Prayers of the Saints (Mark 2: 1-12) 2/19/12

Every Sunday at the end of the message, I leave the pulpit and wander around in the congregation as we participate in the Prayers of the People. It’s one of my favorite times in the worship service. It puts me in the congregation instead of standing in front of it. It lets me get closer to everyone. It feels more personal, more intimate. I get the chance to carry more personal messages to God in prayer. It’s much more relational than reading requests from the church bulletin, although such news is important. People talk about family members and friends and members of the community. They appeal for the strength that comes from joining in community to pray for someone.

Group prayer or community prayer is an amazing weapon. It has started Crusades and revivals; it has spawned marches and sit-ins; brought down city-states and helped put this pilgrim on a path to ministry.  Group prayer is often a general appeal, but it is also the gathering of God’s people united in a common purpose, asking our Creator for aid or comfort or deliverance in a particular situation. Some groups have millions of participants, as in the National Day of Prayer. Some groups are small. Such a group, a group of only four people, is used by Mark to open the second chapter of his gospel. The faith of this small group is going to teach us one of the great lessons on the nature of God.

Health is one of those big picture words. It means different things to different people. Ask someone how their health is and likely as not they will tell you that they have this or that nagging pain. They may talk about a recent or impending doctor visit. The point is that they are trying to communicate their state of health. So what is health, exactly? Well…the World Health Organization has defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”  The new buzzword for this is wellness. Wellness is something that was certainly missing in the life of a certain paralytic who is the subject of a miracle in Mark 2.  Maybe not so surprisingly, the words that Jesus uses to cure this paralytic turn out to be strikingly similar to the World Health Organization’s definition of health some two thousand years later.

Let’s talk about these two issues: faith and health, in a little more detail. First, let’s look at faith. Jesus has come back home to Capernaum, probably to the house of Peter and Andrew. As was the custom of the time, the door was open. In the daytime, doors only closed when people wanted privacy. Otherwise, the doors were open and people felt free to walk right in. With Jesus the miracle healer back in town, people are showing up in numbers. Before long, the house is full. It is into this situation that the paralytic and his four friends arrive. There is no way they are going to get inside. Jesus is teaching and there is no room. The peasant houses of first century Palestine were fairly uniform. They had flat roofs composed of compacted earth and even grass that was laid atop a layer of tiles. The tiles were an overlay placed upon thatch, which was packed between wood beams that traversed the roof. Usually there was an outside stair to the roof, which was used much like a patio today. Not to be denied, these four enterprising and determined fellows made their way up the steps with their friend. It would have been a fairly easy chore to carve a hole between the beams. which is exactly what they did. Then they lowered their friend, mat and all, to the presence of Jesus. One has to wonder if this exercise made much noise, or if the earthen clods began to fall on the heads of those below. Mark does not tell us. In Markan style, the next sentence we read gets right to the point.

When Jesus saw their faith, he called the paralytic “Son,” and forgave him his sins. The gospels of Matthew (9: 1-8) and Luke (5: 17-26) echo this account almost verbatim.  While it is remarkable that Jesus heals a paralyzed man, this is only part of the story. Jesus looks at the determination and persistence of this man’s friends and he sees it as faith. Based not upon the faith of the paralytic, whose faith Mark never mentions, but upon the faith of these four friends, Jesus forgives the man’s sins. This is very good news, friends. This is headline news! Jesus tells us that we can be the prayer agent to bring about healing in others, just because we believe. We can impact the lives of others by what we bring to God in our belief system and what we lay at his feet in believing prayer.

This is no passive operation. The friends of the paralytic have to put their faith into action. They have to find another way to get to Jesus. They have to go through some physical labor and exertion to accomplish this. They cannot just sit and wait for the opportunity. They have to find a way to create it. This is faith in action. They even risk a “breaking and entering” rap to get their friend to the feet of Jesus. This is faith by conduct.   And…it is yet another revelation from Mark as to the identity of Jesus. Yes he is the Son of God, and he can and does forgive us of sin and heal us based on nothing more than the sincere belief of others that we are worth saving.

 In healing the paralytic, Jesus says simply that his sins are forgiven. He is hearkening back to the teaching of the Old Testament that the condition of the body was a reflection of one’s spiritual condition. The Old Testament claim was essentially that physical sickness was a direct result of separation from God.  Remember Job’s friends questioning him about what he needed to repent of in order for his condition to improve? This is the historical precedent for the words of Jesus. Later, Jesus will be questioned by some teachers of the law as to his choice of words. He summarily dismisses them as he bids the paralytic to get up and walk. Of course the paralytic does just that and walks out of the house. Everyone is amazed at the power and authority of Jesus, but his lesson is even more profound. Yes, he is the Son of God and he can use what words he chooses. It is not his word choice, but his authority that makes the man healed. And yet, Jesus did choose to forgive the man’s sins and to use that as his command for wellness. His healing is accomplished by his will, not by that of the paralytic. Jesus reminds us that an unhealthy spirit will be reflected in the body that houses that spirit, and that the healing of that spirit will be a key element in the healing of the body.

Perhaps this lesson is not so far removed from the modern definition of health: “not merely the absence of disease…” but rather “a state of complete mental, physical and social well-being.”  This is precisely what the healed paralytic walked out of Peter’s house with that day, and it started with the forgiveness of his sins. This is not just an Old Testament history lesson. This is the order our Savior has established for wellness, whether it is 1^st century Palestine or among us latter day Christians.    

What does faith in action look like for us? How can we be like the four friends on the roof of Peter’s house? We could pray in public in a restaurant. How about holding hands while we do it? We could pray for the leaders of this country and our denomination and this community not necessarily because they deserve it, but because we know the power of prayer. How about praying for our children like their very lives depend on the faith and petitions of our prayer? We could put our money where our mouths are and live a little more on faith every day.  We must take up the mantle, for it is we who must be the modern day saints. We must have the faith of the four friends of the paralytic, for this is the way we pass it forward.

Let me share a story with you. I carry it with me as a reminder that I can make a difference in someone’s life without ever saying a word. I have an old and dear friend whom I have known since childhood. We went through school and even college life together. Our paths diverged long ago, but we are still aware of each other’s presence and friendship. When we were young adults, I remember asking her how she held her ground as a Christian in the face of the many temptations that we encountered. She just laughed. She reminded me that her parents held hands and prayed together on their knees every night. Even though they were very private about their prayer life, their daughter was well aware of their practice. My friend Jane smiled but said to me in all seriousness: Do you really think I could have ever faced them had I not lived up to their witness? Her parents were my friends too, and their witness brought me under its umbrella.  We are the legacy of Jane’s parents and people like them. You know people like that. They are our latter day saints. What will we do with faith like that? Will we admire it from afar, or will we climb up those steps and lower our friend to the feet of Jesus?

There is a new proverb I came across recently that says: “If God is your co-pilot, swap seats.” This is the message of Jesus in Mark 2: “…so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth…get up, take your mat and go ...” In him lies the freedom to which we all aspire. Let our faith make others walk.