My dear friends, each of us, I think, have a small cluster of Bible stories that we call our favorites. For some reason we really resonate with the story, or we attach some special significance to it, or it teaches us something that has become very special. I think all of us could rather easily identify a few of our own that are in that category. I wonder what yours would be.
Today’s passage, is probably among one of my all—time favorites — the story about this paralytic fellow.
To me it’s really a very fascinating story. It must have been such a unique, surprising and memorable experience for all who were there that day. I’m sure it was etched deeply in their memory. And I’m sure that years later they would say to each other, “remember that day we were listening to Jesus and we saw that fellow lowered through the roof by his friends?wow, that was something, wasn’t it?!“ I’d just love to have been there when it all happened, wouldn’t you?
Actually the story is a very simple and straightforward one. We’re given only the bare facts without much detail at all. It takes place in Capernaum, which had become Jesus’ new “home“ at this stage in his ministry. Capernaum is a city on the NW corner of the Sea of Galilee, about 10—12 miles down the road from Nazareth where Jesus grew up and about 80—100 miles north of Jerusalem. It’s very early in Jesus’ ministry. He’s just getting started and hadn’t even appointed his full corps of disciples yet. However, already Jesus had become very popular. People were coming in droves to see and hear him, as you can see from v.2 — for the house was packed. And then this paralytic fellow comes into the story. We know very little about him; he doesn’t show up before this; and he doesn’t appear again after this. In addition, the word for “paralysis“ is a general word that may mean he was a paraplegic, quadriplegic, or paralyzed on one side; and it may be caused by an accident, or a stroke, or a disease, or some birth defect. We just don’t know any of that. All we know is that four friends saw to it that he got to Jesus for healing. And big things happened!
A. First and foremost we must understand that this is a story about the gospel. We must notice that right away.
That’s the gospel, when some needy person comes to Jesus and finds healing. That’s the gospel in all of its powerful simplicity — coming to Jesus with our needs and finding healing. That’s the heart of the story here and we mustn’t miss that. Just imagine you are there, and you see this drama. This fellow has been paralyzed for years, maybe all his life, and he meets Jesus. Jesus heals him by granting the forgiveness of sins; that’s the gospel. And Jesus heals him by telling him to take up his cot and walk away, right out of this crowded house before the gawking eyes of everybody else; that’s the gospel. Healed?and a whole person again.
Now there are several big things associated with the gospel here. The first concerns the identity of Jesus. He was born down the road in Nazareth, grew up there as a young boy, was baptized by John the Baptist, started preaching and gathered a huge following. But more, this is the Jesus who is the second person of the Trinity, God incarnate, the Son of God who came down here to dwell among us as the divine son of God, full of grace and truth. So when you say “Jesus is in that house“, you may also say “God is in that house“. That’s the first consideration. Another matter is that this is a very needy fellow. Some of his need is obvious. Anybody can see he can’t walk. What isn’t quite so obvious is that he’s a sinner and needs to be washed clean. So he brings both of those needs to Jesus — a broken body and a broken spirit. And for that matter everyone else in that crowd is a needy person too in one way or another, though that is even less obvious. This is not a situation where he’s broken and the crowd is OK. No, all are broken, in one way or another, to one degree or another. And still another issue is the purpose of a miracle. Jesus is going to perform a miracle here and we must understand that the purpose of this miracle is not first of all to get this man to stand up and walk, but for Jesus to reveal himself as the Son of God, and to reveal the power and glory of God.
So here is the drama of the gospel — when broken people meet God in Jesus Christ.
B. Now, as we zero in on what happened there, I’d really like to come at the story backwards for a few minutes. There are some considerations we should eliminate before we can really understand the significance of what DID happen. So I want to point out to you some things we might expect to happen, but they just were not there in the story.
First, notice there is no explanation of why this man was paralyzed. I told you the word is general and gives no clue as to how severe, or why, or how long. Apparently that’s not important at all to this story. What is important is that he needs Jesus. There is, I think, a lesson in that — when people need Jesus it isn’t so important “why“, or that we find out “why“, but just that we care enough to bring them to Jesus.
Secondly, notice that these friends don’t do the typically modern thing of telling him to get hold of himself and do something about his situation. They didn’t tell him he had to learn to be self—sufficient. There he lay on the cot. They accepted the fact that he was needy and had to be carried. Can you think of times when someone close to you has been deeply in need, and all they’ve heard from others is, “come on, do something about your situation.?“
Third, they didn’t just say to him, “I’ll be praying for you“. I can think of times I have said that to folks, when they needed me to do far more. Maybe you have experienced that too. You needed help and care from others, but all you got was a generalized “well, we’ll be praying for you.“ Now, praying is a good thing to do, and it’s nice when we say that to people, but actually that can become a “cop out“ for there are times when people need a lot more than prayer. They need us to actually get up and help them, to carry them. They need action in addition to praying.
