Worth the Effort
We Would See Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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Prayer
Is It Worth It?
Our next Capernaum club is Saturday, October 22, and it’s going to be a costume club. I got a message from one of the mom’s of our Capernaum friends who was in a quandary - her son, Henry, who had gone to camp with us, wanted to dress as what he called a “beach boy” from camp. And she had no idea what that was all about - and how she was going to put that costume together.
So she asked me if I could help her figure this out. I sent her a picture from camp and told her about these two characters that the program guys would do every club. And Henry loved club, it was his absolute favorite part of camp. Anyway, since there were two of them, I suggested that Henry and I go in costume together.
This was super fun - she sent me a video of Henry’s response. It’s Henry asking me if I wanted to be “his beach boy” for Halloween - “I’m so excited.” Fun part of the story - I got in touch with the program guys and they were planning to retire the shirts they wore, so they’re going to send us the shirts to wear.
And now I’m excited - it’s just been great connection point with Henry, to do this together, as friends - come dressed in same costume.
As much fun as it was to see Henry’s enjoyment of club, what we really wanted to do as leaders was to get Henry - and all of our other Capernaum friends, in front of Jesus. We wanted them to have a chance to hear the good news of Jesus in a way that they would understand and respond to.
Because we believe it’s worth it - as I hope and trust you do, too. That it’s worth the effort to be with these young men and women, develop friendships, dress in crazy costumes together, go to camp - all because of who Jesus is and what he can do.
Which is exactly the point of our story this morning: why Jesus is worth it, worth the effort. Why it’s worth the effort to come before Jesus ourselves and worth the effort to bring others before him.
This seems like a good note to end our sermon series on, our “We Would See Jesus” series, where we’ve been taking a closer look at Jesus, to see why Jesus is worth it, worth devoting our lives to, worth following - seeking to know and become more like him.
Hope you’ve picked up on some of that already - how compassionate and caring Jesus is, his wonderful provision. How gracious that provision is, his abundance of goodness poured into our lives. How smart Jesus is (smartest person in the entire universe!), his power and authority, how he is our helper. The list goes on and on. This is the Jesus worth coming before and bringing others before.
By the way, the story we’re going to look at this morning, in Mark 2, this group of friends going to great effort to bring their friend in need before Jesus, this is the biblical basis for Young Life Capernaum. It’s where the name comes from - the story takes place in Capernaum, as we’ll see.
Before Jesus, Mark 2:1-12
Mark 2:1–12 (NIV)
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
As I mentioned, the story takes place in Capernaum, a town along the Sea of Galilee, which was sort of a home base for Jesus throughout his ministry.
News has gotten out that he’s home (the house is believed to be Peter’s house), and it doesn’t take long until the crowds show up at the house. And, of course, where have we seen this before - Jesus shows up and there’s a crowd?
This crowd packs into the house - so much so that there’s no more room, folks are gathered around the door, windows, even out into the streets.
So if you’re late, you’re out of luck - you’re not getting close to Jesus. At best you’re going to get a glimpse of Jesus if you’re tall enough - maybe you can hear some of what he’s saying.
In the midst of all this, we find a group of men who are eager to get their friend before Jesus. That presents a huge problem. Because not only is this crowd packed in around Jesus, but the man they’re trying to get through to Jesus is a paralytic, his legs are useless - and therefore he has to be carried on a mat from place to place. There’s no way they can carry that man on a stretcher into that house with all those people.
But these friends are determined. It’s really a beautiful and amazing thing they do - you gotta love the “can do” spirit here, willingness to be creative, to put that extra effort in.
Honestly, it would have been so easy to just give up - we’ll try some other time. It wasn’t meant to be.
But they didn’t - think about this - the motivation factor going on here. Their sheer determination to get their friend before Jesus. They encounter these obstacles, but it’s not going to stop them. They’re going to figure out a way, they’re going to make it work somehow.
They are convinced that Jesus is going to be able to help their friend. We don’t know if they’ve actually seen Jesus perform miracles, or if they’ve just heard the stories, but they believe that Jesus is the one they need to bring their friend before. That he has the compassion, the power, the willingness to help their friend. So, one way or another, they are going to bring their friend before Jesus.
And so they do. They carry their friend, lying on mat, up the set of stairs on the outside of the house that leads to the roof. And then, they dig through the roof. They start actually digging a hole through roof of Peter’s house. Houses in ancient Israel had flat roofs - they would lay wooden beams across the top of the walls of the house and then fill in the spaces with a mixture of brush and mud.
So they are digging through that brush and mud to clear out the space between the wooden beams. This would have been no easy task - it would have been rock hard, solid - and it would have made a huge mess (the people below!). Then they lower their friend, lying on his mat, through the hole down to where Jesus is inside the house.
It really is impressive to see what these friends do for the sake of this man. A man who has friends like this is a fortunate man. Even Jesus is impressed. So impressed that what he does next, he does in response to what they have done…vs. 5, “When Jesus saw their faith.” When Jesus saw what they had done, how they acted with such determination to get their friend in front of Jesus.
So he says to the paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven.” My guess is that no one in that house was expecting Jesus to say that. And there were probably a number of different reactions to Jesus’ declaration.
I think some of those gathered would have been absolutely stunned - did he just say what I thought he said?! Did he just declare that man’s sins forgiven? Who is this man?
Then there would be disappointment - uh, Jesus, we just went to a lot of effort to get our friend before you. That’s not really what we were looking for. We wanted you to heal him, his legs. So he can walk. Get around, on his own.
Then there’s the reaction we see in the story, the teachers of the law. They are angry, indignant. Not “who is this man?” but who does this man think he is? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins.
