“Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. “Mark 2:3
In this passage we read about four men carrying a paralytic man to Jesus. We can imagine all the challenges his friends would have faced to bring him to Jesus for healing. We know that he could not walk by himself and that he was very weak. Also there is no mention that the sick man knew or had heard of Jesus. It was the faith of his friends that made them bring their sick friend to Jesus. If they had waited for their sick friend to go by himself, there were chances he would have died without ever getting an opportunity to be delivered. Another challenge was that the village had never experienced or seen such a miracle happen before. There were chances that the people would laugh and mock at them as they took their friend to Jesus to be healed. They could also face opposition from the religious rulers as they had not accepted Christ for who He was. Another difficulty was the crowd surrounding Jesus. They were so immersed in their own problems and sicknesses that they had no time or energy to show mercy to this paralytic man. In spite of his condition, they were not willing to help or move from their places around Christ or to help. They were actually a hindrance to those who wanted to come near Jesus. We also know that these four men had lives of their own, jobs, families to attend to, reputations etc., so they were also paying a price to bring their friend to Jesus.
The point of today’s devotion is for us to examine ourselves and decide to which of these groups of people do we belong. First we see the paralytic man who is weak but who needs Jesus’ touch. Then we see the four friends who step out and take action and carry the sick man to Jesus. Another groups arethose who are with Jesus and know Him, they have seen and experienced His powers but do nothing to bring others to Jesus. In fact they become a hindrance for others to come.
The four friends who knew Jesus decided to do the right thing. They were willing to sacrifice their time and energy so that their friend would experience not only a physical healing but also a spiritual healing. They were not selfish. They didn’t just settle with knowing Jesus themselves, they wanted others to experience Him as well. They stepped out and brought their friend who didn’t know Jesus so that he would benefit from this source of eternal healing.
What is our role as a believer today? Jesus would definitely love for us to move our hearts, our feet, our eyes and all our resources in such a way that we draw people who are in tremendous need to Him. Such people are all around us. However, we need to move from where we are even if it is the place from which we feel we are constantly in touch with Jesus. Isn’t this what Jesus did to save us? He left the constant presence of His Father and came down to the earth in the bodily form of His own creation. This required Him to always ask His Father what to do next. Nevertheless He was constantly enjoying the presence of His Father. This is true with us also. When we move to people who are without Christ we may miss: the perfect songs of the choir; the well prepared sermons from a grandly dressed Pastor; sitting in a multimillion rupees worth hall with all the infrastructure and minutely adjusted temperature conditions. All with a well cultured group of believers. But! Jesus expects us to go out from our place of familiarity and comfort to the dirtiest spiritual and physical locations and share about Jesus and bring the lost souls to Him. He would be happy to see His children doing that and He is promising us that when we do this we will enjoy His constant presence in a way we never experienced before.
Today let us make a decision to do what Jesus wants us to do.(Email.abynewbihar@gmail.com)
