It is a picturesque story containing drama, suspense, and humor. I have imagined the crowds pressing in upon Jesus in an effort to hear clearly the profound wisdom and good news he was sharing. There was an excitement in the air going along with being in the presence of a celebrity. I also have imagined the delightful scene of the four friends carrying the paralyzed man, trying to press through the crowd into the packed house where Jesus was "preaching the word," as Mark puts it. Frustrated in their efforts, they hit upon an idea. If they could not get through the crowd, they would go over the crowd. One can almost see the ideas click on in their minds as they focus on the outside stairway leading up to the flat roof of the house. And then I wonder about practical questions, like how four men could carry a paralyzed man on a stretcher up those stairs without dropping him.

If the man had not been paralyzed up to that point, he might now be paralyzed by fear! No doubt he was feeling like a lot of older or handicapped people who often are taken where they do not want to go, and are not taken where they want to go, when they want to go! But these four men were persistent. They were determined their friend was going to see Jesus, the man of God who had a reputation for healing the sick. No doubt their strongest motives were altruistic. They genuinely wanted him to be well. But they may also have had some less altruistic motives. Who knows how long they had been carrying their paralyzed friend? If they went to a party, he had to be carried. If they went to a feast, he had to be carried. If they went to a meeting, he had to be carried. It would be a relief to everyone to have him healed, for, as we know, ill health can be a terrible burden to everyone involved.

Now on top of the roof, imagine the scene. Down below in the packed house, Jesus heard the clamor and thumping on the roof. Next there was the pounding and ripping as the four men began to tear up the roof made of branches and hardened mud. Down below, the dust and debris fell on Jesus and the crowd. And soon, being lowered right in front of Jesus was the paralytic on a stretcher, being lowered, perhaps by ropes, to the feet of Jesus. Talk about persistence and sparing no effort to get Jesus' attention!

I was reading this passage again a few weeks ago at home when I saw something I hadn't seen before. I said to my wife, "Look at this. Guess whose house they were in when all this took place? Whose roof was it that was torn apart by these exuberant, determined friends? Look, it says Jesus had returned to his own home in Capernaum on the shores of Lake Galilee." It was Jesus' roof these fellows were ripping up without permission. (Or possibly Peter's, as some scholars contend.) While Jesus was preaching the Gospel to a standing room only crowd, his roof was being torn apart for the sake of the paralytic. Standing room only religion can lead to roof repair. But it can lead to a whole lot more. And that's what this wonderful story is all about.

I.

There was standing room only religion because faith was being expressed. Faith was being expressed in those four men who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus. I long have marveled at the almost buoyant faith expressed by those four fellows. When you think of it, they could have hung back in laziness or cynicism or disbelief. They could have scoffed at all the weak women and children running after yet another deluded religious teacher. They could have rested content in their skepticism and their conviction that there is, after all, nothing new under the sun, that as things have been, they always shall be.

They could have done that but they didn't. Instead, they put aside any latent fear or cynicism and carried their friend to Jesus in the hope and faith that something new could take place, that paralysis did not have to be the final condition of this man, that he could be liberated from this terrible infirmity. And there is reason to believe the paralyzed man also had faith. The Gospel speaks of Jesus seeing their faith, meaning possibly the faith of the paralytic as well as the faith of the four friends. It was their faith that was an important ingredient in the healing that took place. They had heard of Jesus' healings throughout Galilee and they came to him with the desire and the expectation he could heal the paralytic.

Contrast this scene with Jesus' visit to his hometown, Nazareth. Recall how when he preached to them in the synagogue they were first amazed and then offended. Then, scoffing, they challenged him to do some of his signs and wonders and healings in Nazareth that he had done elsewhere. But the Gospel says that Jesus could do only a few mighty works there because of their disbelief. The Gospel then adds that he marveled at their disbelief. It was true then; it is true now -- if we are to be healed we have to want to be healed, and we have to have faith so we can be healed. Look again at our story, at the four friends. If the paralytic had thoughts about death, or if he doubted he could be healed, the faith of his friends literally carried him along. And that's what we often need when we are ill, the faith of friends to carry us along when our own faith is weak or faltering.

I remember when growing up in Wisconsin, the churches of our association had a group known as the Rope Holders Association. They got their name from this story where they imagined letting the paralytic down into the presence of Jesus by ropes. It was their faith and action, their rope-holding, that enabled the miracle to take place. The Rope Holders of Wisconsin raised money to help weak churches or to start new ones, to bring them to health and growth. Churches, like people, need "rope-holders," people of faith who believe we can be well and whole and are willing to take the risks to make it happen.

When we are sick, we do often feel alone and abandoned. Many people do not want to be around those who are sick, especially if it is a prolonged illness. We lose patience. We want to get on with our own life. Or we have enough problems of our own. And consciously or unconsciously we communicate our lack of caring to the sick. But when we pray for them, when we surround them with prayer, praying each day for them, when we say, "You matter to us, hang in there," what a difference that can make in an indifferent world where so few people seem to care. When churches decide to stand up against illness and disease and to encourage people in faith and prayer, what a difference it makes. If we keep our faith and expectancy and love high, we too might have to suffer the problems of standing room only religion and roof repair.

