The Son of Man Forgives and Heals

John 5:17-26

¹⁷ On one of those days while He was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and also from Jerusalem. And the Lord's power to heal was in Him. ¹⁸ Just then some men came, carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed. They tried to bring him in and set him down before Him. ¹⁹ Since they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the roof tiles into the middle of the crowd before Jesus.

²⁰ Seeing their faith He said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you."

²¹ Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason: "Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

²² But perceiving their thoughts, Jesus replied to them, "Why are you reasoning this in your hearts? ²³ Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? ²⁴ But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—He told the paralyzed man, "I tell you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

²⁵ Immediately he got up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. ²⁶Then everyone was astounded, and they were giving glory to God. And they were filled with awe and said, "We have seen incredible things today!"

Ok. Everyone has most likely heard that story by now. But let’s go back, and break it down. This story happens around the area of Capernaum, which is usually accepted as Jesus’ hometown. Now at this point in the Gospels, Jesus’ ministry and teachings were still in their early phases. Jesus had done some cool stuff, but some of his bigger miracles and more widely known sermons are still in the future. Stuff like the formal calling of his twelve disciples, his preaching of what we call the Beatitudes, the first saying of The Lord’s Prayer, resurrecting Lazarus, a lot of His famous parables, all of those things are still in the future at this point.

But, like with anyone today, anyone famous, people were starting to pick up on the buzz that Jesus was creating. So it’s no surprise that a lot of people are there to see this guy named Jesus that they’ve been hearing all this talk about. The Bible says that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law there, and it doesn’t even mention all of the “common people” that were there. So I imagine it’s a really large crowd.

Now think about a really large crowd. When I think crowd, I think Six Flags… It’s always hot, everyone is always sweaty, you’re standing next to complete strangers waiting to ride the Texas Giant, not everyone smells that great… Yeah, think crowd like that.

So then, through the crowd, walk these men. Carrying their friend, who is paralyzed, on a stretcher. Trying to get their friend somewhat even remotely close to Jesus. So their pushing, trying to get closer, I imagine some of the crowd is giving them dirty looks, there are toes getting stepped on, that kind of thing. Like trying to go to the concession stand during the middle of a movie when you’re sitting in the middle of the row. You know you get those groans and those dirty looks? Yeah, that’s what’s happening.

So these men, they’re trying to get their buddy close to Jesus, just on the off chance that if they can even get close to this guy Jesus who is supposedly doing all of these miracles and helping all of these people, maybe, just maybe, He will help their friend.

But, they can’t get close…

They can’t even get close to the building.

So at this point in the story, it would be really easy for these guys to say “Hey man, sorry bud. Tried to get you close to Jesus, didn’t work out. You see this crowd? Sorry…”

But, they didn’t. If they would’ve stopped there and turned around I wouldn’t have much of a sermon today.

So lets skip over the trouble it mustve been to get onto the roof of this house, and get to the part where they lower their paralytic friend in through the roof.

Wait a second. Lower their friend in through the roof. Yeah, that’s what the Bible says. But the Bible is trying to get to the point and doesn’t mention that these guys have to start tearing apart the roof! I don’t know what the roof was made of, maybe some tiles, maybe some mud, with a little bit of straw thrown in there, whatever, THESE GUYS ARE TEARING APART THE ROOF!!! I’ve never done roofing, but I’ve seen guys that do roofing, and I would not want any part of that.

So these guys, these friends, and I stress friends because they would have to really care about this paralytic to be going through all this trouble, are up on a roof, tearing it apart. So think about the noise that’s going on in this room that Jesus is in. There’s probably banging, and dirt is probably falling down on everyone inside of the room… Like I said, the Bible gets straight to the point, and sometimes in doing that, leaves out some of the little details. So really think about what is going on here, and it sounds kind of crazy. Some guys, are on top of the house, breaking apart the roof, and here Jesus is trying to talk…

So these men finally get a hole in the roof that is big enough to lower their paralytic friend down into, and they lower him into the room right in front of Jesus. These men don’t even get in to see Jesus?!? They don’t even get to talk to Him? Like I said, these must be really good friends.

