Mark 2

 

              It’s two thousand years ago, maybe a little more. There’s a man that has been paralyzed as long as he can remember. Except in those ancient times, it was called palsy. But the name of the disease really isn’t important. What matters is that he had been bedridden probably for many years, and possibly many decades. But he isn’t without hope. The Miracle-worker is in town, and he is determined to see Him. He has found four friends to take him to the house the Miracle-worker is teaching in. I wonder how he had summoned his four friends. Were they friends from childhood days at school? Or maybe cousins that stopped by? I don’t know. But they had agreed to carry him and his bed to the house and see if he could be healed. But they ran into a problem. The house was packed. It was standing room only and filled out the door. There was no way to get five more guys and a bed inside. These were resourceful men though, and they weren’t going to be so easily deterred. The floor of the house was full, but there was one place that wasn’t. They could climb on the roof. I’m assuming it was probably a flat roof, or maybe just angled down one way. I also just imagine there were probably some olive trees hanging over the roof that allowed easy access for the four friends to scale to the roof and then raise their bedridden comrade up to join them. Once they were all atop the house all that remained was to get the bed and the paralyzed man lowered in. I wonder at this point if it was a one room house or how they knew where to make the hole in the roof. No doubt though it caused quite a spectacle as they proceeded to remodel the roof to fit their needs. But now is when it really gets interesting. The Miracle-worker, Jesus saw the man laying in front of him. But instead of healing him, he said, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” (Mark 2:5) Why did he do that? Why not heal the man first and then forgive his sins. As it turns out, some of the people in the room had similar questions. The scribes wondered, “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark 2:7) Jesus could tell what they were thinking and approached them about it. He asked them if they thought it would be easier to forgive the man’s sins or make him walk. And then to demonstrate His power, power to heal and to forgive sins, He told the man to, “Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house” (Mark 2:11). At this command, the man got up and walked out, healed and forgiven. No doubt it was real to him what Jesus had saw. Not an invalid confined to his bed, but a man with a soul that needed to be saved. And no doubt he realized that salvation was more important even than his health problems. I wonder if I have that vision today? That Jesus is interested in His child’s life and happiness. But when He looks down, what He sees first is a soul that must be saved.