Aint’ seen nothin yet!
Mark 2:1-12
Feb. 19

† In Jesus Name †

2 Corinthians 1:2-4 (ESV) 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I say those words, from 2 Corinthians, or the like words from Galatians, or Ephesians, or Philemon, every week. They are a standard blessing that Paul uses, hoping that the letter that follows does that very thing. That blessing brings to Paul’s reader, to those listening to these words of mine, the incredible grace and peace of God – the very things we are given, through the incredible Words of the gospel, and the incredible grace poured out for us, in the waters of baptism, and the blood/win accompanying the bread/body of our Lord’s Supper

In 2nd Corinthians, the thought continues.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

That day, at Peter’s house, where Jesus lived, when “not on the road” there were people in need of comfort, in need of relief from affliction. Of all the people there that day, we shall hear specifically of one found more than just relief from an affliction, he found comfort, comfort beyond belief.

The reaction of his friends, who desperately trying to help their friend, was the same as the scribes, the local men whose profession it was to teach God’s word, and guard the people of Israel from false teachers who spoke well, and fraudulently performed “miracles. The reaction to Jesus’ helping this one man, was the same from every person there.

They were all amazed
From talking to themselves
To being unable to think

Stunned, Astonished, rubbing their eyes in disbelief, unable to put words to the incredible thing they had just witnessed. ALL were amazed, and the reaction to this amazement, was praise. I not talking about a rehearsed, well known hymn or praise song being sung by those gathered together by God that day. I am talking about pure, unadulterated, and un-restrained praise as they gave to God the glory for what they had seen.

Earlier, they had questioned themselves, especially the scribes, as they tried to understand the teaching that threw them off balance. They had an interest, after all, as they needed to protect their people from the fake messiahs, and those who peddled miracles and the latest teaching, trying to deceive their friends, and neighbors.

At the end of the day, the skeptics were amazed, they worshipped, they gave to God the praise, and glory and honor due Him, for the incredible miracles they witnessed. No more denial, just adoration.
What did they see that caused such a change, such a transformation?

What they saw
The desperation to see their friend helped
The Man walked away – he just got up and left!
How many of us, let people go without help?

Some of you, have been in the situation of the four friends, desperate to find help for someone you know, who is so afflicted, so hurting, so in need of help, or at least hope. By the end of today, it is my prayer that our eyes will be opened, and we shall realize, that we all know people in situations similar to that paralytic.

These men were desperate to not only find the help – but to see that their friend received the help. Desperate enough to destroy Simon Peter’s roof. I don’t know what it would take to break through a foot of plaster and wood, but these guys did it. With one goal in mind, to bring there friend to Jesus, the only hope that they had, to see their friend given a chance to live.

When I was a child, I was diagnosed with Marfans Syndrome, a pretty rare genetic problem. My folks were told that few people survived 30 with this disorder, as it affects the heart, causing valves to dislocate. This was back in the day, before surgeons could replace heart valves, before technology allowed them to implant defibrillators. Now, with artificial heart valves, marfans holds little threat over me. Back then, there was no medical hope, none of the things we now take for granted.

With little hope, I remember my parents having people all over the place praying for me. I remember getting up early one morning, like at 3 am, and get on a bus with my mom, as we went several hundred miles to a healing service led by Kathryn Kuhlman. My folks would have done anything, to see me healed of Marfans. That is the kind of desperation these men had. Parents with kids that are challenged with health issues know that kind of desperation.

I don’t know if the friends were family, or guys that had grown up alongside the paralyzed man. But they had enough desperation that they were willing to rip up a roof. (Look up)

Their friend, lowered through the roof paralyzed, walked away. Perhaps the only man that was not left there, mouth hanging open. He was healed, but more than that, he was made whole.

What they didn’t see
How sin could be forgiven
How could a man have the authority

It is one thing to see the man walking out of the house, whole, able to jump for joy, able to run home to his wife, and show her what Jesus had done for him. It is one thing for a man to be healed, but how Jesus did it, was what the scribes could not see. Look at verse 6,

6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 "Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Jesus, in this case, saw a direct connection between this man’s sin, and the paralysis that he was dealing with. Not always can physical ailments be traced to sin, and the guilt and shame that result from that sin, but in this case, it could. Sin does paralyze us all, though the paralysis could be spiritual, emotionally or in our relationships. It restricts how we act, it drives us to hide from life. It drive wedges in families, as people hide what they don’t want others to know. In doing so, we shut ourselves off to them in many ways.

The scribes don’t see this though. They see one problem – as they see it, only God has the right, the authority to forgive sins. That sin can reflect itself physically? No problem there. But that a man, a teacher of scripture, could forgive sins? No, that is what our gospel says they questioned in their hearts. Literally, within their hearts, they “dialogued”. Ever argue with yourself? Wonder if what you just saw or heard, could “really” be what you saw, and heard?

I can see them thinking, if he really said that, he is blaspheming, and we should stone him. How can a man forgive sin? How can he even claim to? Only God has that authority, if I read the Old Testament the way they do.