II.

There was standing room only religion because forgiveness was being experienced.

In Jesus' time it was widely believed that there was a direct connection between illness and sin. Recall, for example, the question that was put to Jesus about the man born blind. Was he born blind because of his sin or his parents' sin? Jesus replied that it was neither. On other occasions, such as the one in our text, Jesus seems to imply some agreement with the then current thinking that somehow sin and illness are interconnected.

However, before we proceed with that concept, we need to place before us a word of caution. Not all illness appears to be connected with the sin of the patient or even of the parents. For example, my nephew and his wife recently lost their baby girl who was born with a serious genetic defect. We can hardly say the baby girl was responsible for the defect. Nor can we blame the parents who are but carriers of genes, not creators of genes. As we know, there are certain congenital defects carried in the genes which seem to have no relation to the conduct of the parents.

That said, we need to look again at the psychological component present in many illnesses, says Dr. Siegel. And we need to realize our participation and responsibility in the disease process, says the Yale surgeon. This is not, he says, the same as blame or guilt. Rather, it is taking stock of our psychological and mental attitude with respect to our health. Look again at our text. When Jesus saw the faith of the paralytic and the four friends he did not say, "Be healed." Instead he said, "My son, your sins are forgiven." In other words, Jesus may have seen in the man something that was the cause of the paralysis -- some psychological problem perhaps, some guilt, some deep, unresolved conflict, some deep, unexplained fear which may have been implanted in his childhood.

In this highly charged situation of faith, he believed what Jesus announced, namely, that God takes no pleasure in the suffering and punishment of his people. Rather, it is his will that all people come to repentance to experience his grace and forgiveness, because the word "forgiveness" means to give the life back to start over again. Forgiveness means to release the grudges, to come back into the relationship to work for the common good. It means to let go the fears which too long have bound us. Or as Harvard's William James put it, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings, by changing their inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives" (Siegel, op. cit., p. 111).

That's true in healing a marriage. One couple in another city could relate only by argument. Wherever they spoke they brought up the past and recited all the wrongs they had done to each other. In fact, they had a "Fibber McGee's closet" of grudges, and every time they opened the door of conversation all those saved-up grudges of the years came crashing out. Until one day, after some counseling, they just decided to forgive each other. Yes, they had wronged each other. Yes, they had hurt each other. Yes, they had been angry at each other for not being perfect, for not living up to their projected expectations of what a perfect spouse should be. But then it dawned on them that they were destroying no one but themselves. They had been anxious, dyspeptic, angry, hard, curt, and hostile and not infrequently sick. And no wonder. And then they learned to relax into the grace of God, like leaning back in a beautiful, bubbling hot tub, letting all the hostility and grudges go and then saying, "I give you your life back to start over again. Let's make all things new." And they did. And it was wonderful -- a life of grace instead of grudges, and they were healed.

To be sure, there are many mysteries about diseases and their causes. There are many things we do not know. But this we do know -- prayer and faith and forgiveness can make a difference in the healing process.

Standing room only religion? Can it happen again? It certainly can whenever genuine faith and forgiveness are expressed. Oh, by the way, when there are genuine faith and forgiveness, you never have to worry about roof repair. I have a hunch the healed paralytic was back the next day with his four friends fixing Jesus' roof.

Prayer:

Eternal God, whose Mind is beyond our knowing, but whose Spirit penetrates to the farthest reaches of the universe and searches out the inmost secrets of our hearts, you know us better than we know ourselves. From you no secrets are hid, and in your presence all illusions and pretensions are done away to come face to face with yourself, reality itself.

We praise you, Holy Lord God, and in your holy temple, we make haste to confess our hardness of heart and pettiness of spirit. Presented with wonders beyond our imagining in the natural world, and recipients again and again of your gracious promise of forgiveness and life everlasting, we become nonchalant and blasé in the presence of such splendors. Be merciful to us, Almighty God, and with your infinite patience open again our eyes and ears that we might truly see and hear all the wonders you have in store for us.

And yet, O Lord God, for all the wonders and beauties and ecstasies of the world, there are also the ugliness, the wrenching pain, the heart-rending sorrow, the grip of guilt, the shattering grief, the dark nights of depression, the days of crudity, brutality, violence, and bloodshed. Oh, what a world you have made, O Lord, and we have made for ourselves.

So today we ask you to look into our secret hearts, to go past the facade to behold the loneliness, the inner anguish, the despair that will not loosen its grip, the sense of betrayal that will not let us trust again, the battle with disease that threatens to do us in, the financial worries which make us wonder about the future, the troubles at our job which make us question whether we are in the right place.

Look then, O Holy and merciful God, our loving Father, upon the pain and brokenness of your children and grant us the strength and health, the healing and wholeness we need for the living of these days. Minister to each of us according to our several needs. Send out your light and heal and help us to look to you, that we might be radiant and buoyant in our believing.

Sometimes with the old spiritual we say: "Sometimes I feel discouraged, and think my work's in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again." Help us to believe: "There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul." Hear our prayers, through Christ our Lord. Amen.