Persevering In Pursuing God

This morning I am reading from Mark 2:1-5 NIV:

[1] "A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. [2] They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. [3] Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. [4] Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. [5] When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

This story is generally well known, at least to me, and as I was reading it this morning, I had a couple of thoughts. First, I was thinking about the fact that as soon as people heard Jesus had come home they gathered. Now Jesus had grown up in Nazareth, but had moved to Capernaum once he started His public ministry, so he had only lived in Capernaum a little while. The people gathered outside His home, one wonders if it was rented, or if He owned it. Regardless, the roof the men start digging through is apparently Jesus' roof! Later He tells people that if they follow Him, they won't have a roof over their head, and I wonder if He was referencing this event? :-) Anyway, these men are desperate to get their friend close to Jesus, and tore off Jesus' roof to get to Him. I find it strange that once Jesus heard the noise above Him that He didn't stop and command the crowd to make room for the men, for clearly they were making a mess of the place. He was either "in the zone" or following His Father's leading, so that the rest of the events would unfold as they did.

Secondly, the paralyzed man had four ambulatory friends whom were desperate to see their friend healed. That makes me believe that his state was due to something relatively recent, either that or he had an amazing personality. The culture in those days did not have much room for the lame, the weak, etc. Their lives were generally filled with begging, for they had no socialized health system. If he had been paralyzed for long, his friends would likely have been like himself, beggars. Instead, here was a young man with four desperate friends, who were strong and determined. Having several friends and family members who are seriously sick, the initial phase of diagnosis is when it seems everyone is around trying to help, and I think that was true of the four friends, their buddy was only recently paralyzed and they were willing to do what it took to see him healthy.

A quick note on this, it is always wonderful to have many people around you when you have recently received difficult news, but its even more helpful to have people stand with you through the long arduous times of treatment. We want to pray for this type of devotion, dedication and desperation toward those loved ones who have been battling their situations for long times. So often we lose our drive and determination, and just learn to accept the situation, but I believe the Lord can and does heal, so let us keep pressing on, digging through whatever we need to see them healed.

Finally, I am guessing that his injury might have been related to some of the sins Jesus forgave. I believe this is the only case where Jesus addressed a person's sins prior to healing them. Jesus never seemed to do the same thing twice, and we should make sure that we don't create a theology around this one event. That being said, Jesus was also making a significant point, that He spoke for the Father, and the Father was the one forgiving sins, and as His Son, He was representing that authority. This was not lost on those around Him, for they immediately start questioning His actions in their minds. Jesus was stating very clearly who He was, the people just couldn't accept it. The healing of the man was the exclamation point to His statement about representing the Father. Only God could bring healing like that, instantaneous and complete, and Jesus demonstrated that He was from Him, and operated in His authority.

It is also very interesting to note that it was in response to the faith of the group that He forgave the young man's sins, and then healed him. This is a great example of the power of intercessory prayer, for this is the physical demonstration of what the intercessor does through their prayers. They pray until they see breakthrough, as we see in this story, specifically breaking through the roof to get to Jesus.

So I am encouraged this day to press in, to persevere and pursue the Lord for healing for those I love. He doesn't seem to mind our making a mess in doing so, He is looking at our hearts and our faith. He has the authority and power to heal, let us go to Him.