Doing the undoable!

1* After a few days, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and word got around that he was back home. 2 A crowd gathered, jamming the entrance so no one could get in or out. He was teaching the Word. 3 They brought a paraplegic to him, carried by four men. 4 When they weren't able to get in because of the crowd, they removed part of the roof and lowered the paraplegic on his stretcher. 5 Impressed by their bold belief, Jesus said to the paraplegic, "Son, I forgive your sins." 6 Some religion scholars sitting there started whispering among themselves, 7 "He can't talk that way! That's blasphemy! God and only God can forgive sins."

8 Jesus knew right away what they were thinking, and said, "Why are you so skeptical? 9 Which is simpler: to say to the paraplegic, "I forgive your sins,' or say, "Get up, take your stretcher, and start walking'? 10 Well, just so it's clear that I'm the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both..." (he looked now at the paraplegic), 11 "Get up. Pick up your stretcher and go home."

12 And the man did it--got up, grabbed his stretcher, and walked out, with everyone there watching him. They rubbed their eyes, incredulous--and then praised God, saying, "We've never seen anything like this!"

Food for thought

Four men wanted to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus, but couldn’t get him there because of the crowds blocking the door into the house where Jesus was teaching. You already see how egoistic the crowd was and is; here's is a sick man on a stretcher wanting to get to the divine healer and be healed, and no one lets him do it. It is like the people are saying, we don't mind about you and your sickness as long as we are OK and listening to what Jesus is saying; don't disturb us with your problems.  I am imagining the sick man pleading with the people to have mercy on his situation ...!

The sick man was lucky, he had friends (a friend in need is a friend indeed). His friends fed up with the crowd's attitude, must have said to their friend, "don't mind them, these people must also be sick, may be sicker than you; they too need Jesus." So the men took their friend where there was nobody, onto the roof of the house, broke up the roof and lowered their friend down to Jesus through the hole in the roof. 

These four men who brought their friend to Jesus were willing to do whatever it took to get their friend to the Lord. They dared to do what was difficult and almost impossible. It was not easy to carry that grown up man up on to the roof. It was a difficult task. The Bible says that “Jesus saw their faith”. Faith is something that works in the heart and then it works its way to the outside, James 2:18; Eph. 2:10. A faith that won’t put you to work for Jesus probably won’t take you to Heaven either! 

They dared to do the unusual. They were willing to think outside the box; they were innovative! For them, it was not business as usual, it took ingenuity to think of breaking up the rules. You know, sometimes we must do the extraordinary in order to get the ordinary; we must break the roof. In the eyes of everybody, except Jesus, the men were breaking the rules and going against the normal thing, against the good thing. For Jesus, however, these four men were something else, they were heroes. What Jesus saw in these men was not folly but faith.

If you think you are lacking these men's faith and courage, if you believe that you need a turn around in your life, if you feel some people or someone is stopping you from getting to Jesus, is stopping you from making a difference in your life, if you feel you are like that sick man in need of genuine friends to carry you forward to Jesus and to healing and to  forgiveness and to holiness and wholeness ... I encourage you to never give up until you get yourself or your friend there. You may have to consider doing some extraordinary thing. Yes, sometimes we have to.