Sermon: Take Your Mat
January 12th, 2020 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Mark 2:1-22, Psalm 103
The significance of what took place in Jesus’ home in Capernaum must have made a lasting impression on everyone who was there – this story is told in 3 of the 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. In Luke’s telling, the verse just before the events inside that crowded house, points out that while crowds of people were coming to hear Jesus teach and to be healed of their sicknesses, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”(Lk.5:16) Last Sunday we looked at the connection between Jesus’ time in prayer communicating with God the Father and his ability to see clearly what needed to be said and done in any given situation. That’s the guiding example for our seeking to spend focused time in prayer as this year begins, so that as individuals and as a church we might be able to see clearly what we need to say and do as we practice discipleship in 2020.
An Epiphany
In the Christian Church calendar, this past Monday, January 6th was Epiphany. That is the day the church celebrates the arrival of the Magi, the wisemen, bringing their gifts to the Christ Child. But the word ‘epiphany’ means revelation, an illuminating discovery or realization. An epiphany is that light-bulb-coming-on-in-your-head moment, suddenly seeing clearly, a question answered.
In Mark 2 there are 4 questions that are asked by the religious leaders and the people around Jesus. The first is in the story we just heard: “Why does he talk like that? Who is he to forgive sins?” In the stories that follow, they ask, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” They ask, “Jesus, why don’t your disciples fast like John’s?” And lastly they ask him, “Why are you and your disciples breaking our Sabbath law?” Here, at the beginning of his Gospel story, Mark is acknowledging the big question that is in everyone’s mind: who is this Jesus of Nazareth? It is what everyone around Jesus is wondering. It has continued to be the question asked by readers of Mark’s book over many centuries. Mark’s purpose is to answer this question, and this story provides a moment of epiphany about who Jesus was, and is.
One of the things revealed about Jesus is that he knows what people around him are thinking, he identifies the questions in their minds. Jesus can see clearly into people’s hearts; he knows them. Jesus sees the faith of the friends. Obviously, faith displayed in their actions, but I believe Jesus could also see that these guys fully trusted that if their buddy could just be placed in Jesus’ presence, he would be healed. Jesus knows what the religion teachers were thinking to themselves. It may be that Jesus saw them raise an eyebrow or heard them take a sharp breath, but Jesus is also aware of the accusation they are silently leveling against him. He says to them, “Why do you question this in your hearts?”
Mark is providing clues so we can begin to put together the picture of who Jesus is. Psalm 94:11 says “The Lord knows all human plans; The Lord knows people’s thoughts.” Psalm 139, one of my favorite psalms, begins, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, Lord, you know it completely.” Only God knows our inmost thoughts without being told. Only God knows us better than we even know ourselves. There are no secrets from God.
Another clue to who Jesus is, is precisely what has shocked the folks in that room. They all know that only God can forgive sins. They would have joined David in his prayer to God in Psalm 51: “Against you, and you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” All their lives they would have heard David’s affirmation in Psalm 103: “The Lord does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who revere Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” They all know that it is God, and God alone, who forgives sin. So Jesus connects the dots for them: “Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? Everyone in the room and everyone hearing this story later would have to rightly acknowledge that neither is easy through human power. If you have ever struggled to forgive someone for a significant failure or betrayal, you know how hard that is! But amazingly, scriptures tell us again and again, that the Lord our God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, so that both healing and forgiveness are possible within the power and authority of God. They are God’s nature. “So I will prove to you,” Jesus says, “that the Son of Man (one of the ways Jesus refers to himself) has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” And Jesus proves it by healing the man. The guy jumps up, grabs his mat, and walks out.
Which brings me to another intriguing detail or clue that Mark includes in this story: the mat. I never really thought about it until Angela Hancock points it out in her commentary on this passage (workingpreacher.org) When Matthew and Luke tell this same story, they mention the mat only twice – to note that the paralyzed man was carried on a mat/cot, and Jesus’ directive to the man to take it with him when he goes. Mark, on the other hand, tells us the man is lying on a mat when he arrives, that his friends use the mat to lower him down to Jesus. Jesus includes the mat when he poses his question to the teachers. He doesn’t just ask if it’s easier to say ‘your sins are forgiven’ or ‘stand up and walk’. No, it’s ‘stand up, take your mat, and walk.’ Oddly, that mat is right in the middle of it all. Then, of course, Jesus does tell the man to ‘stand up, take your mat, and go home.’ And finally, Mark writes that the man did just that, jumping up and taking his mat with him. That mat gets lots of air time in these few verses!
