Friends That Will Figure Out A Way
[1] And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. [2] And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. [3] And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. [4] And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. [5] And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Mark 2:1–5 ESV Read More
When Jesus comes home from His short preaching and healing trip, everyone that didn’t get healed before around Capernaum comes to His house. Now it could mean that He’s in His home town, not necessarily at His house. Either way, there is a crowd and everyone wants to be helped by Jesus.
These four men are just awesome. Their friend might not even be able to ask them to do this. One of them hears about Jesus, gets the idea in his head, and tells the others. This wasn’t an easy task! Never mind getting onto the roof, carrying a paralyzed man, they then tore a whole in the roof and lowered him down in next to Jesus. These guys knew what they wanted and they went after it!
There is a Jesus movie called The Miracle Maker that is a claymation story of the Gospels. It’s my favorite Jesus movie. In it, the paralyzed man is saying “leave me alone! It’s no use!” as they lower him down. We don’t know what the guy thought of all of this or what his reaction was after it was all over.
Sometimes, in the scriptures, details are left out so that the truth and the point of the whole thing becomes more universal. It doesn’t matter how he was paralyzed, what he though about it, or who was going to pay for that roof. The point is that some friends brought a man to Jesus and Jesus forgave his sins and healed him. That can apply to your life right now. Numerous friends, making a concerted effort to help a friend, can make a lot of room for Jesus to work a miracle.
Whether it’s teaming up to pray, making a commitment to visit someone in the hospital, or helping a lady take care of her kids, when we come together around someone to present them to Jesus, Jesus acts.
I doubt those guys had a plan like Mission Impossible. They showed up, there was a crowd, and they saw an opportunity in the roof. All they knew ahead of time was that Jesus was powerful and we have to get our paralyzed friend to Him. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.
When David Livingstone, the missionary pioneer, was working in Africa, some friends wrote: “We would like to send other men to you. Have you found a good road into your area yet?” Livingstone wrote back: “If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”
You can get the Daily Bible Readings to your inbox via email every day by subscribing here. Join the discussion online on Facebook or Twitter.