Our fourth thing to notice is that Jesus didn’t scratch his head and mumble something about this person’s problems being too severe, too complex and too big to handle. How wonderful for him Jesus didn’t take that approach. I’m sure there have been times in our life, too, when you wondered if your personal needs were just too big and complex for Jesus to handle, and you were tempted to despair. But, there are no limits to the power and love of Christ. This story shows that strikingly. There is no human need he is not able to handle.
And the final thing I want you to notice is that Jesus didn’t say, “I’ll take care of your sins because that’s most important, but don’t worry about that paralysis stuff?I’m more interested in your soul than anything else.“ No, Jesus didn’t separate them; he dealt with him body and soul; he said “your sins are forgiven“ and he said “get up and walk. I’ve healed your body.“
So, you see, there are some big lessons there in what DIDN’T happen.
C. Now, what I want to do is zero in on these four friends that carried him.
Notice that v.3 says “carried by four of them.“ Usually when we read this story and study it, we focus on Jesus who did the healing as the Son of God and we marvel at him. Or we look carefully at the man who received the healing and we’re glad for him. Or perhaps we look at the teachers of the law who objected to the whole business and we become irritated with them. But we often, I think, overlook the four who are in some ways the key people in the story. Yes, Jesus did the healing. But these four friends are key in that they are the ones who made it possible, as we shall see. They were a crucial and strategic team; they were the link between this needy man and Jesus’ healing power; they prove to us that it takes a team to get things like this done. But what does it take to be a team like that? Let’s think about that for a little while. And let me show you that this team had four very important and outstanding characteristics.
First, they were unselfish. People who carry others to Jesus must be unselfish people or they wouldn’t be doing that in the first place. Think about these four fellows. I don’t know who they are, but you can assume they had other things to do. They were probably busy people like all of us are. Maybe they had to go to work, or had family needs to attend to, or errands to run, or a “to do“ list to work on. And so they could have said, “I’d really like to help you but I gotta run?got all these other things to do?maybe some other day I can catch you.“ (How often haven’t we said that?) But you don’t hear that here. They dropped what they were doing, looked at each other, and said “let’s do something for him here, now“, so they cared and they carried, no matter what other things they were planning to do.
Secondly, they were very creative people. They bumped into some very big obstacles in their desire to get this fellow to Jesus. First, he couldn’t walk — so how is he going to get there? That’s one obstacle. Then they couldn’t get in the house — it was already full. And then, how (all the more) are you going to carry somebody paralyzed into a house so full you can’t even squeeze in yourself if you are walking upright? But they didn’t quit. They didn’t give up. They didn’t say, “Well, we’d really like to, but, you know, it just won’t work?“ With creativity and persistence they worked at it until the found a way, and a creative way it was — they would go up those stairs on the outside and come through the roof with the cot. Now, can’t you just imagine the surprise on the part of others who were in the house, packed in, listening to Jesus, and then you notice some rumbling up on the roof, then hear some digging and tearing, and daylight appears, right above you, and then they start lowering a cot, right through the roof?.and everybody looks at each other and says “Ahhh?.I don’t believe it!“ Ingenious! Creative! Who could have thought of such a creative plan?! Nothing would keep them from getting their job done. So we can learn from them. In our attempt to reach others for Jesus we are far too quick to say “we can’t“ and maybe a lot of tried and true methods don’t work today, but then we need a much higher level of creativity to get the job done. Our hearts ought to say, “Find a way?create a way?and never give up until you have found it!“
So the four fellows were unselfish and creative. Now let me add another one. They cooperated with each other. Now be sure that you have the picture clearly in mind. If it’s a cot, and the cot is carried by four, it seems safe to think of one on each corner. If it’s lowered, it seems safe to assume by ropes. And that means one on each corner with a rope. Now, can you let your imagination play with that a little while? Suppose they wanted to get this fellow some help, but they couldn’t agree on where to bring him — one said Jesus, the other said John the Baptist, another said some Jewish faith healing Rabbi down the road. And they couldn’t agree. He would never get help because they couldn’t work together. Or suppose they are in the process of lowering him through the roof, one man on each of four ropes, and one of them doesn’t pay attention, he’s busy looking around. Now, would you want to be lying on a cot, lowered by four ropes, when the fellow holding the rope on this corner doesn’t pay attention!? Cooperation made the difference between lowering this fellow in front of Jesus, and dumping him on the ground! He got the help he needed because they cooperated together.
And now let me tell you a fourth thing about them. You’ll find it in v.5 of our Scripture reading. . They were people of faith. Don’t miss that by skipping over it too fast. It does not say “when Jesus saw his faith“. (singular) It says their faith. (plural) That is a huge thing to notice. Jesus has the four friends, in addition to the paralyzed man, in view. They were men of faith, and Jesus sees that, and the healing resulted because THEY were men of faith. The man was healed because Jesus responded to their faith. This is the shocker of the whole story! It takes faith to be a team that brings others to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is saying here that wholeness come to others because of the faith of those who bring them. And that makes us ask some questions, doesn’t it. Are there healings that don’t take place because we as a group don’t have faith, or don’t have faith enough?
