Stand up, pick up your mat and Go Home! Mark 2 Part 7

I was preaching this Sunday, and because this passage in Mark’s gospel has been consuming so much of my thinking this past week I used it as my sermon text. I used a number of the points that we’ve been thinking about on this blog. At the conclusion of the service, one of our deacons, who wrap up the services with a quick challenge from the sermon and a closing benediction, commented on the man who at the conclusion of the narrative had a choice to make. That choice was would he respond to Jesus’ command to ‘stand up, take up your mat and go home’. The deacon went on to say that Jesus is calling us to do the same – to hear that command of Jesus today and to act on it – we need to stand up, get off our the mat that is symbol of where we were – who we were, those things which holds us back from moving deeper in our spiritual healing and spiritual maturity – and go home.

It spoke to me. I sat there wondering, how often does Jesus speak these challenging words to me – the paralyzed man needed to take action – and he needed to ‘go home’ – make it real, so to speak, but not back to those things that spiritually paralyzed him. It must have been a difficult decision for the man to respond. The mat had been a place of comfort, it was one of his few possession, it was his identity – it defined him. He would have both hated the mat – and been dependent it at the same time. It’s an ironic thing – I’ve seen it often as a Pastor – and personally experienced at times, we have a tendency to want to hold on to those things that hold us down – we can find a strange, although disabling comfort in that ‘mat’. At the command of Jesus, somehow, he was to leave all that he knew, all that had previously defined him – and ‘walk’ home. Not a way – but home into his real daily life. Again, I see that for God, the primary disability was neither physical nor cognitive – it was spiritual. It was experiencing the grace Words of Christ “my child, your sin’s are forgive you” that were the most significant. I’m intrigued and perplexed by Jesus’ curious statement “Seeing their faith” and all of its theological implications. At the very least, I see Jesus gives much more significance to ‘us’ as community than we often think. That we are most community when we are part helping those, being prevented because of the crowd, encounter the presence of Christ.

Anyway, I was just thinking….

Neil

Postscript: I will be away for most the week (till next Wednesday) so there will be no posting until that time. I would however invite you to review the previous postings for Mark 2 and share with me your insights or questions. We are on a Spiritual journey and together in that journey God is revealed to us, and those we bring in to Him in community.