Rescue Heroes

Zephyr United Methodist

Early First United Methodist Church

February 19, 2006

Rev. Eddie Smart

Mark 2:1-12 (NRSV)

When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. ²So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. ³Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." ⁶Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ⁷"Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" ⁸At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, "Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? ⁹Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Stand up and take your mat and walk'? ¹⁰But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"--he said to the paralytic-- ¹¹"I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home." ¹²And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

Our grandson, Matthew, has these action-figure toys. He just loves to playing with them. They are called Rescue Heroes. There are heroes such as Jake Justice, Motorcycle Police Officer and Gil Gripper, Wave Rescue Specialist. Today’s scripture lesson is about four rescue heroes.

They bring to Jesus one who is paralyzed. He needs what Jesus can give. Four loyal friends go to great extremes to make sure their paralyzed companion is touched as only Jesus can. It is actually a story of 5 rescuers. We have the four friends and then the ultimate rescuer Jesus.

James Moore begins a discussion of this passage from Mark’s gospel with an interesting story. I’ll share it with you.

It’s a story about a woman named Denise, who made a routine trip to the grocery store one afternoon and had an experience there that was anything but routine! As Denise got out of her car in the supermarket parking lot, she noticed something unusual. In the car parked next to her was a woman seated in the driver's seat with her arms draped over the steering wheel, her head resting on her arms, and her eyes closed tightly. She was not moving a muscle; she was perfectly still.

Denise thought to herself, That's odd.. Is the woman okay? Denise wondered whether she should say anything. She finally decided to go into the grocery store and do her shopping and to then check back to see if the situation had changed. Forty-five minutes later, when Denise had finished her shopping, she came back to her car. Immediately she noticed that the woman in the next car was in exactly the same position she had been in earlier and was absolutely motionless arms draped over the steering wheel, head resting on her arms, eyes closed , not moving at all.

Denise then became really concerned. She went around the car to the driver's side and knocked on the window... no response. At this point , Denise probably should have gone to find a security officer , but wanting so much to help , she opened the door and said to the woman , "Are you all right?"

The woman replied , weakly , I've been shot! I've been shot in the neck," the woman said. Denise couldn't figure it out, because there were no signs of foul play -- no blood, no bullet holes in the car windows.

Denise examined the left side of the woman's neck: nothing. Next she examined the front of her neck: nothing. Denise then went around to the passenger side, got in the car, and looked at the right side of the woman's neck; nothing there, either. Then Denise got on her knees, leaned back over the seat, and examined the back of the woman's neck. There she found not a bullet or gunshot wound, but rather an uncooked biscuit stuck to the back of the woman's neck. Denise looked in the backseat and saw a sack of groceries. At the top of the sack was a can of biscuits, which had exploded and obviously had propelled an uncooked biscuit forward and the biscuit had hit and stuck on the back of the woman's neck.

When Denise told the woman that she had not been shot but rather had been hit by a flying biscuit, the woman didn't believe her at first. So Denise peeled the biscuit off the back of the woman's neck and showed it to her, whereupon the woman straightened up and said thank you, and drove off!

We are surrounded by people like that woman. People paralyzed by fear. People paralyzed by the circumstances of their lives. People paralyzed by anger and hate. People paralyzed by grief. They are not able to lift their heads. They can’t take a step. They believe they are mortally wounded. They need someone to care about them as Denise cared about that woman. They need someone to peel the biscuit off their necks and assure them it is not as bad as they think. They need a rescue hero who will share with them God’s good news in Jesus Christ.

You may be one that is wounded. The wound may be physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual. The good news is Jesus Christ can bring wholeness to our wounded lives. Jesus Christ can move us beyond the myopia, the short sightedness, of the physical to focus on spiritual.

Jesus did not first say to the paralytic, “You are healed.” No, Jesus said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” You see, it is our sin that stands between us and Jesus Christ. It is our sin that is the barrier to Jesus working the miracles of his grace in our lives. BUT it is Jesus who can forgive those sins. Jesus is much more concerned about our spiritual condition than our physical condition. The good news is once we have spiritual wholeness, the physical, emotional, and relational will be O. K.

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. On his 75th combat mission, just 5 days before he was to go home his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience!

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down ! "

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.

"I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"

  Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot, and he was just a sailor."

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?"

Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory - he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

 He asks, “Who’s packing your parachute?”

An equally valid question would be, “Whose parachute are you packing?”

The real, live rescue heroes, Denise, that parachute rigger, the 4 friends in Mark’s story all had something in common. Their focus was not on themselves, but on others. They all are packing someone else’s parachute. They are all rescuing another.

It dawns on me. It is the churches that focus on others rather than their own health that are the healthiest. It is the churches that are reaching out to others with a helping hand that offer a glimpse of the kingdom. It is the churches that are carrying the paralyzed to Jesus that stand amazed, glorifying God, and saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

But there is that ultimate rescuer. Billy Graham once said, “Jesus stopped dying on the cross long enough to answer the prayer of a thief. He stopped in a big crowd one day because someone touched the hem of His garment; and He’ll stop to touch your life and change you, and forgive you.”