Feeling Caged
now! … I am the God
who forgives your sins, I do this because of who I am.
We
don't have to look too far to find people who are trapped. In our newspaper we
read of people trapped in a war
situations. We read reports of the suffering, and the hunger, and the grief
and the dying as people in many places in our world. There are those trapped in uncertain economic situations,
and drought and hunger. They don't know where their next meal is coming
from, or where they will be sleeping that night. Maybe they don't know how they
can possibly pay the bills, or find enough money to buy the essentials to keep
a family going.
There
are people who are trapped in ill-feeling.
Maybe there is ill-feeling between members of the family, maybe there is bad
blood between neighbours, maybe there has been a long running feud between once
good friends that has never been resolved.
There
are those who are trapped in fear. There
are those whose daily lives are filled with fear - the wife of the alcoholic
husband, the child who is afraid of what will happen to him/her when mum and
dad split up; the elderly person whose failing strength is afraid of what will
become of him/her in their last days.
There
are those who are trapped in the past.
They are haunted by memories of the past that they can't let go. Maybe
something for which they cannot forgive themselves, maybe trapped in grief over
the loss of someone dear to them.
In
today’s Gospel reading (Mark
2:1-12)
we hear of a man trapped in a paralyzed body.
Put yourself in the place of this man. How would you feel knowing you’d
never climb a hill, take a walk along
the beach on a summer’s evening, run up and down a football field, or carry out
a normal days work? This man is permanently trapped in a world that is reliant
on everyone else.
No
one knows how this man got to be paralyzed and we can probably assume like any
normal person he had seen all kinds of doctors and tried so many programs and
cures. In fact, it doesn’t matter what we are trapped in we try to find someone
who can cure us, or help us; we try to find some way of escape.
Those
who are trapped in war or cruel governments try to escape to safety. Those who
are economically suppressed try to go somewhere they will be better off and
secure. Those trapped in fear of their abusive partner seek a way out. That’s
natural and normal.
Four
friends of the paralyzed man hear about Jesus coming to their neighbourhood.
They knew how much their friend wanted to be released from his paralysis. So
they picked up his stretcher bed and carried him to the house where Jesus was
staying. When they got there they couldn’t get even close to Jesus.
The
house and the street outside were packed with people wanting to get near enough
to hear what he had to say. Now these friends weren’t fair-weather friends who
easily gave up. They were determined. They climb up on the roof and started to
tear it apart shingle by shingle until they had a hole big enough to lower the
paralyzed man.
This
must have been quite disturbing to the owner of the house who was watching his
roof being destroyed. But there was the man lying on his stretcher right in
front of Jesus. Jesus looked at the four men on the roof. He saw their love for
the their paralyzed friend.
He
saw their courage and daring as they went to such extremes for their friend.
He saw their faith in God’s power to heal. Jesus turned to the man and said, "My son, your sins are forgiven." Then after Jesus had calmed those
who said that he had blasphemed because only God can forgive sin, he said to
the man, "I tell you, get up,
pick up your mat, and go home!"
The
man had never felt anything in his legs before. He felt new life in his once
dead legs. He stood up for the first time. He could walk, without any
physiotherapy. The gospel writer tells us simply, "While they all watched, the man got up, picked up his mat, and
hurried away."
Jesus
had intervened in the life of this paralyzed man and he left the house that day
a "new" person. He went away not only with a renewed body, but also
renewed spiritually, as well. This is
the "new thing" that God spoke of through the prophet Isaiah when he
said, "Watch for the new thing I
am going to do." The "new thing" that Jesus brings is
healing and help for those who feel caged. What are the things that have us
cased? What is it that us need God to free you from?
Do
we need to be set free from a past
that nips at our heels with angry memories of past failures? Do past failures
continue to haunt us and make us discouraged about our abilities and our
self-worth. Are there sins in our past that we have confessed but we are not
fully convinced that God or those who love us could have possibly forgiven us?
