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.
For the last three Sundays, we have been dealing with the topic on healing. Jesus heals the mother-in-law of Simon Peter, the leper, and this morning we going to look at the healing of a paralyzed man. We don't have to look too far to find people who are caged / trapped.
Our newspapers are full of stories of people trapped in a war. We read reports of the suffering, and the hunger, and the grief and the dying as people in places like Baghdad, Afghanistan, Sudan, Congo, people are caught in the middle of it all and have nowhere else to go.
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 bad blood between neighbours, maybe there has been a long running feud between once good friends that has never been resolved and never looks like being sorted out. 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. We can add to this those who are trapped in ill-health and are constantly in pain, in hospital having tests and operations; or even trapped in a terminal illness from which there is no escape.
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. Let’s put ourselves in the place of this man. How would we feel knowing we would never stroll through the country, climb a hill, take a walk along the beach on a summer’s evening, run up and down a soccer 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 came to be paralyzed, but like any normal person he tried so many programs and cures. In fact, it doesn’t matter what we are trapped in we too 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 Jesus 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 until they had a hole big enough to lower the paralyzed man.
This must have been quite disturbing to those below, especially 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 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 – spirit, soul, and body - 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. Jesus has the power and authority to help us - to forgive us, heal us, and to strengthen and encourage us to see us through that difficulty circumstances.
At the first Easter God said: Watch for the new thing I am going to do. And it certainly was something new. God rescued all people who were caged by sin and death. He rescued all people by the sacrificial death of his own Son. The new thing that God did was to offer us forgiveness though the death and the resurrection of Jesus, his Son.
He died in our place and freed us from the consequences that our sinfulness - namely condemnation and eternal death. Jesus truly is the way, the truth and the life that leads to our home with the Father. Without Jesus we would be caged forever in our sin. Without Jesus we would have no hope and our sinfulness would condemn us.
How is this possible? Only through faith in Jesus Christ, believing that God did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. At our baptism God said to us, "’Watch for the new thing I am going to do’.
"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."
God meets our need graciously, and lovingly. God wants to be the Lord of our lives and be there for us when we are caged circumstances of life. He wants to be our God and invites 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"
(Ps.46:1)
Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
February 19, 2006