that should be the harder to say. But what he's really saying is, which is harder to fake? Because he's saying, you don't know if I'm blaspheming. You don't know if I'm wrong. You don't know if this man's relationship with his maker is just as it was before he got here. But so that you know that when I speak, they're not empty words. And then he raises him up to show that the forgiveness of sins is always linked to the kingdom he's coming to bring. I can cash the check that my mouth writes. That's what he's saying. Anyone can say your sins are forgiven. I get it, you're skeptical, but this man's going to get up and walk. And what he's saying is, Mark wants us to see, this man is the king and he's the son of God, so believe that I'm the king. That the authority I claim on earth is really mine, that I can really forgive sins, and that I can really bring restoration. Paul tells us, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. That's Paul's way of saying the same thing. He who forgave your sins justifies you, can actually change you, make you more like Jesus. He can sanctify you. But he's also going to glorify you. That one day you will stand in a renewed body on a renewed earth. And it all began with the work that he started when he forgave you. Jesus is showing this man the same thing. I have forgiven you. And I will raise you. But even this man is going to die again. But one day you will stand in a new body, able not to cower before your Maker, but to stand and to glorify him. If this is what he's come to do, what if it were true? Wouldn't you want to entrust yourself to somebody who had this kind of power and authority? And the part of us that thinks, but I know better, do we really? Look at all of the foolish things that we have done. Why would we really think, I know what is best for my life right now, given the way that we have brought destruction in other people's lives, some that we've sort of wanted to pretend it wasn't there. What we need is forgiveness as a pledge that Jesus can make everything right. He can make everything right. You know, our mission statement as a church is we want to seek the kingdom of God by receiving the good news of Jesus and living that out in all of life. These men, they're seeking the kingdom in a way. Think about it this way: they're seeking the restoration of their friend. They're seeking something that would look like in a world that wasn't fallen, what would their friend look like? They're seeking that. But Jesus shows us if he is the king of this kingdom, the only way to seek the good things of this kingdom is to seek it through the king. And if we want the king to bring restoration, it has to be on his terms. That means he has to be able to say, You are a sinner, and I will forgive you. I will forgive you. And that will enable you to live this out for the rest of your life. Because the Jesus who says, I will forgive your sins, he doesn't just say empty words. The one who says, You are forgiven, he cashes this check by walking willingly to the cross. So that he can hang on that cross as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. So that even though we fear to sort of say, could we really have all of our sins forgiven after all that I've done? It's not because we've earned it, it's because he delights to give good gifts. He washes away our sin. You know, what if we became the kind of church that proclaimed, we will bring anybody to Jesus as they are, but trusted that he would meet them where they are. Do you know that when we sing together, we are bringing each other before Jesus? Do you know when you feel like there are some weeks that you're too weak to sin, too weak to not too weak to sin, too weak to sing? Do you know that when you feel that? You're not weird? That we all feel that sometimes? And so you join together and the people around you, yes, we're singing to God, but we're singing to one another, these things are true. We're bringing each other to Jesus. That when we have people from this congregation read the scriptures to us, we're reminding each other. That's why it's not just me up reading scripture or leading in prayer. Like, we need to be lifting each other up and bringing one another to Jesus together. That when we fill the parking lot with cars, we proclaim to the neighborhood that there's somebody here who is going to make all things new. And it starts with peace of conscience before our Maker. As we start our first outreach on this lot to have a bounce house, we proclaim whether or not the neighborhood just empties out over here, we begin to proclaim there is a place for you here where Jesus is known and loved, and to whatever degree you will let us, we will bring you to him. Because Jesus is still forgiving sins and he's still bringing healing today. And you don't have to meet any kind of criteria to do that except to see your need and to believe that he will do what he says he will do. Let's pray and ask God to help us to believe him. Father in heaven, we thank you that you healed this man through Jesus 2,000 years ago. And we long, we wish we could see something like that, and yet how many of us have seen in our own lives a work of renovation that we cannot take the credit for? Or we've seen in others a work of renovation that we can hardly believe ourselves. And what we ask, God, is that you would continue to do that kind of work in us and through us, and that as we see the forgiveness of sins celebrated and lived out, that many would glorify you. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.