Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is Deuteronomy 17-19, Luke 5:17-39
Good day my friends! It might be cold here and probably there, but the cold cannot stop the sun today! Blessed day!
I love the story about the paralytic and his buddies. Wow. So many things here that we can grab for ourselves and our friends.
I am not a bold person in public. In my former job I was often called on to act as photographer for speakers, musicians and the like. That meant I had to push my way though crowds, or go in front of filled auditoriums, squat and take, hopefully, good pictures of people. I didn't like it. It wasn't me. I feel like I'm interrupting people from being able to hear and watch what they came for. I think that's what surprises me about these guys. They can't find a way in. And I'm sure they tried. They probably tapped shoulders, said excuse me, tried to push their way through, but it didn't happen. The crowd would not part. Jesus had that effect on people. They were mesmerized. They craved the presence of Jesus and they weren't about to let someone else closer and get the healing. I wonder if that's why they couldn't get in. Jesus told his disciples that he came to preach, not to heal, although he did a lot of that. So maybe the crowd was being selfish. But these men, they were not. What did they do? They threw their pride to the side and climbed to the rooftop. Then they dug through that and lowered their friend down! We read this story so many times I think we loose sight of what they were really doing!
Lets put it in our times: Someone tries to get in our house with a man on a stretcher. They can't get in. So somehow they get on the roof. Probably with a ladder. Have you ever had your roof worked on? It's noisy. When someone is walking around up there, you can hear every footfall. So you can hear the people on the roof. Then you hear someone hacking away. Pieces of drywall, paint and shingles start to rain down around you. What a mess! Then the sun starts streaming in through your newly installed window. You look up and see faces and continued hacking. Eventually the hole is big enough to lower a grown man on a stretcher into your house.
Can you imagine what the owner of the house thought? I know what I would be thinking. I'd be on the phone calling the police. I'd be shouting threats up through the hole. I really wouldn't be listening to what they were trying to tell me. I wouldn't care. The nerve!
These men put aside their own safety (they were on a roof top), put aside their comfort (they could get in big trouble for hacking up someone's roof top), put aside their own pride (they did kind of make fools of themselves.) But they did it for love and faith. They loved their paralyzed buddy. What love this is! They did it for faith. They didn't just sit there beside his bed saying 'Man this stinks. Sorry about your legs.' They took him to where he could be healed. And you know what? Jesus heals this man because of his friends faith. Wow. That just blows me away. How can we change the lives of our loved ones by our own faith?
We love our families, we love our friends, our hearts break for those of loved ones who are hurting and broken. Take em to Jesus. Take em all to Jesus. Only He has the power to forgive sins and heal brokenness. And maybe it takes more than one. We always assume four men brought him, but maybe there was more than that. Maybe five or six, or even eight. We don't know. The thing is, this man couldn't go to Jesus himself, he needed his friends to do that for him. Many of our friends don't know how to get to Jesus, they need us to bring them there.
Or maybe we are the paralyzed man. Maybe we just don't have the strength or the knowledge at this time to get there and we need support. I'm sure they consulted with this man before they took him in. This man had his pride to swallow too. I'm sure he was embarrassed as all get out, but in the end I'm sure he didn't care. Because he was healed. Maybe we need to swallow our pride and ask our friends to carry us to Jesus.
There is time for both in a lifetime. Sometimes we are the carriers. Sometimes we are being carried. I'm glad God chose to have this story in the bible, it shows we need our brothers and sisters. Life is too long to be lonely. How can we here carry you?
Tomorrow's passage: Deuteronomy 20-22, Luke 6:1-26
4 comments:
Grrrr, I had my comment all typed out and then got an error when I published it! Let's see if I can remember what I said...
I really enjoyed your post, Kathryn, it's always interesting for me to read someone's thoughts on how something happened when we're only given such a short description in the Bible. This story is in Matthew, Mark and Luke, so it must be important! (Mark does say he was carried by four men, but it sounds like it was a larger group all together.)
Deuteronomy 17:18-19 stood out to me today. "When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees..." How can we better keep God's word in the forefront of our hearts and minds than to read them every day?
Great post Kathryn. I've always loved this story too, and it was used recently in a Team Leadership seminar put on by our church - incredible the amount of teamwork it required to get their friend to Jesus.
I hate when that happens too Miriam!
Great post. I admire the persistence of the friends as well and hope that I can be that kind of friend to others as well.
What stood out for me was the whole idea of the cities of refuge. I have to wonder if it happened often that people killed each other by accident?? What I like about these cities is that it is a way out of what would have been death as the punishment. You still had a consequence for your actions but God provided a way to escape a more serious fate. God is our refuge and strength and we just need to know that he is there to help us out of our current situation. There will still be consequences but He is able to save us from what we really deserve.
What a wonderful way to look at this story! I need to carry my friends to Jesus. Thank-you!
Post a Comment