May 10-16, 2020: Mark 2:1-12
Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God's character to be revealed.
Read: Mark 2: 1-12
Reflect: When is enough, enough? How far is too far when serving others?
In the book, Ministry of Healing, we are told that the disease that this man had was the result of living a sinful life and that his suffering was made worse by the guilt which he carried. We are not told what sin he had committed, but something he had done had left him with palsy. He had heard about how Jesus had healed others that were in a helpless condition as he found himself, but his greatest desire was relief from this burden of sin he was carrying. This man had no time to lose, as his flesh was wasting, and he bore the signs of death. There was no way for him to get to where Jesus was, but he had friends! Friends that would do anything to help him, friends who would not give up when circumstances went against them.
We find Jesus at the home of one of his disciples, and while there he had healed Peter’s mother-in-law, and word of this had spread like wildfire! This home was crowded and not just inside, there where people even crowding around the home outside and no one could get in. This man’s friends tried and tried to push their way through to Jesus, but they could not even get through to the door! This paralyzed man had friends who were determined to get him to Jesus no matter what they had to do. These friends found their way to the roof of Peter’s home. Since roofs in this area of the country were flat, these friends decided to either dismantle a portion of the roof, or cut a hole in the roof, and let their friend down to exactly where Jesus was sitting. The first words that Jesus said to this man were “Son, your sins are forgiven”. Jesus called this man teknon, which is the Greek word for “son”, or “child”, which communicates the love Jesus had for this man. This is the only time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus calls a person by this term.[1] No matter how helpless or hopeless we may feel, Jesus addresses us in the same way.
“The paralytic found in Christ healing for both the soul and the body. He needed health of the soul before he could appreciate health of body…Christ must bring relief to the mind, and cleanse the soul from sin…The peace which He alone can impart would restore vigor to the mind and health to the body”.[2]
And as for this man’s friends, they would not take “No” for an answer. They did not quit when things got rough. They did not focus on what seemed impossible. Alex Bryan calls these friends “humanitarian finishers… They apply resolve to their compassion so that a life actually changes.”[3]
Recalibrate: Do not quit when the going gets rough. How far is too far when showing love to one another? Can you be one that helps to change a life?
Research: Read, Ministry of Healing, pages 22-24; Jesus Wins, page 28.
Listen: There is None Like You, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnhUh2tt97Q and Lord, I Need You, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rR_Rdb1CTE