I’ve read and heard about the story of Jesus healing the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12) umpteen times, but for the very first time today, I saw the story from a different viewpoint, one which I never did before. Quite interestingly, it was the children in my classroom who helped me see this story anew. This happened as I was retelling the story to them.At interval times, I would pause and ask the children to imagine themselves in the story- to visualize the feelings or thoughts of the paralytic man, four men and the crowd. Now, I’ve never imagined myself as one of the four men who brought the paralytic man to Jesus, but the kids were very good at it. And as they were sharing their thoughts and feelings, I began to see the love and amazing faith these four men had.
The Bible didn’t say whether these men were friends or relatives to the paralytic. Nevertheless, whether as a friend or relative, these men showed that they truly cared for the paralytic and had faith that Jesus would make him walk again. Having seen that there was no way they could get the paralytic to Jesus upon their arrival, due to the large crowd around the house, they could have just gone back and said “Let’s come back again another day”, or “Let's just forget it”.
Yet, they did not. They did not give up so easily. They went to the extreme by opening the roof of the house and lower their friend down slowly when it wasn’t even their house!! They were willing to bring his friend to Jesus at any cost.
At this point, it makes me kind of wonder if I demonstrate such faith and love towards my friends too. Do I do whatever it takes to bring my loved ones to Jesus? Sometimes I try to, but not always. I know that there are still times when I would rather be a passive Christian who need not do ‘weird’ things. Coz’ then I won’t have to fear rejection or risk being laughed at by people.
For this, I ask for Your forgiveness and grace to help me be a passionate follower of you, dear Lord.
2 comments:
One thing popped to mind some seconds before I peeked on your blog ^^ I thought about the numbers of rejections I received per week, either for Care group, any special activities, sunday service.. At times, the number can reach more than 20. Disheartening, I must say. For a moment, I thought, why should I go that far to beg people? Why can't I be any other tom, dick and harry. Strange enough, two things came to mind. One, it is about Jesus. He was rejected, yet He endured because He saw the higher purpose. Two, I remembered what I read from my sister's blog - she wrote: "through serving, giving, contributing,we know that:
(1) Life is not just about us.
(2) Life offers much.
(3) What we have is so much that we are able to give and keep giving.
(4) when we serve, we remember Jesus has came to this earth to serve a mission
(5) When we serve, we serve our LOrd Jesus Christ.
And now, as i read your blog, this is the third....
I realized, life is not about living for myself or others, but for a higher calling - to put God in the centre. When Jesus is in my life, perhaps I can be someone like the friend/relative/stranger to the paralyze man. To see and witness a life being changed.
Sadly, I have not seen one myself. Only heart breaks. But I am determine to perseverve so that I will not miss the destined day.
huh huh.. this is a very long comment, I must say ^^ Ya la, I have been waiting for your posts for monthsssss... ^^ hope all goes well with you.. See you (in August??? ^^)
finally... after 4 months haha
welcome back! >.<
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