It seems like a strange thing to focus on, a strange thing to tell a healed person to do – take your sickbed with you, thank you very much. And why on earth would a healed person want to take that particular souvenir? It’s like finally getting the cast off your broken leg, and then insisting on lugging that overripe shell home from the doctor’s office with you.
Why does Mark mention this detail? Is to prove that the paralytic is so healed that he doesn’t struggle to barely hobble away, but that he can carry stuff besides? Or maybe it’s an acknowledgement that the guy will still need something to sleep on at night? Or is Jesus just being practical? It’s a crowded room, we need the space, get that thing out of here. My guess is there’s more to it than that. Mark is providing clues to who Jesus is, and also perhaps clues to who we are as we encounter Jesus.
Presumably the paralytic’s life was never the same after that day when he heard Jesus’ words of forgiveness and stood on his own two feet. But it took something to get him there – it took a mat, the symbol of his brokenness and his need. And isn’t that the way it is for every person – it takes some need, some recognition of the brokenness in your life, some awareness of the necessity for healing to get us to Jesus. If I thought that nothing was wrong in my life and that I could manage everything on my own, thank you, then I would have no need for a Savior. If you could heal yourself, or buy forgiveness, then there would be no point to prayer, no call for confession, no purpose for a Christ. Just 5 verses after the healed man walks away with his mat, Jesus is telling the crowd, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The truth is that we all have a mat – maybe several mats – in our lives. If you didn’t, I doubt you would be here today. So what’s your mat? What was the mat, the brokenness that brought you to Jesus in the first place? What is the need that brings you to Jesus today? Is it a physical illness? A disease, that regularly reminds you of your human limitations and frailness? Or is it another kind of dis-ease? Fears or anxieties, guilt or shame, that are causing paralysis in your life? Thank God for that mat that motivates us to seek Jesus!
The mat also serves as more than just motivation. Mark’s second mention of the mat is how it serves as the mechanism by which the friends bring the man to Jesus. The mat is what they use to carry him, to lower him down, to place him at Jesus’ feet. What is it that enables us to help one another? What allows you to carry and to serve a friend in need? I’m still pondering that… I know a number of you use your cars to literally carry friends so they can come to church, attend Bible study, go to doctor’s appointments, get meals delivered to them. Perhaps you have other thoughts about the mats you use to bring others to Jesus?
The next mention of the mat comes when Jesus is comparing his offer of forgiveness with an offer of healing. The mat shows up in the middle of what seems like two totally differing things. But Jesus seems to imply that they are actually two dimensions of the same work, the same grace. Having wholeness in our lives is more than just the removal of disability. Wholeness has as much to do with being restored in spirit, in soul. Sin separates us from God and from one another. Forgiveness allows for the restoration of relationship, it opens the door for reconciliation. Even someone with a disability can be whole if they are included and loved and accepted for who they are. Reconciliation and forgiveness are made possible when Jesus takes up the cross. And just as he directs the man to take up his mat, Jesus will also direct his disciples to take up their cross to follow him.
Then, as Jesus speaks the words of forgiveness and healing over him, the man’s old life is gone and the new life begins. But take your mat with you, Jesus says, take that mat into your new, whole life. What would be the purpose for the mat? Could it be that Jesus meant ‘don’t forget where you came from’? Or could he mean, ‘take your testimony with you’? The mat would serve as a reminder to the healed man, an object lesson of God’s mercy and grace that he could show off and use to tell his story to his children and grandchildren, to his neighbors and friends and even the strangers on the street who give him a sideways look and ask, “Why are you carrying an old mat around?” The mat would become his trophy of God’s goodness.
Do you have a trophy of God’s goodness? A scar, a limp, a pair of crutches, a picture of a mangled car, a healed heart? A reminder of how far you have come. A testimony of the lengths God went to rescue you, of the depths of God’s love for you, and the wideness of God’s mercy.
We listen to this story again and again because it provides an epiphany about who Jesus is – the One sent from God to know us, to heal us and forgive us. And it provides an epiphany about who we are – ones sent into the world to share that Good News, using the story of our own lives and of Jesus’ work in us. Let us now, get up, take our mats, and sing before we go out. There’s a wideness in God’s mercy!
Closing Song: “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” # 486
Add Your Comment