Mark 2:1-12 Jesus heals a paralytic

This morning as Nigel preached on this passage, my thoughts took off in a slightly different direction to the theme he was preaching and I wanted to come here and share those thoughts with you.

It struck me that there were many people pressing in to see Jesus: 'so many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door'. (Remember when Julian Adams spoke to us last year, he encouraged us to 'press in' to Jesus?) These people had come for what reason? I'm guessing that they had some expectations as they pressed into that house - some expectation that they were going to hear or see something out of the ordinary. Yet in gathering so close around Jesus, they were blocking the way for the very needy man, the paralytic, who desperately needed healing. Nigel mentioned we will be having a Healing Service soon and encouraged us to be like the friends of the paralytic, to bring our friends in need of healing to Jesus. He spoke of the obstacles the man's friends had to overcome - and my first point is let's not be an obstacle in the way of those who really need healing, blocking them from getting close to Jesus. We may be content with our own position in the house with the Lord, but we need to be looking round to notice those on the outskirts trying to find their way in and making room for them.

As a native-born Brit, I've been brought up to politely join the queue and wait my turn for something I want - I'm guessing that had I been one of the friends of the paralysed man, I might have taken a look at the crowd around Jesus and suggested to my friends - "He's got to come out of there sometime - why don't we just wait patiently here and catch him when he comes out?" but fortunately the friends of the paralysed man weren't inhibited like that. I'm guessing that God put the urge in their minds to find a way through, to get their friend in front of Jesus where he needed to be right then, because God had a much larger purpose there - he wanted to meet the expectations of all those people pressing in to see Jesus. My second point is that if we're just one in the crowd pressing in to be close to Jesus, we still have an important part to play in the gathering by having an attitude of expectation - God's invitation to work miracles.