Is there something someone has done that we have never gotten over?
God
says to you: "Watch for the new thing I am going to do."
Jesus went to Calvary just because we have been caged. He suffered and died
there because he knew that there is no way we could free yourselves from sin
and the mark that it leaves on our life. His death means we are forgiven. His dying means you are
released from the crippling effect that sin and past failures have on us.
Are
you trapped in some kind of bitterness?
Someone has offended you, you have been upset by something someone did or said
and you have kept that bitterness in your heart for years and years.
Are
you trapped in the temptation to do
the same old sins over and over again and you seem helpless to stop?
Selfishness, jealousy, abusive language, grumpiness and being hard to get on
with. No matter how many times you say "that’s the last time" there
always seems to be a next time.
Maybe
you are trapped in loneliness, or the
emptiness you have inside because you
have lost someone you love, or to be set free from constant worry and feeling depressed about life’s
problems.
Maybe
you are one for whom life at the moment is not a bed of roses because of illness and uncertainty
about what the future holds for you. Maybe you are trapped in the fear of dying and what will happen
after you take your last breath. Jesus healed that man trapped in paralysis.
He
took care of his body, renewing it and giving him a whole new life free of the
worries and the uncertainty that the paralysis brought him. Jesus also renewed
him spiritually when he said, "My
son, your sins are forgiven."
Jesus
is concerned for the whole of us – both body and soul - and so when we find
ourselves trapped in something that we seem to be helpless to do anything
about, he is the one who can really help.
If
something traps you that is making life unpleasant; if you are trapped by
something that you would rather be without, then Jesus is the one to turn to
for help. Jesus has the power and authority to help us - to forgive us, heal
us, and to strengthen and encourage us to see a particular difficulty through.
This
I strongly believe, as I have experienced this personally. At the first Easter
God said: Watch for the new thing I am
going to do. And it certainly
was something new. God rescued his people who were cased in sin and death. He
rescued his people by sacrificing his own Son on a cross. The new thing that
God did was to offer us forgiveness through the death of Jesus, his Son.
He
died to freed us from the consequences, the things the caged us. Jesus truly is
the way, the truth and the life that leads to our heavenly home. Without Jesus
we would be trapped forever in our sin. Without Jesus we would have no hope,
and knowing Jesus, we know hope.
The
Good news is that at our baptism God said to us, ‘Watch for the new thing I am going to do’. Through those few drops of water God gave us a new life – a life
where all our sins are forgiven. Through those few drops of water God gave us
the promise of a new life in heaven forever after your journey on this earth
has been completed.
Through
those drops of water at our baptism God gave us a new life to be lived out
right now as we give up our selfish ways and follow Jesus and show love and
kindness to those in our family, at work, in your neighbourhood.
Through
those drops of water at our baptism God promised to be there for us when life
takes a turn for the worst, when illness, grief, fear or despondency set in.
Through
the water of baptism God brings comfort and newness when we are discouraged,
and distressed about the power that sin has in our life. "Watch for the new thing I am going to
do. It is happening already - you can see it now! … I am the God who forgives
your sins, I do this because of who I am."
What
is your particular need right now? God says to you, "Watch for the
new thing I am going to do." If you want to walk on water, you have
got to get out of the boat. Just like the paralyzed man in the gospel text
who had to be carried on his mat by his friends. We all need help from
dedicated friends.
Our
mat may be an inability to trust, or paralyzing fear. The only way out and get
near to Jesus is to let trustworthy friends see the mat of our brokenness and
ask them for help, which becomes the connecting point for deeper relationships.
God meets our need graciously, and lovingly.
He
wants to be the Lord of our lives and be there for us when we are trapped and
cage by circumstances of life beyond our control. God wants to be our God and
invites each and every one of us to come to him in prayer with our needs and
trust him to help in time of need.
The Bible promises,
"God
is our shelter and strength,
always
ready to help in times of trouble" (Psalm 46:1).
Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
February 23, 2003