Recently, our youth ministry studied Mark 2, a very exciting passage. A paralytic was carried up the roof by his friends, so that they could “lay him before Jesus”. (Must-read Mark 2:1-12.)
We had many questions, including:
1. Did Jesus heal the paralytic to SHOW the resentful Pharisees?
2. Did the friends’ repair the roof after-ward??!!!??
3. Did Jesus forgive the sins of paralytic on account of his friends’ faith? Shouldn’t it be due to the paralytic’s own faith?
(…when he [Jesus] saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” vs 5)
All exciting questions, but here we discuss Q3.
First, aren’t we all impressed by these friends? They hauled their deadweight friend up a roof, while balancing themselves, made a big hole in it, and let him down dramatically and precariously, with some cool, innovative contraption/awesome muscle effort.
I believe Jesus was impressed too. He “saw their faith” – what was this faith that he saw?
Faith in Jesus? Faith in each other? In themselves? In their friend? All of the above! Faith enough to persevere, organise themselves to complete this daring mission. They were not going home until they put their friend right in front of Jesus! So much faith!
These were clearly men of generous and good hearts. Their actions also speak for their paralytic friend. Who was he, that these men risked so much for him? Likely, he was someone who had proven worthy of their love. They had faith in him and his worth.
If you became paralytic, would you have enough friends to carry you up a roof? Conversely, how many of your friends, if they were paralysed, would you carry up a roof?
As a church – let’s be like these friends. Let’s have faith – in Jesus, in each other, in our church. Also – let’s ourselves be worthy of our brothers’ and sisters’ faith and love. As a church, we must act courageously as these men had.
Kim Yong
