The Rev. Frank Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
February 23, 2003

The Power of We
Mark 2:1-12 

Note: This sermon begins with a video clip from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring beginning with Frodo Baggins saying that he will take the ring back to where it was forged in order to destroy it. First Gandalf and then seven others stand alongside Frodo pledging to help him on his quest. 

In the Lord of the Rings, the group of nine from that scene accomplishes more than any one of them could do on their own. They support one another. When one is down, the others take up the slack. At different points on their quest, the group will not know how to proceed and one of them will find the solution the others have missed. The task the Fellowship faces is too much for any one person (or elf or hobbit). Together, they are more than each of them is alone. 

Our Gospel reading for this morning shows a paralyzed man who has to depend upon his friends to get the healing for which he longs. On a quick read, it sounds like there are four friends who get their paralyzed buddy through the roof of a house in order for Jesus to heal him. Yet, there are more than four friends here. 

Mark writes, “Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man carried by four of them.” Some people come, four of those people are carrying the paralyzed man. So, there is a bigger group. And the group is so determined to get their friend into Jesus’ presence that they won’t let a little obstacle like a standing room only crowd even slow them down. 

Jesus teaches to a packed house. Eager onlookers fill the doorway, peering in from outside. The front entrance is out of the question, so the group thinks outside the box. If we can’t get in the only entrance, then we’ll make a new entrance.  

A brief architectural lesson will help set the scene. We can’t know how this particular house was built, but we do know that for a typical house in first century Palestine getting on the roof would be no problem as houses often had exterior stairs leading to the roof. The roof itself was often used as a living space. Typical construction would have beams supporting matting, branches, and twigs. These were covered with earth pack down hard. 

Digging through the dirt, branches and twigs to drop the paralytic between the rafters would have been simple enough for a group of determined friends. Construction techniques’ aside, digging through the roof was an extreme action for the group to take. They wanted Jesus to heal their friend and they wanted it right then. 

Notice what Jesus notices. Jesus doesn’t notice the impatience of the group who brought the man. Jesus doesn’t seem to pay any attention to the hole in the roof. What Jesus notices is their faith. Their faith. Our English translation is very faithful to the original Greek, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic….” The faith of the whole group moves Jesus to act on behalf of the one man. 

Then Jesus, just as we have come to expect, does the unexpected. No one told us why the group brought the man to Jesus, but I kind of assumed it was the paralysis. I naïvely thought Jesus would the man of his paralysis. But Jesus doesn’t do that. Jesus skips right over the fact that the man is lowered on a mat, unable to walk. Seeing their faith, he says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  

Mark tells us that the some of the scribes questioned this in their hearts. I wonder why nobody was questioning this out loud. “Yo Jesus, we knocked a hole in the roof and dropped him in so that you would make it where I buddy could walk again. What’s up with, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” 

There is a possible reason for this. The group could have assumed the paralysis was due to sin. This was not an uncommon judgment on the sick and handicapped people of First Century Palestine. You are paralyzed as punishment from God for your sins, or maybe even your parents’ sins. Jesus rejects this notion elsewhere in the Gospels. But here he seems first and foremost interested in sin. Forget the whole, “Take up your mat and walk” routine. He goes straight for “Son, your sins are forgiven.” The crowd might have thought sin was behind the paralysis, but that’s not what Jesus says.  

It seems that Jesus uses this healing as a chance for an object lesson early on in his ministry. This scene occurs in the second chapter of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus’ ministry is barely underway and here he is more concerned with healing a sin-sick soul than a paralyzed body. In one way, we shouldn’t be too surprised. Jesus always seemed to be interested in something much more than bodily healing.  

After all, heal a person today and they could take ill again next week. Even if Jesus raised someone from the dead, they would die again later. But, heal the soul, create a new and lasting relationship with the loving creator and the person could die only to rise to eternal life. For Jesus, healing the body is much less important than the deeper healing of the soul. 

The scribes reason in their hearts that Jesus words are blasphemy; he is claiming to be God. After all, they think, “Only God can forgive sins.” Jesus calls the scribes on these thoughts of theirs and uses the physical healing of this paralyzed man as an outward sign, physical proof if you will, that Jesus did and does have authority to forgive sin. Jesus reasons with the scribes that offering forgiveness is no harder and perhaps even easier than making a paralyzed man.  

Jesus then gives the line we expected all along, “I say to you, stand up, take you mat and go to your home.” Then, right on cue, the man stands, immediately takes up his mat, the crowd by the door parts, and the formerly paralyzed man walks out. The crowd would be talking about this one for a while. No one had ever seen anything like this. I want stay with this crowd, especially the friends of the paralyzed man. After all, if it were not for them, we would not have this story. So often, God instigates stories in the Bible in some way or another. But here, it is the group of friends who set everything in motion.  

The group seeks out Jesus, convinced that he can help their helpless friend. Not only do they get him to Jesus, but it is the group’s faith that Jesus recognizes. The paralyzed man’s faith may or may not have been part of the faith of the group. He had some faith, or he would never have tried to follow Jesus’ directions and stand. But the real faith in this story is the faith of a group. It is the power of we. 

Just like in the Lord of the Rings, there are things that I cannot do on my own. To apply the lesson of the quest from our video clip to more spiritual matters, I may not have the faith to pray for healing, but we can. I may not have the faith to see past obstacles in my way, but we do. I may not have the faith to say that I believe, but we have the faith. 

I think that is why it is so important that the Nicene Creed uses the word “we.” We will recite the Nicene Creed in just moment as we do most Sundays of the church year and as we say the words, you will not say, “I believe,” but rather “we believe.”  

If you don’t have the faith to recite the creed, don’t stay home feeling like coming to church will force you to be a fraud. Come, stand with us and say, “We believe.” Of course, you could also just listen as others recite the words. That is perfectly fine. Even if you don’t have the faith to believe part of the creed or any of the creed, that’s OK, we do. We believe in God. We believe in one lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Trinity, a community of divine persons who is willing to draw you into that divine life even in your doubts as you join us in saying “We believe.” 

Christianity is not a solo sport. Even a hermit living off in a cave somewhere is connected to the rest of us and as Christians we know celebrate that essential connectedness among people. That’s why it is crucial to gather with other Christians. That’s why you need a community of faith to support you. We can mourn with you in grief. We can rejoice with you in times of celebration. We can hold you up and have the faith that you can’t have on your own in times of doubt. 

Jesus wants for you what he wanted for the paralytic, a deeper healing of body, mind, and soul that goes beyond the merely physical or the merely here and now. Jesus will see our faith, the collective faith that is beyond any of us to have alone and he will say your sins are forgiven, your life is made whole. That is the power we can have when we join together and as a group come to God in worship, in fellowship and in prayer—the power of we. 

Amen.