“Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 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. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”- Mark 2:3-5
There are times that I wonder what it would have been like to be one of those people that Jesus healed. To be one of the lepers or the blind man who got mud smeared on his eyes, or the man with the shriveled hand or the deaf and mute man who had never uttered a single word. I can close my eyes and try to imagine I’m blind but I’m sure that it’s not the same, because I have seen so much of the world that I can imagine things I have seen and can’t really comprehend not even knowing what light is. I am sure that it would have been mind blowing for some of the people that Jesus healed. One day your whole concept of life changed simply because what use to be a black mass or blur became clear and beautiful. From reading about the brain and neurological system that runs most of your body there could have been major brain trauma if Jesus had healed just the eyes themselves, but Jesus went deeper than just mud on the eyes, he healed the whole person and left them far better than he found them. It wouldn’t make sense if Jesus just healed the man’s eye balls yet left him with no real grasp of the world he could now see. He would have been confused and just as lost in the world of light as he was in his former world of darkness. Perhaps there are times that we only want Jesus to heal part of us, just enough to take away our sins but not alter our way of life or concept of the world.
In youth group yesterday we studied Mark chapter 2:1-12 which is the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man. In order to try to grasp what it would be like to be paralyzed I had all the students lay down on the floor and close there eyes and not move for 2 min while trying to think about not being able to do their favorite thing or not being able to feed themselves. They said it was challenging and left them feeling a little sad yet hard to comprehend what that really would be like. As we discussed and read the story one of the main points that I was trying to get across to them is how Jesus didn’t just simply heal the paralyzed man but he went deeper. The fact that Jesus first words to the man wasn’t “why did your friends rip a hole through the roof?” or “just get up and walk cause your interrupting the flow of my talking” or “can’t you see it’s already packed in here”, might have really surprised people what were there and should surprise us a little today. Jesus does the unexpected all the time and this time he just says “Son, your sins are forgiven”. After Jesus says that the man is still laying there paralyzed. Nothing changed that we could see.
People weren’t happy that Jesus was forgiving the man. In that time people who were disabled were thought to be that way because of their sin or their parents sin. They were outcasts and thought of as worthless. When Jesus forgives the man’s sin he isn’t just forgiving the man but he is also speaking to the crowd that has gathered around him. He is saying ” I have the power to forgive sins and I don’t believe this man’s life is worthless, just look at those four friends who were so driven and determined to find healing for their friend that they ripped through the roof. Why don’t you have faith like them?”. People knew that Jesus could heal the paralytic if he wanted to, they had faith because they had seen him heal others and that could be why so many had come, but they lacked the faith that jesus could heal the whole person from the inside out.
When we were discussing this fact that Jesus has the power to heal from the inside out Eighth grader Lindsey Davis said “It’s like carving a pumpkin, you have to clean out all the guts and seeds from the inside so his light can shine through us.” Thats exactly what Jesus is doing in this story and wants to do in us. He is cleaning the gunk from the inside of the man so that his light can shine to the rest of the crowd. That they might experience his true and real forgiveness. That they might be fully healed. Thats why when Jesus healed people their lives were changed forever, not just physically but spiritually. They were in the streets telling of all he had done for them, shinning the light from the inside out. They had reasons to shout it from the mountain tops and let the whole world know.
Jesus didn’t just forgive the mans sins that day but he also gave him his life back. He went home walking, skipping, running and jumping, carrying his own mat with no need for anyones help. Do we go home jumping and shouting about what Jesus has done for us? or do we just settle for having a little faith that he just might forgive me but he really cant change me. We paralyze ourselves with excuses like I am to old, I am to stubborn, I don’t have passion, I don’t care enough, or I have fear that I’ll just keep on sinning, or what i say won’t come out right, or no one would really think anything has changed. We are like the paralytic laying there on the mat, we have been forgiven yet we don’t move, we don’t act like we are forgiven, we don’t celebrate the fact that we have life and that we have the opportunity every moment to shine that light. To tell others our story. To show the world we are different and God loves them.
When we get up and take our mats we have the opportunity to be like the paralytics friends. We have a choice to make, to be determined and driven enough to tell the world and love those around us. I challenge anyone to read that story in Mark and find yourself in one of the many people in that story. Who are you? Where are you at? Are you allowing Jesus to fully heal you and give you life, life to the fullest.
-Caleb Ross Hunter
The Adventure of Dragon Hunting 