Jesus in our homes
This week our theme is ‘Jesus in our homes’, and we’re
thinking about the number of times in the gospels Jesus is recorded as being in
someone’s house.
The account of Jesus healinging the paralysed man who was lowered
through the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching the people is recorded in 3 gospels: Mark focusses on Jesus preaching;
Luke on his healing; Matthew on sins forgiven.
Read Mark 2:1 – 12
It’s a well-known and vivid story, but any churchwardens might say, “Yes, but what about the roof?”
I wonder what the man whose house this was thought?
Imagine opening your house to Jesus, then you have to move
all the furniture because so many people are crowding in, and then – if that’s
not bad enough – your roof gets destroyed.
Or maybe you were so amazed that you praise God along with
the crowd, and thought – Never mind about the roof. I’m sure someone will help
me mend it.
There are two images here:
·
One comforting
·
The other more disturbing
Comforting image:
Jesus forgiving the man’s sins and healing him.
Jesus is prepared to ‘make a house call’ like an old fashioned GP to
bring healing into the home. There are 2 other gospel accounts of Jesus healing
in someone’s house: Peter’s mother in law, and Jairus’s daughter. Jesus acts
out of compassion for the sick and visits them where they are.
Disturbing
image: friends so desperate to find
Jesus that they are prepared to wreck someone’s roof to get in. I once had to break in to our previous house
in the middle of the night because we’d locked ourselves out. Very embarrassing
making so much noise that it woke our neighbours.
But there’s another form of wrecking going on here: the
religious system that is so dear to the teachers of the law in which God alone
can forgive sins. Jesus literally tears it apart as he takes that authority on
himself. And the teachers don’t like that anymore than we would like someone
destroying the roof of our house.
2 questions for today:
- · Have we ever been desperate enough to find Jesus as the friends of that paralysed man?
- · if we invite Jesus into our homes, are we prepared for the consequences?
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