18 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was
paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they
could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up
on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst
before Jesus.
One
of my favorite stories in the Gospels is this one found in Luke 5:17-26. To get
the full picture of what happened on this occasion you should also read Matthew
9:1-8 and Mark 2:1-12. Jesus is in Capernaum healing and teaching the crowds of
people that are coming to Him from the surrounding region of Galilee. On this “certain
day” Jesus is in a house teaching, and sitting closest to Him was a group
of Pharisees and teachers of the law.
This
group of religious leaders must have previously set a specific time, and they
came from different towns in Galilee, from the region of Judea, and from as far
away as the city of Jerusalem. They were not there out of curiosity, but to
find fault with Jesus and His teaching. It is apparent that already Jesus has
become a threat to the religious authority and stronghold they had over the people.
As
this group of religious leaders show up with their entourage, I can picture the
crowd parting and make way for them to get into the house to sit the closest to
Jesus. But in verse 18, when four men show up with their paralyzed friend, no
one gets out of the way as they attempt to go through the crowd to get him to
Jesus to be healed. Just as the leper in the previous verses is a picture of
sin diseased sinner, this paralyzed man is a picture of a helpless sinner who cannot
get to Jesus on own. He needs someone to bring him.
Amazing,
it is no different today. The crowd often stands in the way of helpless sinners
trying to get to Jesus. It could even be the crowd of “church goers” who are so
busy with their activities of singing, serving and other ministries that they don’t
take the time to be friendly, or speak to the lone strange looking visitor who
is there seeking the healing touch of Jesus.
It
could be that the “crowd” is that group of people at church that are the
hypocrites that the sinner sees when he shows up at church. When he saw them at
the workplace or in the neighborhood, they were anything but a Christian. It
could be that the “crowd” is a group of our family or friends that we are afraid
will make fun of us, or even reject us, if we attempt to come to Jesus and start
living a transformed life.
What
crowd is keeping you from Jesus today? What crowd is keeping you from bringing
your lost friends to Jesus today? But thank the Lord for these four friends
that each took a corner of this paralyzed man’s cot, found a way to the back of
the house, carried him up a ladder to get on the roof, tore up a hole in the
roof big enough to put him down through, found a rope to tie to the four
corners of the cot, and then work together to carefully lower him down “in
the midst before Jesus”.
They
truly believe that if only they could get their helpless paralyzed friend
within touch of Jesus he could be healed, and nothing was going to stop them
from trying! I wonder what excuses we are making today for not bringing our family
and friends to Jesus. It is so sad that there must be so many sin sick sinners
just waiting for someone to invite them to come to Jesus and they are saying
like the Psalmist in Psalm 142:4, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld,
but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my
soul.”
May
the Lord help us to be like these four friends and do all we can to bring
others to Jesus!
God
bless!
