“WHEN IT BREAKS IN!”“WHAT’S YOUR MAT?”
Last week we explored how Jesus launched his earthly ministry by inviting others to follow his lead in fishing for people. Matthew then provides a transitional paragraph before recounting Jesus' ser-mon on the mount, which we'll explore later in the year. That transitional paragraph reads as such...:
“Jesus traveled throughout Galilee...preaching the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. News of him spread..and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick, and whatever their affliction..., he healed them all.” (Matthew 4:23-24)
These healings were visible signs of the inbreaking Kingdom of Heaven Jesus was preaching about! Leprosy, demon-posession, deformity – nothing was taboo! Each healing brought some new revelation about what this inbreaking kingdom looks like. The man on the mat is a prime example!
It reminds me of something Yogi Berra once said. Remember him? MVP catcher, later mana-ger of the Yankees, Yogi's known today primarily for his quotable quotes, as seen in an Aflac commer-cial: “If you get hurt and miss work, it won't hurt to miss work...and they'll give you cash, which is just as good as money.” (Eh?) My favorite Yogi tho is this: 'If you don’t go to a friend’s funeral they won’t go to yours.' Okay... There’s a hint of truth there somewhere if you don’t strain your brain deciphering it! True friends are those who are willing to go the distance - who take the time no matter what.
(Yogi Berra)
That’s the kind of friends the man on the mat had. In the face of formidable obstacles - time, cost, stigma – they stepped up to the mat. They were, as John Ortberg calls it, the fellowship of the mat!
When they hear that Jesus is in town they drop everything and tell their friend that they’ll pick him up bright and early the next morning, and when they say they’ll pick him up – they mean, they’ll pick him up! Mark provides an added detail in his account: “The house was so packed with visitors that there wasn’t room for one more person, not even outside the door! While Jesus was preaching, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat, and digging a hole through the roof above Jesus' head, they lowered the man on the mat, right down in front of Jesus.” (Mark 2:2-4)
Apparently this all took place before that crucial verse was written: “Thou shalt reserve thy seat and anyone who sitteth thereupon shall be cast into outer darkness.” (Simon Pieper 3:9)
So they put their heads together...until one of them gets an idea: ‘Dude! What if we make a hole and lower him thru the roof…!’ They look at each other with raised eye-brows. “Riiiight! Okay,” says another, “any other lame ideas – any body?! No…? Alright! We're crashing this party!”
So it is that these dedicated friends climb up on the roof and start remodeling this guy’s house. Can you imagine being the guy who owns the place? You agree to host Jesus' little shing-ding and suddenly you’re having a spontaneous skylight installed. Won't your wife be surprised! So you call up your State Farm agent: “Um, Fred, can we call it an act of God? After all, Jesus is here!”
The fellowship of the mat - gotta love these guys! They’re not about to let a little roofing stand in their way. Relentless, they become roof-crashers for their friend. Theirs is a great witness! Commun-ity is built on friends like these, who gladly carry each other’s mats and crash thru roofs without asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’ We all need friends like that. Those are kingdom quality type friends!
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But what about the man on the mat? Imagine what this experience was like for him. He's about to go through the roof – literally! How will those who arrived early enough to get a seat respond? What about the fellow who owns this place with the gaping hole in his ceiling? Not happy!
It all sounds pretty risky. What if it starts to rain? What if someone calls the authorities? What if the ropes the boys are using don’t hold? What if one of them sneezes?
Clearly you have a decision to make. If you go through the roof, you could get dropped, you could get ridiculed, you could get rejected. On the other hand, if you don’t go thru the roof, you’ll stay stuck in a rut, forever flat on the mat. This is your one shot at being whole and becomin a roof-crasher.
Then there’s Jesus. He looks up with dust and dirt, and chunks of first century plaster raining down on him, and as the dust clears four smiling faces appear.
Matthew tells us, as Jesus looked up “he saw their faith, and said, 'Be encouraged!” (Matthew 9:2), but what exactly was it that he saw? He saw four hopeful faces peering down, eyes full of antici-pation, eyes reflecting their thoughts of concern: “If we can just get our friend close to Jesus…!”
Jesus saw evidence of a radical commitment,. He saw a ray of selflessness in a cloud of con-tempt, a glimpse of God's love in human faces! “If we can just get our friend close to Jesus!”
So Jesus turns and looks down at this twisted, quivering body. He sees not only a broken body but, as in every one of us, a broken, fallen soul. Their eyes meet and Jesus says, “Be encouraged, my son; your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2) I love that he called him son, claiming him as his own!
