Find a Way

They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. (Luke 5:18-19)

Jesus was teaching to a large group of people crowded around him. Imagine some of the celebrities of our day, with their fans and the curious pressing in around them, and you’ll have an idea of this crammed house. Then four friends come along with their paralyzed man. They were willing to carry him on a stretcher to Jesus because they believed Jesus could make a difference in this man’s life.

We don’t know if they brought him to be healed or to hear Jesus. We know from Luke 5:15 that the news of Jesus’ teaching and healing was spreading. Either way, these men came. And they were unable to get to Jesus because of the throng.

The assembly, we assume, was filled with the curious and the needy and the skeptic as well. They wanted something from Jesus. Jesus was teaching and preaching to this gathering. Because Jesus’ first words to the paralytic were “Friend, your sins are forgiven,” was that the topic of Jesus’ teaching that day? Repentance means turn and go a new direction. Along comes a paralyzed man and the crowd ignores him. Did their application of Jesus’ teachings fail? We know that they saw no need to allow this needy man through to get into Jesus’ presence.

“Finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd…”

Do our needs or desires or traditions or expectations keep others away from Jesus? I’m fascinated by the friends’ response: they found a way. Am I so sure that Jesus makes a difference that I will overcome resistance, searching until I found the way to bring another to Jesus? Will I go on the rooftop to bring another to Jesus? Or does tradition keep me on the ground, pressing against a crowd that will not budge?

Preserve me from being a part of that crowd, unwilling to see the needs of people that Jesus came to meet. And give me to wings to climb to the roof, to do what it takes to bring another to Jesus.