This blog is all about the audacity of Jesus – about the things he said and did that nobody else ever had the nerve to say or do. Every time you open one of the Gospels you see him breaking a rule or touching a leper or poking powerful people. He said he was the star of Scripture and the One qualified to tell us what it really means. He claimed God’s authority to heal and forgive and even claimed God’s name for himself (“I AM”). He was audacious.
Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that his audacity prompted audacious reactions from others. Polite approval wasn’t really among the responses he tended to evoke! People were often so impressed by Jesus that they said and did things they normally wouldn’t have the gumption to say or do.
For example, Matthew 14 tells of the time that Jesus freaked out his disciples by walking to their boat across a stormy sea. Peter was so impressed that he audaciously asked Jesus if he could take a turn, and Jesus told him to go for it. Peter the Rock eventually sank like his nickname, but for a few steps, while he kept his eyes on Jesus, he was surfing without a surfboard.
Mark 5 describes a woman who had the nerve to cut in line in front of a synagogue leader in order to get Jesus’ help with a 12-year illness. While Jesus was on the way to help that leader’s critically ill daughter, the woman pushed her way to the front of the mob around Jesus and grabbed hold of his clothing. Jesus stopped to brag on her faith and to assure her that she was healed.
John 12 has a scene you can almost smell while you read about it. Jesus is having dinner with his friends Mary, Martha, and fresh-out-of-the-grave Lazarus. Mary dumps an entire bottle of expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet. It is an audacious act of adoration, prompted by gratitude that couldn’t adequately be expressed by a customary drop or two.
Perhaps my favorite story of an audacious response to Jesus is found in Mark 2. Here we encounter a paralyzed man. Put yourself in his shoes, or on his mat. He can’t take a walk with family. He can’t reach out and touch the face of a child. He can’t eat a meal without someone feeding him. Bed sores are a part of his life, and he’s got his ceiling memorized. But he’s got one thing going for him: he has four friends. Those friends have heard of Jesus’ miraculous power to heal, and what they have heard inspires some serious audacity. They take their friend to the nearby house where Jesus is teaching a large crowd.
Here’s how Mark sets the scene:
“Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on.” -Mark 2:3-4
The paralyzed man’s friends try to get their buddy to Jesus, but they are met with a barricade of backs. The crowd around Jesus is blocking access to him (Unfortunately, it is still a common occurrence today for those around Jesus to be turned inward in a holy huddle with our backs toward outsiders in need – we are supposed to be gateways to Jesus, but instead we are barriers). But the man’s friends don’t give up when the floor-level route is blocked. You know how the book of Hebrews says we can approach the throne of grace with confidence? Well, they take that truth to an audacious level. They take their friend up on the roof, dig through the roofing materials above Jesus, and lower their friend down like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.
So imagine the scene: a paralyzed man on the floor in the middle of a stunned crowd, at the feet of Jesus who is smiling and shaking his head. Four guys peeking down through a hole in the roof. The guys figure that, best case, Jesus heals their friend immediately. Worst case, he gets mad, lectures them for the rude interruption, tells them to go to the back of the line, and sues them for pain and suffering.
But Jesus does neither:
“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” -Mark 2:5
Surprising words. Audacious words.
There are some teachers of the law in the crowd around Jesus. They’ve appointed themselves God’s referees, and they immediately throw a penalty flag on Jesus and accuse him of blasphemy. They point out that nobody but God can forgive sins. They are correct, of course – they just don’t know the truth about who Jesus is – this man with ceiling dust in his hair and mercy on his lips.
Jesus asks them which is easier, forgiving the man’s sins or curing his paralysis. Both are impossible, of course, unless you are God. Jesus says he will show them how much authority he has – he will make the man’s body right to demonstrate that he is able to make his soul right.
Jesus looks at the man and gives him three impossible commands, and the crowd responds with awe when he is able to obey them:
“’I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’ He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’” -Mark 2:11-12
The man walks and the crowd worships. Both of those things are prompted by the authority of Jesus – he has shown that he can do what nobody else can do! He forgives and he heals! But all of it was made possible by the bold tenacity of the man’s friends.
Jesus is not a tame, play-it-safe Savior – he’s an audacious one. And he deserves an audacious response from us.
Want to explore further?
1. Read all three Gospel accounts of the story of the paralyzed man, noting what each writer emphasizes: Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, and Luke 5:17-26.
2. Read Luke 7:36-50, another passage that contains the twin themes of an audacious approach to Jesus and Jesus’ authority to forgive sins.
3. Can you think of a time when you’ve seen people around Jesus become a “barricade of backs” to people who need to get to him?
4. Is there a way you could be more audacious in your approach to Jesus?
