There was a really great children’s moment with a prop of four connected rectangles that pivot. As the story of Fred was told, which was the story of the paralytic essentially, the prop was manipulated to represent something in that part of the tale. As the story grew in length each time the various words the prop had represented were mentioned, the prop was manipulated into that shape. The link is to a video of how that works. It is not who did it at our church. I didn’t get the name, but I will reference it when I get it EDIT: I got it. He is Michael Klingenberg. You can see that ingenious little skit, which is worth the 3:25 of your life to watch HERE.
After the children’s moment, Pastor Lee ran through a recap of the sermon series. Be The Sheep have been Hungry (part I and part II), Thirsty, Stranger, Naked (part I, II, and III), and now Sick (part I). I missed most of this doing Usher stuff, but I returned in time to hear the second half of the scripture reading. I read the scripture before the sermon began anyway, so I knew what was being referenced. Of course, I’m reading KJV, and I think Pastor Lee uses the CEB, so the reading is very different and worth hearing.
This is a story about a man paralyzed and his friends. It is about the paralytic's healing but not necessarily about him. It isn’t about the man’s friends either, but about Jesus. However, to get to Jesus, we must go through the man and his friends.
Pastor Lee opened by explaining that someone afflicted like this with no visible wound or injury was considered to have done something sinful and wrong. The implication is that God afflicted the man with palsy as a punishment for his sins. Recall, this is how Job’s friends approached him in his time of difficulty.
7“Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed?
8“According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity And those who sow trouble harvest it.
9“By the breath of God they perish, And by the blast of His anger they come to an end.
Job 4:7–9 (NASB95)
I wonder if the story of Job helped the paralytic’s friends behave differently from Job’s friends? In the case of Job, they all blamed Job because they couldn’t figure out why these troubles were happening to him. However, in Job’s case, that didn’t end well for the friends when God rebuked them.
7It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.
8“Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”
Job 42:7–8 (NASB95)
Perhaps the paralytic’s, I’m going to call him Fred going forward because it’s easier for many reasons, and that was his name from the children’s moment; Fred’s friends learned the lesson intended to be taught in scripture and knew Fred was a righteous man. Because they knew this about Fred, they were willing to carry him to see Jesus for healing. Because they learned the lesson of Job and his friends, Jesus counts their faith in God worthy of healing Fred.
Pastor Lee doesn’t touch on any of the Job commentary. It occurred to me as I was taking notes and writing yesterday. Pastor Lee goes on about the mat or bed Fred spends all of his time lying on. Specifically, she calls it “superfluous.” I’m not sure that was the right word. I’ll let you decide. Here’s the definition.
Superfluous
soo-pur-floo-uhs
adjective
being more than is sufficient or required; excessive.
unnecessary or needless.
Obsolete. possessing or spending more than enough or necessary; extravagant.
It wasn’t an excessive or extravagant bed, but it became obsolete after the healing. Until then, it wasn’t unnecessary or needless. On the contrary, Pastor Lee’s point is that the mat or bed is Fred’s entire life. Everything he did or was allowed to do had to be done with him lying on that mat/bed. To use her words, “It was his entire world.” As long as Fred was confined to the mat/bed, he could only experience things his friends took him to or brought to him.
After setting the stage for the limited existence Fred got because of his condition, Pastor Lee went on about how he was “insecure” and his “insecurities.” We don’t actually know much about Fred’s faith other than he let his friends do what they did, and when Jesus gave him instructions he was obedient to those instructions.
Pastor Lee said that Fred was reluctant to let his friends take him to see Jesus. He was reluctant to let his friends go to the trouble of trying to find a spot for him through the crowd. I can absolutely see Fred complaining when his friends began moving up the narrow stairs on the outside of the house to get to the roof, and when they opened up a hole by ripping through the roof, I imagine Fred was telling them not to do that. But of all of it, I can absolutely see Fred telling his friends no over and over again when one of them suggested they hook his bed to a rope and lower him down into the room. I don’t see that as an insecurity. I see that as common sense, but his friends did it anyway, and it is a good thing for Fred that they did.
Pastor Lee’s point about focusing on the insecurities of Fred ties back into the idea that his paralysis was connected to sins he had committed against God. She suggested he didn’t want to be out in public where people would point and think badly about him. They would wonder why this sinful man thought he was worthy to get near the revered teacher? The people would see the mat/bed, know who Fred was, and deride him for even being out in public as if his sins could be caught like a contagious disease. Physical sickness was indeed viewed as an outward sign of a spiritual ailment at that time. Knowing this is how people viewed sickness and infirmity at the time, Fred must have been a really nice guy. His friends risked great personal accusations just being associated with Fred, let alone willing to carry his sick bed around and help him.
The sermon turned to the statement Jesus made to the Scribes surrounding Him.
8Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?
9“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?
Mark 2:8–9 (NASB95)
Which is easier for whom? Keep in mind at this time we have prophets doing miracles. In fact, Jesus has done some, but He has requested the recipients to keep it quiet. They didn’t, of course, so His reputation is growing already, which is why people are coming to see Him and why Fred’s friends brought him to see Christ. Miracles were not uncommon at the time. Healing of people wasn’t uncommon, but no one but the priests in the temple, after the proper sacrifice, told anyone their sins were forgiven. Here is this man telling Fred his sins are forgiven without sacrifice. That’s unheard of and impossible unless you are claiming to be God. Jesus’ point in tying His forgiveness of sin and His healing of Fred is exactly that: to prove to everyone who sees Him that He is God made flesh. That is His claim because He is tying the healing of someone everyone gathered knows is a paralytic to the forgiveness of his sins. When Fred rose from his mat/bed, picked it up, and walked away under his own power it was a sign his sins were forgiven and he was healed. No one had ever seen anyone do that before. They’d seen the priests forgive sins, and they’d seen miracles, but they’d never seen the two tied together like this.
Pastor Lee suggested the mat/bed that had been such an integral part of Fred’s life now became a reminded to him of his freedom, of what was done for him. That reminder wasn’t just of Jesus but also of how his friends believed in him enough to get him to the feet of the Master so he could receive His healing. The mat/bed becomes a reminder of both his flesh and spirit being healed by Christ and a testament to what faith can do for people, whether it is our own or our friends.