Determined To Get To Jesus

MESSAGE: Power To Forgive Sins Pt. 2 (podcast)
SCRIPTURE: Luke 5.16-26

One of the main points of my message this past week was that we, as Christ-followers, need to be coming up with creative ways to bring the lost to Jesus. In the story of Jesus healing the paralytic, we have the example of his friends who, when they saw that Jesus was inaccessible through the front door, they had to use their brains and their creativity to find a way to get their paralyzed friend to the feet of Jesus. Their solution? Lower him through the roof. This solution was, I think, creative and a demonstration of the commitment of these guys to make sure that their friend saw Jesus.

Also worthy of our consideration in this narrative, however, is the realization that not only what these guys did required some ingenuity, but it also required some work. Allow me to explain.

Jewish houses in the first century B.C. consisted of walls that were made of field stones held together by dried mud and clay. The houses usually consisted of a few rooms that were usually open to the entire house. This made it ideal for Jesus to be in - he could be in one room, yet accessed by the entire crowd that was in the house.

Most houses had simple and easy roof access, either through a ladder in the interior of the house, or by some steps on one of the exterior walls (we'll assume that this house had exterior roof access for the purposes of this story).

The roofs of the houses were typically supported by wood beams that were laid across the width of the supporting walls of the rooms in the house. And then on top of the beams were brush and shrubs mixed with mud and clay, which are then packed down into a smooth surface.

So then, here is the assumed process that these guys had to follow in order to accomplish their task of lowering their friend to Jesus:

1) They first had to carry the paralyzed man up the stairs to get to the top of the house. I was recently a pall bearer at my uncle's funeral (the first time I had ever done such a thing). Myself and, I think, five other guys carried my uncle's casket down steps from the church and loaded it into the hearse. I can testify to you that carrying a human body is not an easy thing - even if it's just a short distance. I can also attest to the difficulty of carrying a human body up or down steps - the whole process becomes even more difficult.

2) Once atop the roof, these men had to make their way through the roof. This would have been difficult, and probably would have required at least some use of tools. The mixture of brush, shrubs, and dried mud would have made for a thick, hard surface. Luke's gospel says that this mud mixture was formed into tiles that these guys peeled away. Even still, this would have been an enormously difficult task, not to mention having to do so while making sure that no significant chunks of roof fell into the house on the people inside. If you think about it, this hole probably had to be at least 6 feet by 4 feet in order to fit a prostrate male. That's a darn big hole in the roof.

3) This endeavor to bring their friend to Jesus required sacrifice on the part of the friends. These guys sacrificed their time to do this, and they also had to put in a significant amount of effort. Not to mention all that, but this is not their house. They are inflicting damage to someone else's house. Do you think the home owner was excited that his roof was being torn apart? Probably not. I'm sure that he insisted upon being reimbursed for the damages to his property, and this reimbursement no doubt came from the pockets of the friends. Thus, they were willing to not only do the work, but also pay for the damages.

4) Once they were on the roof and the whole had been created, the friends had to find a way to lower the paralytic down. See my earlier paragraph on the surprising weight of the human body. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to lower this guy down to Jesus, while keeping his bed level so he didn't fall off, and making sure he wasn't dropped, etc. It had to be very difficult. And not only that, but these guys had to find rope to attach to the bed in order to lower him down (probably at least four 20-foot lengths of rope).

I could go on and on about all of the remarkable details that surrounded this display of compassion on the part of these friends. The point is that getting your friends before Jesus probably won't (actually, most assuredly won't) be an easy thing to do. Here are some parallels between the actions these friends took, and the actions we need to take to get people in front of Jesus:

1) It's going to take a lot of work on your part. In most instances you'll have to sacrifice your own personal time. Also, you'll most likely have to sacrifice some of your skill and labors - you'll have to work at it, and it'll probably be hard work.

2) Sometimes it might even require you to sacrifice financially - maybe the cost of a cup of coffee, or the cost of gas to pick someone up to go to church or a Bible study. The point is, you'll probably have to foot the bill sometimes.

3) Also, it's going to require careful skill and accuracy. You'll have to be careful about what you say. You'll have to be strategic and purposeful in your actions. You'll have to plan out how you're going to go about getting the lost in front of Jesus.

What it all comes down to is that these friends of the paralytic were determined to get their friend in front of Jesus. That was their priority, and they were going to take steps in order to make it happen. They knew it would be difficult - they knew it would be demanding - they knew it would require sacrifice - they knew it would require precision. They knew all these things. But they also knew the importance of the encounter. They knew that this guy HAD to get in front of Jesus, so they were willing to do what it took to get the job done.

Let us go and do likewise, doing anything and everything we can, striving to get the lost - those who need an encounter with Jesus - to his feet.