Who do you have in your life that you know would do just about anything for you?  Do you have people that would make significant sacrifices simply for your own good?  My guess is that most of you have even more people than you realize that love you enough to do this. Jesus encountered a crippled man once who had some really good friends like that.  Let’s look at the account today found in Luke 5. 

17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” 21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

While the healing of this man is incredible and the interaction with the Pharisees is significant and important as Jesus reveals that He can forgive sins.  The thing that I’d like to focus on today is this man’s friends.  First of all in that time and culture.  Those that were sick or crippled were often looked down upon.  There was a belief that this person’s sins had caused their affliction.  Yet these men take their friend to Jesus.  When they see the large crowds and realize that they can’t make their way to Him they come up with a bold plan.  They climb onto the roof of the house Jesus is in and open up the roof and lower their friend down to where Jesus is.  They have now made a huge statement.  They have carried this sinner and obviously touched him.  They have broken someone’s roof and have gone through a tremendous amount of work simple to get their friend to Jesus.  Two questions come to my mind.  How important is it to have friends like that in our life that bring us to Jesus?  The second question is what lengths do we go to to bring others to Jesus?  I hope that we all can say that we might not give up when things get challenging but that we would do whatever it takes to bring others to Jesus.  These friends certainly did!

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave