Don’t Miss It

Once I was in a Walgreens with a friend of mine and didn’t notice that the cashier who rang us up had blue hair. When we left the store and headed to our car, my friend made a comment about it and was astonished at my lack of awareness. I don’t know why I am this way, but I miss a lot of things.

How about you? How aware are you of what is happening around you? 

Maybe you have seen this classic awareness test. If you haven’t, go ahead and watch the video and see how you do.

Did you see it? This classic test is epic because once you do see it, it’s hard to believe you missed it!

It makes me wonder… What other obvious things am I missing?

So many of the stories in the Gospels are like an awareness test. Do we really see what is happening? Do we recognize what is going on? Let’s take a look at one of these stories in Mark chapter 2.

As we dive in, I want to ask you to forget everything you know about Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension; and imagine yourself in the first century encountering him alongside the disciples, the townspeople, and the teachers of the law. 

The story starts as Jesus returns home to Capernaum after a few days of traveling and teaching in the surrounding villages. 

“...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.” (Mark 2:1b-2)

Most people don’t realize that this story likely takes place in Jesus’ own house. He had moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, where his public ministry took off. He’s become as popular as a pop star or NBA player. The crowds of admiring fans envelop him.

The action gets going as four friends bring a paralyzed man to the house with the hopes that Jesus will heal him. However, they can’t get anywhere near Jesus because of the crowds packed in around every door and window. So, they get creative. They carry the man to the roof and begin digging through the mixture of twigs and dried mud in order to make a hole large enough to lower the paralyzed man down into the house. Think about the tenacity of these friends! What if when we needed Jesus, we went after him this way? Digging our hands into any dirt or debris that is keeping us from his presence?

And notice how Jesus receives them. I don’t know about you, but if this was my house, I’m pretty sure the story would have gone a different way at this point. With debris falling, I would not have been in the mood for a friendly encounter. But not Jesus. It’s of no consequence to him. What does Jesus’ reaction to his own roof falling on his head tell you about the way you’ll be received when you come to him?

As the man is lowered into Jesus’ living room, Jesus recognizes this extraordinary demonstration of faith and says to the paralyzed man:

“Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:5)

This declaration would have been surprising to those pressing in around the scene, but perhaps not for the reason we might think. In our modern understanding, we are tempted to think Jesus is missing the point of this man’s need. We assume his friends went through all this trouble so that Jesus could make him walk. If the story ended with the forgiveness of his sins, we’d likely see it as incomplete.

But a first century Jewish person would not have been surprised to hear Jesus connect this man’s condition with his sin. The popular belief in that time was that physical misfortune was the result of sin. In a different encounter, Jesus will refute this common belief (John 9:1-3), but in this encounter, he doesn’t address it. Still, the people sitting around him likely believed this man or his parents had engaged in some kind of sinful behavior that led to his condition. Perhaps the man believed it himself.

What would have surprised the listening crowd was not that Jesus addressed this man’s sin, but that he grants forgiveness for free. Realize that up until this point, the idea of “free” forgiveness was inconceivable. In the Law God had given Moses, forgiveness was always tied to some kind of cleansing ritual. Sacrifices had to be made. A priest had to be involved. But here, Jesus extends forgiveness to this paralyzed man with no requirements. Grace is given without conditions. The man is simply forgiven. In this simple statement, Jesus is claiming to have the power to forgive sin apart from the cleansing rituals of the Law. Everyone knew only God could do that!

It’s no wonder that some of the people sitting in the house objected.

“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?’” (Mark 2:6-7)

Let’s give these religious leaders a break. Isn’t their reaction understandable? According to their traditions, Jesus seems to be treating sin in an appallingly light way. After all, they are pious men who know the Law, the Law that was given to Moses by God. They are fiercely committed to observing the Law and living before God with their whole being. They are sold out to God!

And, yet, they missed everything that God was doing.

The more I read the Gospels, the more I am convinced that God has given us the stories about scribes, Pharisees, and the teachers of the law not so that we can have a villain in the story, but so that we can be warned by them.

My guess is that most of you reading this are sold out to God. Like me, you love him, you want to follow him, you are fiercely committed to him. 

And yet, when you look at the circumstances in the world around you, so much seems to be crumbling down. Very little fits the picture of what you think should be happening. Maybe twigs and mud are raining down in your own life. They certainly are in the world around us.

It’s easy to get rattled. It’s easy to get fixated on what you believe is wrong.

But let’s remember, the world might be crumbling down and falling on our heads, but Jesus isn’t shaken. The hole in the roof is of no consequence to him.

For he is God. And he is at work. And his grace is big enough even for the things we don’t want to see easily forgiven.

I wonder what we might see if we look out at everything that is not what we think it should be and ask, “God, show me how you are at work even there.”

We might be surprised.

For he has always been a God who works through…

…righteous servants and wicked leaders
…seasons of abundance and years of famine
…God-fearing communities and godless nations
…sermons on a mountain and shipwrecks in a storm.

Let’s not miss all the surprising ways he is at work right in front of us. For we also know that  before the story is over, we will witness a resurrection. The God of grace will declare to all of creation:

“I tell you, get up, take your mat and [come] home.” (Mark 2:11)

All the evidence we need to have hope is right in front of us. 

Let’s ask God for the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the mind to understand.

God is at work in this present moment. Don’t miss it.