Again, just like we’ve seen so often, Jesus knows. He’s smartest person ever. He knows what they’re thinking. He knows where their hearts are at. So he poses a question to them, “Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?’”
Now this is really critical here - notice that he doesn’t ask the question which is easier to do? Because neither of them are easier. They are both impossible tasks. We can’t heal paralyzed legs. We can’t forgive someone’s sins.
But it’s much easier to say, “your sins are forgiven.” There’s no way to tell. We can’t see the state of someone’s soul. We can’t see whether it’s tarnished by sin or made clean. I can say, “your sins are forgiven.” (It’s easy.) If, however I told someone their legs were healed, it would be immediately obvious that I don’t have the power to do that.
Jesus wanted them to know that he has the power to do both, vs. 10: “But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.
By healing the man Jesus demonstrates that he has the power to heal our bodies AND to heal our souls. Jesus proves that he is the one who can bring us life no matter where we’re broken - our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our spirits. Jesus shows that he is indeed worthy of all that effort that those four friends went through to get their friend in front of Jesus.
This is really my main point this morning. That Jesus is worth it. He is worth the effort. Worth the time, attention, work, of bringing ourselves to him, of coming before him.
Some evenings - I need to get some steps in, take a walk, pray and reflect. Then I get on my phone…and all of sudden, it’s past my bedtime. I never regret the times I do go out and walk and pray and spend time coming before Jesus. I often regret the times I don’t.
Who else can we turn to to bring healing to our hearts? Give us a word of hope in midst of struggles and pain and difficulty? Who else can unburden us from our sin, that deep sense of guilt and shame? That and so much more.
And not just us, but what Jesus can do for our friends, for those we know and love, for those whom God brings into our lives.
The other night I watched a movie called, “The Greatest Beer Run Ever.” It’s actually based on a true story. A young man living in New York City is feeling a little aimless in life (just going to bars with his buddies), a number of his friends are fighting in Vietnam War, so as a sign of support for this friends, he decides to go to Vietnam and bring beers to his buddies. Of course he gets into a lot more than he bargains for.
But it’s impressive all he does to get there - travels thousands of miles, working on a cargo ship for two months, lets folks believe he’s part of the CIA so he can get transportation to where one of his buddies is - he’s amazingly resourceful.
As crazy as it was, he did it to give his friends a beer. He wanted to let them know that people were with them.
We have the opportunity to offer our friends so much more than a beer (so much more!). To bring them before Jesus - is it worth the effort for us? Because it’s always going to take time and effort and determination on our part.
I mentioned at the beginning that Young Life Capernaum got its name from this story - rooted in this exact idea, friends working together to bring their friend before Jesus, because they’re convinced it’s worth the effort.
It was so evident at camp, how true that is. In order to take these kids horseback riding, took two people walking alongside the horse as they rode. A couple of times as we were leaving the dining hall, I saw some leaders who were still there, hand-feeding their friend. Around camp they made these buggies - looked like all-road rickshaws, so leaders could get kids who had trouble walking - getting them around camp.
Because our Capernaum friends are worth it - and Jesus is absolutely worth it. Worth the effort to bring our friends before him.
We’re trying to build relationships with our neighbors - that takes effort: To organize these Neighborhood dinners, to make the food, get everything set up. But it doesn’t stop there - it takes intention and effort to walk across the room and welcome them. Initiate a conversation. It’s worth it to pull a seat next to them and have dinner together. After all, what good is it if they come and we don’t engage them? Get to know them?
An idea hit me the other day, of possibility of doing an after-school “club” for kids in the neighborhood - snacks, play some games, do a few songs - and tell them about Jesus.
Wouldn’t that be amazing? To have a group of kids from the neighborhood coming every week and we’d get to teach them about Jesus? But that would take time and effort - are we convinced that these kids are worth that? That Jesus is worth that? Worth that effort? I’m starting to pray about that.
Spiritual Disciplines
Come before Jesus this week. He’s absolutely worth the effort. That’s an important question to consider - how am I coming before Jesus in my day-to-day life? Do you have time set in your schedule just to be with him? So many of practices we talk about every week are designed to do just that: Discipline of solitude (finding time of quiet to get alone to be with him - reading of Scripture & prayer, prayer walk), practice of Sabbath (stop, rest, rejoice, contemplation).
Challenge to you this week: Take a serious look at your schedule.
Second challenge - do something to help bring a friend, someone you know before Jesus. It might mean praying for them on a daily basis, bringing them before Jesus in prayer. It might mean initiating time to get together, build that relationship - to point where you could have spiritual conversations with them. Invite a neighbor to come to church with you. Come to neighborhood dinner tonight - and engage with whoever comes (invite them to sit with you - or you go sit with them).
It all comes down to this: Is Jesus worth the effort? Four men two thousand years ago thought so. So much so that they refused to let a packed house stop them from getting their friend before Jesus. So much so that they were willing to carry their friend on a mat up a flight of stairs, dig their way through a roof and lower him down to Jesus.
And Jesus did far more than they ever imagined he would - healed from top to bottom, body and soul. Truly, made new, inside and out.
Can you imagine what that must have been like for them? They were still up on the roof, I’m sure sticking they’d heads down into the hole they’d made to see what Jesus was going to do for their friend. After seeing Jesus heal him, they were probably standing there on that roof, dirt all over, hands and faces filthy, grabbing each other, celebrating - praise God, he did it! Jesus did it!
And then they would have raced down their stairs to see their friend, now standing, walking, carrying his mat - to celebrate some more. And in spite of how tired they must have been, how filthy they were - they would have been absolutely convinced that all the effort to get their friend before Jesus was absolutely worth it. It always is.