So Jesus answers, and proves to them, that He is God. He heals, and forgives. He is God. He gives us, the people He still gathers together, His church, the authority to do that on his behalf, in Matthew 16, and in John 20. Complete forgiveness, is available to all, freeing them from the paralysis and giving them comfort and peace.

What we have seen
We are forgiven
Word and Sacraments

Every week, that forgiveness is poured out on us, through God’s word and sacraments. His word promises our salvation, our deliverance from Satan, the freedom to live life now, and the promise of it lasting forever. Our baptism combined with trusting Christ to fulfill what He promised, gives us that forgiveness, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Think of the words that Jesus said, in blessing the bread and wine, they are his body and blood, given for you, for the payment for our sins.

You should know, without any doubt, your sins are forgiven. Because of what the scribes never saw coming, otherwise they would be still stunned and shocked. For Jesus, the son of God, paid for them fully. Completely, on the cross. Nothing left over, no work to be done to guarantee us a place. No time share presentation to listen to, no deposit that will be returned to us later.

Just His grace, pure peace, and comfort, for just like every person in that house in Nazareth, our sins, like theirs, like those of the paralyzed men, are forgiven in Christ!

What we haven’t seen
The Lady from Yugoslavia
The dudes at Tumbleweed

When I started this sermon, I quoted the beginning of Paul’s 2nd letter to the church in Corinth. Listen to the end of it, again,

4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

The scribes in Jesus day, didn’t see the depth of His love, His passion for His people. I think we, in this church, know that love and passion well. But I think we are like the scribes, and less like the friends of the man who had been paralyzed. We don’t have that desperation to see our friends, our families comforted with the very comfort that brings us to trust in Jesus.

I am not sure if it is that we do not see them caught up in their pain, their paralysis, or perhaps we are not so sure that if they do not know Christ, if they do not receive His forgiveness, that eternity for them will not be in God’s presence, but in Hell. Or perhaps we think that there will be time in the future, that right now, their lives are too busy to deal with Jesus, to come to church, to hear about His love.

I am as guilty of this, as anyone. This week, while riding the bus in Las Vegas, I saw people I know need Christ’s comfort, His peace, His grace. The first was a lady, who survived the communist regime in Yugoslavia, only to see her country torn apart by war, when communism failed. She has become a refugee, having escaped to Germany, and finding safety in the USA. Even so, her pain, as she told me of her homeland, show me she needed something that only Jesus could manage. True peace. As I talked to people there, I heard lots of pain, even in the singer whose show came with our “Free” trip. I even think of my friends at Tumbleweed, for whom the stakes are high, yet sometimes I am more interested in toppling their latest argument, than in seeing them relieved, by knowing the treasure of peace that comes in Christ Jesus

But we are blind to them, let me rephrase, we were blind to them, or to their fate without Christ.

How can we see this?
In Christ
In prayer – Luther quote

Luther said, about our gospel reading today,

For the Word of God is powerful enough, when uttered, to change even a godless heart, which is no less unresponsive and helpless than any infant. So through the prayer of the believing church which presents it, a prayer to which all things are possible [Mark 9:23], the infant is changed, cleansed, and renewed by inpoured faith. Nor should I doubt that even a godless adult could be changed, in any of the sacraments, if the same church prayed for and presented him, as we read of the paralytic in the Gospel, who was healed through the faith of others [Mark 2:3–12]. I should be ready to admit that in this sense the sacraments of the New Law are efficacious in conferring grace, not only to those who do not, but even to those who do most obstinately present an obstacle.130 What obstacle cannot be removed by the faith of the church and the prayer of faith? Do we not believe that Stephen converted Paul the Apostle by this power? [Acts 7:58–8:1]. But then the sacraments do what they do not by their own power, but by the power of faith, without which they do nothing at all, as I have said.131[1]
I am going to challenge you to do some “prayer-work” this week. If you are not using the sermon notes, get out that sheet of paper. 8 blanks sit at the top of the form. On the top two, write two question marks. We don’t know who these people are yet, but I think God will show you them this week.

The second set, I want you to write in the first names of two people you think might be interested in hearing the gospel. Not people who attend another church – I want us to pray, as the speaker at the conference said yesterday, to grow heaven’s population, not just the churches. So write two names, of people that you know, who are hurting, and may be ready to hear the gospel. The third set of two, are people that you think may need the gospel, but are seemingly against the idea of church. You know they need to know about Jesus, but they associate church with behaviour modification, or living under the law.

The last two – are the people who you would be stunned to see in church. I got my two. Don and Sam. People it would take a miracle to see come to church.
In our prayer time, we are going to pray for them, so you might as well write in the names now. During the week, I want you to pray for them as well.
Here is the prayer. Lord, bring to Don, Sam, Ilene, Steve, Jackie, and Gary, and the two people you will show me, the comfort you have given to me in Christ Jesus, in the love that took him to the cross. Bring them that comfort, and that peace, that comes through your Word and sacrament.

I am not asking you to talk to them – just to pray.

Be prepared to be stunned.

Knowing the comfort you have been given, the peace of God, which passes all understanding.
AMEN
130 Cf. p. 65.
131 Cf. pp. 66–67.
[1]Luther, M. Luther's Works, Vol. 36 : Word and Sacrament II. Ed. J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann. Luther's Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1959.