So then we get down to the point of the story…

Jesus sees the faith that this paralytic has, but really, I think he also sees the faith that the friends have! How could he not. These guys just did some crazy stuff, not for themselves, not for any benefit of theirs, they did it, just for a friend. A selfless act of friendship…

So Jesus says to the paralytic, “Friend, your sins are forgiven”. Jesus doesn’t say anything about ‘Your healed”. No, not yet.

Well at this point all the Pharisees get into a frenzy. They start getting flustered. They’re saying to themselves “Well, now hang on a second. Who does this guy think he is? Yeah, ok, he’s said some good stuff, and he’s a pretty good teacher, but come on. Forgiving sins??? Only God can do that.”

Well Jesus knows what’s going on in their heads, and so He turns to them and he says “Why are ya’ll acting like this? Is it easier to say that Your sins are forgiven, or to say Get up and walk.”

Now, this part is my favorite part. Now let me be clear. I don’t think Jesus did anything by accident. I think he knew exactly what his plans were, and what was going to happen, but I also think that he was open to the Holy Spirit making an opportunity to do something awesome. So I think what he did next was just that.

So then Jesus says “ Alright, you know what Pharisees guys, check this out. Just so you know that I can, and just so you know that I am who I say I am, and just so you know that I have authority to forgive sins,” now he turns to the paralyzed man and he says “You. Get up. Pick up your stretcher. Go home.”

And then, the paralyzed man does. And he doesn’t hesitate. It says “Immediately” he got up before them.

And of course, everyone is amazed. Everyone is in awe. Everyone is giving God the glory. And can you imagine this once paralyzed man? You think he “walked” home? No way! He’s running and jumping and dancing the whole way home.

So, I like this story. I really like this story. I think though, that in this story, the friends, get lost. If you just read straight through this story, the friends are only in the very first half.

Now, the Bible, at least my version, doesn’t actually use the word “Friend”. But I have to think, I have to figure, I have to believe, that these guys are all friends. I don’t see it happening any other way. The man on the mat is paralyzed. He cant work. He has no money. He has nothing to pay them back with. He cant tell them that he’ll do something for them in the future. So these men, out of sheer friendship, do something selfless for this paralytic. In looking at it at first, they get nothing out of this deal, except being covered in whatever this roof was made out of, and staring down at the top of Jesus’ head. But think…about it. After this is all over with, after they get down off of the roof, after they deal with an angry homeowner who now has a hole in his roof, what do they have? They have an amazing shared experience together. They have an amazing thing to tell their children. They have an amazing thing to tell their grandchildren. They have witnessed, a miracle. They have witnessed, their friend, who just seconds ago couldn’t move, get up, pick up his mat, and head for home. They have witnessed Jesus the Christ, perform a miracle. And they played a part in it. How awesome would that be?

You know, I have a lot of friends. Over the years, I’ve had even more friends than I have now. I had a lot of really good friends in high school. I had some people that I was friends with since back in the fourth grade. You know what? I don’t talk to most of them anymore. Kinda sad. But I don’t. A lot of them still live in Abilene. Only thirty minutes away. I’m there a lot through the week. But still, I don’t see them a lot. I don’t talk to them much either.

Now, those, are school friends. I haven’t gotten to talking about my real friends yet.

A lot of what I would call my “real friends”, they’re from camp. I’ve been going to Lake Brownwood Christian Retreat since I was in fourth grade. And I have made tons of friends there. Lifelong friends.

People like my friend Keith “Skippy” Lewis. I talk about this guy all the time. I call him my mentor. Kind of like the Merlin to my King Arthur. I take a little creative liscence there and make myself a king, but whatever… But this guy Keith, I call him my mentor, and, after my dad, Keith has probably made the biggest influence on my life, more so than anyone else. I call him for advice on stuff, I called him for advice on this sermon. He’ll call me to tell me a joke he heard, or something really funny or cool that happened to him. One day, a couple of weeks ago actually, I was having a bad day. Nothing serious at all, just one of those bad days, where I didn’t feel like talking to anyone or seeing anybody, you know, they happen sometime. Well Skip calls me, and just says, “Hey man, whats happening? Wanted to say whats up, hope youre doing okay, and let you know that I love ya. Anyways, gotta run, taking my girls to cheerleading practice, just wanted to say, whats up. Hope you have a great day. Love ya.” I remember looking down at my phone after we had both hung up, and that phone call only lasted a short 47 seconds. I had said maybe a couple of words. That phone call wasn’t about what I had to say, it was about what Skip wanted to say. Just took 47 seconds. That was it. Totally changed my day. Totally changed my life. The rest of the day, I’m walking around with a smile on my face.

