I’m a big fan of Jesus. (That should be obvious by now.) There’s this story recorded in the Gospel of Mark about Jesus healing a paralyzed man. It blew my mind away when I read it recently.
I’d heard the story a dozen times since childhood – this man couldn’t walk, so his four friends climbed up to the roof and removed part of the house to lower the paralyzed man down to Jesus in a packed house where people pressed close to this wise and powerful teacher. Jesus tells the man his sins are forgiven, the religious elite freak, and Jesus tells the man to get up and walk.
Now, that in itself has some pretty powerful implications – Jesus heals the man physically only after the scribes question his bold move of forgiving the mans sins. I was caught up a sentence before that though. Mark 2:5 says, “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.'” You might have missed it because I know I’d never seen it before. When Jesus saw their faith, he spoke to the paralytic. When Jesus saw their faith. The friends brought the paralytic to Jesus. Then the Lord, in his mercy, healed the most important thing first – Son, your sins are forgiven. Which is easier to say – your sins are forgiven or rise up and walk? Jesus did both for the sake of the scribes.
He healed the man’s soul because of the faith of the friends; he healed the man’s body because of the lack of faith of the scribes. What must it have felt like for the man in question?
I have an idea.
That man saw Jesus. That man listened to Jesus and obeyed. That man isn’t even named, and this is where I find such importance in his story. Christianity is a faith in community. The man was healed because of their faith. It wasn’t a one man show. He couldn’t get to Jesus on his own. I need to be carried before Jesus by all of you reading this.
I am weak and in need of help. Please, please keep carrying me to Jesus; I need him to forgive my sins, to heal my soul. Jesus is the only one who can do that. That’s the priority.
Now, there are also some scribes watching this story unfold. When I walk again, it’s so “that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Mark 2:10).
This unnamed paralytic exits the biblical narrative after a dozen verses and Mark records many more miracles as he follows the life of Jesus. Though we don’t have a record of it, I have a guess at what this man’s life might have been like. I have a feeling he never shut up about this encounter with Jesus. He was paralyzed; his friends brought him to Jesus; his sins were forgiven. Oh, and he got to walk too.
I can imagine the epic dance party he had with his friends later that night. I’ll have it with my friends someday too. The soundtrack for that night will include “Oh, Happiness” by David Crowder and a whole lot of Family Force Five. Please, please keep carrying me to Jesus.
