NOTES:
1] Let's give the central character a name & a face: Chaim. 2] There are issues here like access to Jesus, forgiveness, blasphemy, healing, authority, praising God. Can we see others? 3]  'Son of Man' (or, Humanity) in v.10 has two thrusts: a divine apocalyptic figure intervening from heaven (DAN 7) & the earthed servant figure (IS 42, 49, 50, 53) Jesus lives out.

WARMING UP: How might we feel if someone dropped in through our roof?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything this week?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

1-4        Why don't people crowd round Jesus today looking for what he has to offer? Are we no longer sure what it is he has to offer, or even think he doesn't have anything much to offer? For us, might the crowd inside the house be a symbol of people already inside the church making it hard (wittingly or unwittingly) for outsiders to come close to Jesus the Christ? Could Chaim's friends digging through the (mud) roof be another symbol calling on those inside our churches to examine ways of breaking through old 'structures' that might be keeping people out, rather than bringing them in?

5-7 (but see 8-9)  How might we respond if we asked Jesus for healing, but discovered instead, we were forgiven? Or is that healing anyway? What connection do we see between forgiveness & healing? Is forgiveness our great healing, making us whole (even if we should die)? Can we be healed in any complete sense without being forgiven what we need forgiving? Have we disconnected the spiritual (forgiveness) from the physical / mental (healing) so far that they're not working together for our forgiveness / healing as we need them to be? Are we more inclined to self-forgiveness, person-to- person forgiveness today than to God forgiveness? Or are they the same thing? If so, how does that work? If this trend is OK, where does God come into it? Where does authority lie in the forgiving / healing process?

8-9 (but see 5-7)  How seriously do we take questions others raise today about Jesus, e.g. who he is, what he can do, what he has authority to do, all that kind of thing? Or, aren't people asking us that kind of question about Jesus any more? How come? Are we too dismissive of those outside our door, up on our roof....? What connection is Jesus making between forgiveness & healing in: a) the order in which he deals with Chaim? b) what he says to the scribes / scholars?

10-12      Do we lean more to the apocalyptic, divinely intervening 'Son of Man', or to the 'earthed servant' one? Does this have anything to do with how hard the going is, how much pressure there is, in being a day-by-day Christian? How do we respond to the view that says when Jesus calls himself 'Son of Man' he's pointing to his life as the example of  what God wants all humanity to be like?
When did we last get as enthusiastic about God as the people when Chaim picks up his mat & walks out? Or is it a matter of us still 'not seeing anything like this'?