Keith, married his wife Brenda a little over a year ago. I got to do a part of that wedding and it was an honor to do so. Brenda has two daughters from a previous marriage and Keith treats them like his own and they love him like they love their dad, but when we found out that Brenda was going to have another baby, all us were really excited about it. A little Skip! We were just praying that the baby would get Brenda’s looks.

January 26, 2010, Brenda gave birth to Madison Grace Lewis. That night, Skip called me. He told me it was amazing, and he couldn’t talk long because the baby was right there and asleep, but he just wanted to tell me everything, and both mom and the baby were cool and doing fine. Then he says “Alright man, gotta go. Love ya Uncle Gabe.” That’s amazing.

And what is amazing to me about that, and about all of my relationships with people I know from camp, is how strong those friendships are. Keith is just one example. I haven’t even gotten to my friends Tyler and Zach. I talk to those guys every single day. Tyler and Zach both come here to Albany all the time. Tyler says it’s like his getaway. Me and Zach stay up all night sitting on my porch just talking. Those are stories for another sermon and maybe another time altogether. Me Zach and Tyler call ourselves The Tripod. Because if you kick one of us down, the whole thing is gonna fall. That should tell you enough right there.

My friend Mandi. I’ve known Mandi since I was in the seventh grade, and she was in the sixth. She beat me in basketball at camp. And so of course I liked her. We were camp boyfriend and girlfriend, serious stuff. Just this past summer, I got to be one of the ministers that married Mandi and her husband Dan Ruff. Dan is an Albany boy. So now, I have one of my best friends in the whole wide world, Mandi, who I was used to seeing three or four times a year, living in the same town. What are the chances of that? And not only that, I get to be friends with her husband Dan, who is just an awesome shirt off his back for you kinda guy. How great is that?

So I look at all of these friendships of mine, and I look back at this story from Luke. A story that I believe, is a story just as much about friendship as it is about a miracle of Christ. I look at all of this and I wonder, what is the common factor here?

One word.

Christ.

Jesus Christ is the common factor in all of this. Because I truly believe, that a friendship, a relationship, a partnership, all of these things that are created in Christ, all of these things that are lived through Christ, all of these things that are rooted in faith and in Christ, these are the things that are going to last.

You know, when you get down to the basics, you get down to the brass tacks, I think friendship is a big part of the teachings and message that Jesus Christ came to give to us in the first place. Could you imagine what this place would be like if we could all just be friends? I know it sounds cliché and very John Lennon like, but think about it for a second. If we could just get over the little squabbles and insecurities that we have with ourselves and could just love everybody for a minute, imagine the difference something like that could make. During my time at First Christian Abilene, a lot of people there, weren’t friends. A lot of the congregation members, members of the same church, weren’t friends. How ridiculous does that sound?!? I came to this church, and I was blown away. Everyone is friends here. Do you know how nice it is to be in a board meeting, and to hear laughter? Do you know how amazing it is to be able to see someone walking up those stairs for church on Sunday morning and to be able to joke with them and laugh? Do you know how amazing it is to be driving through town and get a wave from everyone you see?

The love and the friendship of this church is truly amazing. You all have something to be truly proud of, because seriously, it’s amazing. But, I like to end my sermons with a challenge. And it’s a challenge to myself, just as much, if not more than it is a challenge to all of you as well. I want all of you, in this next week, in this next month, in this next year, to really think to yourself, what a difference we could make, if we were just, everyones friend. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? Need another push?

My favorite scripture, my very favorite verse comes from John. Christ had just washed all of his disciples feet. An act that was usually reserved for the servants. Christ had just eaten his last supper with his disciples. Christ wanted to give his disciples, a last command.

Christlike Love

⁹ "As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commands and remain in His love.

¹¹ "I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. ¹² This is My command: love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn't know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father. ¹⁶ You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. ¹⁷ This is what I command you: love one another.

I hope you all take me up on my challenge, although, it’s not really my challenge. It’s Christ’s command. I hope you’ll follow it. You never know how a 47 second phone call could change someone’s life.