Healing the paralytic

Jesus teaches a crowd about humility

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

      Four men in Jerusalem heard that Jesus would be at a friend's house teaching, enjoying fellowship and ministering to the residents of the town. They had a friend who had been paralyzed since he was a baby, who they wanted to bring to Jesus. Like the woman with the issue of blood that I wrote about a few days ago, these people believed that if they could get their friend in to just see Jesus, that He could heal them.
      They brought the man to where Jesus was preaching at and tried to get him inside to bring him before the Lord. There were so many people there in the house, that they could barely see where Jesus was. No one would let them inside to get him close to where Jesus was. One of them came up with a plan.
      Outside the house, there was a ladder to climb to the top of the roof. They carefully hoisted their friend to the top of the house. They broke through the wood that covered the house on the roof. They lowered their friend down to where Jesus was.
      Jesus asked them what they were doing.
      Let's review the situation. If these men came to a church to speak to Jesus, who, let's say was a guest speaker, they would be chastised at the very least and asked to either leave, or to sit in the back and keep quiet. How uncouth it would be to interrupt the Lord as He was speaking to the congregation. Then, the hole they cut into the floor would have required a permit from the city, clearance from the building and grounds committee, and brought before the church to be voted on. What purpose would the hole serve the rest of the church and how much would it cost the main tithers to repair the hole once its purpose was served? Can you say "RED TAPE?"
      The hole was significant in that in the story, at least for me, it symbolizes the emptiness that sin leaves in our hearts when we spend our whole lives seeking something meaningful in which to fill it. In this case, the faith of the men all of a sudden filled the hole with their friend that they lowered down to Jesus to be healed. The ladder represents the path that sometimes seems out of our way to take when we are called to serve others for the glory of God. The people hindering the men's way to the Lord represents the hard-heartedness that the church often times gives off toward those that don't look, act, walk, talk, think, say, and do the things that they do in their self-righteous indignation.
      The men stopping at nothing to bring their friend before Jesus represents the power of the Holy Ghost that stops at nothing to reach a hard, rejecting heart while trying to save a lost soul.
      Jesus looked at the paralytic and said to him, "Son, be of good cheer, for your sins are forgiven."
      The paralyzed man gathered a smile to his face as the pain left his body. People stared in amazement at the Lord and began to ask among themselves, "Who is this that pretends to forgive sins? For who can forgive sins except God?"
      Jesus asked the people, "Why do you speak evil among yourselves about me? Is it easier to tell this man his sins are forgiven, or to tell him to rise up from his bed and walk? So that you will know that I have the power on earth to forgive sins (Jesus then turned to the paralyzed man), arise, take up your bed and return to your own house."
      Just then, the man felt strength come to his body. He got down off of his bed mat and rolled it up and carried it with him. The other four men followed him, thanking Jesus for what he had done for their friend, and walked out of the house through the path of people as they parted a pathway for the men to leave the house.
      The people praised God with reverent fear and said, "Truly, we have seen something strange here today.
      Are you waiting for God to show you a sign that He is still there and that He is real? That heartbeat you just experienced, that breathe you just took, that sight you just saw with your eyes, the fact that you exist should be sign enough that God exists and is constantly there, is prolonging His return and His wrath upon the disbelievers, and sent His Son, Jesus to die on the cross for our sins that we choose to commit, when what we really deserve is death and hell, which Jesus rescued us from. He is on His throne in our hard times and in the times that He blesses us. We are to feel that it is a blessing when we are tried and go through hard times. It is those times that God is strengthening our faith to be what He has called us to be.
      Be a witness to someone today about the blessings that God has brought upon you and the hard times that he brought you through as He kept His promise to never leave, nor forsake us.

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative