St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church
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| Healing Stories: The Paralyzed Man Luke 5:17-26 May 6, 2007 (Click the date to see the bulletin)
1. Last Sunday it was a bent over woman, and today it is a paralyzed man. Both conditions come under the general category of malady. Maladies afflict both genders and affect every body part. Maladies are no respecter of age, either – babies are born with defects; children get sick; adolescents come up with all kinds of strange illnesses. On and on it goes, with only one exception that I knew personally -- a 97-year-old woman in the Wagoner Church who had to go into the hospital. All the staff kept parading through her room to meet her, because, as her doctor put it, "We’re never seen a 97-year-old person who still had every original part!" It’s true – rare are the people who make it through life with all their parts in good working order. Or, at least, working order. Whether or not it’s good working order is another matter!. 2. This particular paralyzed man is one of millions whose body was not in good working order. We find his story in all three synoptic gospels – Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, and Luke 5:17-26. They differ in detail, but every one of them carry the popular notion that anything wrong with a person was punishment for sin. This man’s friends were so concerned with his condition that they brought him to Jesus. We don’t know how many of his friends got involved, but it would have to be at least two. The "bed" would have been something like a stretcher, which needs at least one strong person holding the two poles on one end, and an equally strong person holding the same poles at the other end. Or it could have been four (one to a pole); or even six (one on each end and two in the middle. How many there were is not as important as the fact that they were so concerned about him that they had to get creative. "Can’t get through the door? Not a problem! We’ll make a hole in the roof and get him in that way!" 3. You’ve gotta know Jesus was impressed! And the minute he saw them all make their unusual entrance, what did he say? Well, it wasn’t "Hello," or "What’s going on here?" It wasn’t even "Take up your bed and walk"! That didn’t come until later. The first words out of Jesus’ mouth were, "My son, your sins are forgiven." It wasn’t until after the squabble about who could forgive sins that Jesus told him to get up and walk. We’ll never know if this man was so emotionally paralyzed that he could not walk, or if it was something physical. Whatever it was, it took the faith of his friends and the compassion of Jesus to get him up and going again, giving God the glory. 4. This story tells us about the relationship between faith and healing, and why bad things happen in the first place. We all know personally, or have heard about, people who are absolutely sure that prayer healed them. But we also know people for which a mountain of prayers and an ocean of faith could not bring healing, at least not in this life. My baby nephew was one. Thirty years ago he developed Leukemia. He was only 12 months old – one full year. All the prayers and all the medical expertise and all the chemotherapy could not make the cancer go away. He died four months before his second birthday. And Christopher Reeve was another. He had the best medical treatment money could buy, and the faithful prayers of millions of people. But his spinal cord injury could not be healed. 5. Two tragic examples. Why? Why did they happen? And why the millions of others just like them? If God is so powerful, if God is LIFE to the fullest, then why could God not heal my nephew or Christopher Reeve? After years of pondering this question, I have an answer. I don’t believe that God said of my nephew, "Oh, he’ll never amount to anything. I"ll see that he doesn’t live very long." Bryan brought lots of happiness during his short life. After his death, my parents became involved in The Leukemia Society and helped countless people. A good thing! And I don’t think God said "Hmmm. I need a good spokesperson for spinal cord injury research. Ah! There’s Christopher Reeve – everybody’s seen him play Tarzan, so I think I’ll make his horse stumble so he falls and gets his own spinal cord injury. Then he can use his money and influence to bring attention to the need." What kind of a God would think those thoughts? Not any God I want around! Instead, the kind of healer we have is one who says, "Oh, no! Christopher fell. It looks like he’s hurt badly. What can I do? How can I make something good come out of this terrible tragedy?" And in God’s own good time, The Christopher Reeve Foundation came into being . . . for the purpose of developing treatments and finding cures for paralysis caused by spinal cord injuries. It took some doing, but in both instances, God made everything work together for good. So the question is not "Why do bad things happen," the question is "Since bad things happen, what good will God be able to bring about in the aftermath?" 6. God does make everything work for good. To read about the paralyzed man in Luke’s gospel is to read about a miracle. In the days and weeks and months to come, expect a miracle! And remember . . . miracles often travel incognito! |
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