I wonder what the man on the mat is thinking at this point. He hadn’t signed up to have his sins talked about...but he can't hope to be truly whole without dealing with his baggage.
So it was with Joe. His mat was a sexual addiction he’d wrestled with for years. In desperation he sought help and wound up in a therapy group. After a couple of weeks Joe suffered a relapse. Then for the first time he shared his deep sense of shame and failure, how, as a Christian, he was the biggest hypocrite. And yet, for all the pain his behavior caused him, he couldn’t stop. As he told his story, his voice strained, he could not look anyone in the face. “Look up at the group,” his counselor said.
“I can’t. I’m too ashamed.” “Look up at the group. I want you to look into the eyes of the people listening to you, Joe. You must do this…for your own good.”
Fearfully Joe looked around the circle. Every pair of eyes looking back at him was filled with tears. Every heart ached with pain for his anguish. There was no condemnation – just compassion. The fellowship of the mat before him saw his deformity, yet still chose to be his friends. For the first time he had a few mat-carriers who helped carry him to a place of healing. Joe’s addiction was broken that day. Oh, he still had a long way to go. There were wrongs to be righted, new habits to be developed, inner lies and wounds to be healed, but in that moment something changed - and healing resulted.
Many of us were raised that you don’t air your dirty laundry, you bury it. We tell ourselves that we can handle it, that we’re in control – and such is the grip of such lie based thinking that we get stuck there. To be sure, the fellowship of the mat doesn’t come easy. Those mats are sometimes heavy and awkward and there’s always a roof of busyness, fear or doubt that needs to be crashed thru.
But it’s precisely in such a fellowship where Jesus can be found. As he promised, “Wherever two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)
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There are seasons in life when we are called to carry an incapacitated friend and there are others in which we ourselves must be carried. What I find significant in the story of the paralyzed man on the mat is that he is not the only one paralyzed. There are others in this story far more crippled than he!
They arrived on time and got good seats. They knew the rules and who were breaking them. Their hearts were cold and indifferent to the hurting ones around them. They were supposed to be the most spiritually mature but apparently no one they knew was hurting or confused enough to need Jesus, and they certainly had no love for the paralyzed man on the floor in front of them. It was to them, Jesus gave a wake up call. “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)
Such people did not cease to exist with the end of the first century. Many today say they love God when in reality they have little love for the people who mean so much to Him. I understand them because too often I'm prone to the same thing. I struggle with the same self-righteousness. I far too often sit where they sat, label as they labeled and fail to help the hurting crash Jesus’ party.
How about you? Is there anyone you know who needs some help crashing Jesus’ party, who needs someone to carry them for a season or speak on their behalf? Will you let others carry you...?
Such is the subtext of Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring, and the two Hobbit friends, Frodo and Sam. At a critical moment in their journey, when Frodo is in danger of losing hope and perspective, Sam steps in to show what kind of friend he is..., and what being in the fellowship...is all about...!
When Frodo collapses in exhaustion under the weight of the burden he bears, Sam brings to mind better days back home in the Shire, but all Frodo can think about is his burden, so Sam urges him to be free of it. Then lifting his friend on to his shoulders Sam declares: “I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you! Come on!” Cue the music that reminds us – the Kingdom is near!
When someone loses someone, we cannot shoulder the burden of grief they bear but we can help carry them through that season by coming along side of them, not with powerful words but with gestures of love and tenderness. It was to this ministry that Ann Louise urged us to embrace and that she ariticulated in a text to me in the last service she and others partnered: “We prayed for the family to be comforted by all the components of the service and for people to come along side them and for you”
(Ann Louise Huffman)
What about you? What’s your mat look like? Consider this, Frodo’s greatest asset was that of his friend, Samwise Gamgee just as the greatest asset of the man on the mat was his four friends. Thanks to their reckless abandon and fierce determination he and his mat wound up at Jesus feet, where Jesus set him free from his guilt and sent him home dancing down the street: “Your sins are forgiven. Stand up, take your mat, and go on home because you are healed!” (Matthew 9:2, 6)
So what’s your mat? Maybe your mat is a temper you can’t seem to control. Just under the surface is a button that those closest to you seem to always be pushing. Maybe your mat is an inability to trust…, or the need to be in control…, or a terrible secret of an awful thing you did, or perhaps an affliction or addiction. It is Jesus who gathers us together as the Fellowship of the Mat, that among us he may make his presence known, filling us with his compassion for those in need of a lift, in need of hope and healing, and set us on our feet once again, utterly mat free, with a renewed sense of purpose - If we can just get our friends close to Jesus! What roof would you be willing to crash through?