D. So there is a very large principle for the church in this story. And the principle is this — it takes a team for good ministry.
We’re really given a very beautiful picture here. A broken man is in the midst of a society of broken people, some obvious and some hidden. And they all need to experience Jesus’ power. And now a team of them is working together unselfishly, creatively, cooperatively, with faith, to bring their friend to Jesus. That’s really a pretty powerful and accurate picture of what the church ought to be. And it’s quite in contrast to the broken relationships that exist in many congregations today.
Yes, it takes a team!
Now, think about your own spiritual formation. What did it take to bring you to Christ, and to aid you in growing in him, bringing you to the point you are today? Do you have any idea of how big a team it took? I have no idea of how many it took to make me the person I am, to form me spiritually. I know it took my parents, my extended family of aunts and uncles. I know it took my church, pastors, school, teachers, and who knows how many others — hundreds — on the team to form me spiritually in Christ. I think the same must be true about each of us. Think of all the teams of faithful people it takes to make us who we are. It would be good for each of us to make a list, at least in our mind, of some of the key people God has used as members of the team who brought us to Jesus. We should not forget them. And when we form our list of all those team members, we ought to send up thanks to God for each of them. And it might be very good if we would send a note of thanks to some of them.
The Christian congregations that we belong to are the same way, they have more than a pastor. The congregation I belong to has more than a pastor. I’m sure yours does too. In some there may be other staff members, but certainly also a whole team of leaders, elders, teachers, counselors, youth leaders — a whole team who lead all the ministries to children, youth and adults. If the truth were known there’s a very large team of people working to get the necessary ministry done at any congregation, no matter how large or small. Just let your mind imagine that same thing in all the congregations in your city, and across the land, and around the world. Sure, it takes a team! And if it takes a team for our ministries to reach each other within the congregation, the same is true to reach others that we know for Jesus Christ, those people we rub elbows with at work, in our neighborhoods, in recreation, etc. No one person can accomplish that. Multiple influences, multiple people, are usually needed to get the job done.
You see, there’s a neat little twist and surprise in this story, and a very healthy one for the church today. We’re busy saying, “here’s Jesus the son of God who does great things?and here’s a paralyzed fellow who got healed?“ And then when we look more closely we see how it happened. And we are surprised to find a whole team of faith—filled Christian friends who became servants to get the work of ministry done.
So it would be good for us each to be much more conscious of all those faith—filled folks God has used to make us who we are. By the way have you recently thanked God for them? And have you personally expressed thanks to them? Or perhaps sent them a note of thanks? In the background of every person is a large team who has served them. And I guess we have to admit there undoubtedly are many of them we aren’t even aware of.
But then, at the same time, we ought to ask some questions about the ways in which we are serving others. We ought to ask about what kind of a team member we are. And about how many different teams we’re working with. And then keep our eye on how many other people are going to experience wholeness in Christ because we’ve been part of the team that cared for them.
And so I think the bottom line of this story is a very simple but jarring one. It’s this?Are you part of the body of Christ? Are you part of this redeeming community here to bring people to Jesus Christ? Then don’t let other people do it all, go ahead?.grab a rope! Love someone! Care for them! And if necessary, even carry them!
Prayer
Gracious Lord, we give you thanks for your word that gives us light on how to live and serve. And we give you thanks for all those faith—filled people who have so willingly served to make us who we are. But today we are for the ability to recognize others who are in need, and to be selfless enough to carry them to you. Give us a heart that will love someone deeply today and make a difference for them. And in our churches, Lord, enable us to be a team of faith; where we all work and serve together; where we set aside our petty differences and serve others in your Name. For the sake of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Howard Vanderwell
Howard Vanderwell was ordained in the Christian Reformed Church in 1962. He received his M.Div. and Th.M. degree from Calvin Theological Seminary and his D.Min. at Westminster Theological Seminary in California. He has served as pastor to four congregations over 40 years in Iowa, Illinois and Michigan. After leaving the pastorate in 2002 he began a new ministry at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. He is currently a staff member at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI and Adjunct Professor of Worship at Calvin Theological Seminary. He consults with local congregations, provides worship materials, leads conferences and workshops, and teaches courses on worship at Calvin Seminary. Howard’‘s interests include planning, leading and evaluating worship, preaching, and worship renewal throughout the evangelical church. “My life-long prayer, from my days as a child, was that I might be honored to serve as a Christian Reformed pastor preaching the Word of God to encourage and challenge his people. I consider the forty years of my pastoral ministry to have been the most valuable way in which I could have invested those years! When I consult with pastors, teach and mentor students, hold conferences for worship leaders, or write worship planning materials, my aim is to equip and inspire others to serve their Lord and Savior by making a whole-hearted investment in his church and his people. Such ministry is certainly not without its stresses and discouragements, and those of us who have found such joy in a life-time of ministry are uniquely fitted to encourage others.” Howard lives in Hudsonville, MI with his wife Eleanor. They have three married sons and ten grandchildren ages 5 through 19. His hobbies are yard-gardening, walking, photography and model railroading.
More >>
