Thursday, February 13, 2014

Diagnosing the Problem

There are few people I’ve known longer or loved more than my friend, Mike.  Mike and I met in Washington, D. C. at the end of the Carter Administration.  He was at the Department of Education and I was at the Environmental Protection Agency.  He loved to play golf and I did too, so we became fast friends.  We played golf all around the D.C. area and beyond.  When the Kemper Open was held at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland for several years, we both caddied.  In fact, he had Doug Ford’s bags, the former PGA champion and Masters champion. 


In the early days of our friendship I remember him saying things that I’ve never forgotten, like his dream was to open a bar one day and call it “Tired of Trying.”  (He’s never done it.)  I remember once sitting around with a group of friends and we were talking about the hardest thing we ever had to do.  One woman talked about the struggles she went through when her best friend died.  Another said, “When I was ten my mother got sick with a terminal illness and I remember all the pain it caused my father and siblings.”  Another said, “I think the hardest thing I ever experienced was the betrayal of my friend.”  Then, after all the reflections of carnage, it was Mike’s turn and he said, I think the hardest thing I ever experienced was driving to Florida without my glasses!”  After the stares and muffled laughs subsided he told about hitchhiking home from college for Spring break and falling asleep in the back of a stranger’s truck.  When the driver got to the “drop spot”, he shouted for him to wake up and get out; and Mike did, without his glasses.  I think he said his glasses went to Rochester and he went to Bethlehem, picked up a car, and drive to Florida.

I could regale you with such stories for hours.  He was one of my groomsmen.  I officiated at his wedding.  But the reason I tell you all of this is that a few weeks ago my dear friend was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and he’s scared to death.  I’ve never seen him so scared.  And one of the reason’s is that he doesn’t know Christ, yet.  For Mike, and so many others,  this world is a “closed system.”

Last week I was able to take some time to visit with him and his wife.  For two days I engaged in their new routine, including a trip to Cleveland for a radiation treatment.  Throughout our time together there were laughs and tears, and something we’d never done – praying together, holding hands.  Interestingly, and understandably, every time I’d pray, Mike would convulse in silent sobs.  Mike’s desperate.  The all-consuming focus of his life is the terror of this tumor.

I will refer to an incident that happened last Friday night with Mike and his wife in the message on Sunday, because it closely parallels the story Luke tells us in 5:17-26.  Just like the paralyzed man and his four friends who carry him to Jesus, Mike needs the same encounter with Jesus they had.  Like the paralytic, he needs to hear those same words from Jesus.  Here in a house on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus instantly diagnoses the problem and offers the perfect remedy – Forgiveness.  As we will see on Sunday, just as forgiveness is the heart of the Gospel, forgiveness is the heart of the cathartic healing we all need.

In preparation for Sunday’s message entitled “Diagnosing the Problem,” you may wish to read Luke 5:17-26 and Isaiah 6:1-7 and consider the following:
  1. How important is the “paralytic” story?
  2. How important do you think it is to Luke?
  3. What parallels do you find between Luke 5:1-9 and Luke 5:17-26?
  4. You’ve heard the expression, “Missing the forest for the trees.”  What is the forest here?  What are some of the trees?
  5. Why does Jesus address the man as “man” and not “son”, or “my child”?
  6. Whose faith prompts Jesus’ statement of forgiveness?
  7. Why does Jesus focus first on the man’s sins rather than his suffering?
  8. What do you think of this statement?  “I think that when God wants to play a really rotten joke on you, He grants you your deepest wish?”
  9. Whose thoughts does Jesus perceive in verse 22?
  10. What is easier - to forgive sin or heal paralysis?  Why?
  11. How does this story inform someone like my friend Mike?
See you Sunday!