As Jesus was teaching a large group of people, including church leaders, four men made it a priority to find a way to take their paralyzed friend to the Son of Man. And through their faith, Jesus healed the man both spiritually and physically. In this week’s episode, Garett Wall explores what our churches can learn from the urgency and faithfulness of the man’s friends and how God is glorified in all of it.
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Quick Links:
040: A Message for Children's Ministers on Inclusion with Sandra Peoples
008: Having The Hard Conversation About Healing with Dr. Lamar Hardwick
Jesus and Disability: A Guide to Creating an Inclusive Church
Transcript:
Hello everyone! Welcome to Key Ministry: The Podcast. My name is Garett Wall and I’m your host this week for episode 56. Today, we will learn about a group of faithful friends who were determined to take someone they cared about to Jesus and the extraordinary things that followed once they got there. We’ll talk about what our churches can learn from the urgency and faithfulness of the man’s friends and how the Son of Man is glorified in all of that.
At Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky where I’m blessed to serve on the Shine Disabilities Ministry team, we have a set of five mantras or phrases that guide us as a church as we strive to live out the Great Commission. One of those mantras is “Wreck the Roof,” which is taken from a miraculous event during Jesus’s earthly ministry that we can read about in three of the Gospels. Found in Matthew 9, Mark 2, and Luke 5, we learn of a man who was paralyzed, his four friends who take him to Jesus and the spiritual and physical healing that follows. The “Wreck the Roof” phrase comes from the actions of the four friends who physically removed sections of the roof on the house where Jesus was teaching.
The paralyzed man, his friends and the healing power of Jesus were discussed on this podcast by co-host Sandra Peoples in March of this year and also by co-host Lamar Hardwick in June of 2022. Today, I want us to dive a little deeper into the Scripture and learn more about this particular miraculous day in the life of Jesus. During our conversation, we’ll focus primarily on Luke’s account of what happened that day, but we’ll also see how each of the three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—share important details that help paint a clearer picture of what we can learn from this amazing example of faith and perseverance.
To begin, I want to read verses 17 through 26 in chapter 5 of the Gospel of Luke and allow God’s Word to be the foundation for today’s conversation.
17 On one of those days, as he (Jesus) was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19 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 midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
As we move through today’s episode, I’ll be referring to this Biblical account as a story, but I want to preface that by clarifying that this isn’t just a story like one we’d read in a fictional book but instead is an actual event where the miraculous and perfect power of Jesus was displayed for all to experience. And because this specific account of spiritual and physical healing by Jesus is shared in three of the Gospels, I believe it’s important for us to seek out the significance of what happened that day and what we as followers of Jesus can learn and apply from it.
There are four sets of key players in this story—Jesus, who refers to himself as the Son of Man; the Pharisees, teachers of the law and the scribes; the paralyzed man; and the man’s friends.
Each of these play significant roles in what occurred that day. Before we proceed through the Scripture, I wanted to point out each of these groups so that we can focus on how God works in each of them and through each of them to glorify his Son, because this is really about the eternal hope and healing we find when we place our faith and our belief in Jesus.
The story begins with Jesus teaching and sharing with an audience, which included Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from villages far and near. In Mark’s account, we learn that so many people were there to hear from Jesus that there was no room left in the home, not even in the doorway. This house was packed with people from all over but most notable in this large crowd were the Pharisees and the teachers of the law—a group that could also be known as modern-day church leaders.
So, these church people had made it a priority to fill this home and hear from this man, who, according to Luke 5:17, had the power of the Lord to heal. At this point in his earthly ministry, Jesus had already done the miraculous and he was bold in what he was saying as he taught the word. There was something different about him and people were trying to learn more about him and from him.
From here, the focus of the story turns to the paralyzed man and the friends who cared for him. We don’t know a lot about the man, but we do know, from a historical perspective, that life in ancient Israel for someone paralyzed was a lonely and isolating experience. In her article from 2000, Josie Byzek explained that only one occupation was open to a person who could not walk or was blind and that occupation was begging. She describes it as a miserable existence. And with that extreme isolation came no hope for support and help from the religious community. As Chris Hulsof explains in his book Jesus and Disability, “the condition of paralysis would have prevented this man from access to the temple.” The same church people who had filled the house to hear from Jesus were not only avoiding someone like the paralyzed man, but they had also created barriers that prevented him from accessing the temple and receiving the forgiveness of sins.
This man was faced with a life and death of hopeless isolation until his friends found a way to change his eternal destiny.
These friends had most certainly heard about Jesus, and they believed He could do something for their friend that he couldn’t find anywhere else. They had to know it would be physically demanding carrying him on the mat to the house where Jesus would be teaching, but they believed their friend was worth it. They didn’t care about the risk, and they didn’t listen to the reasons why it wouldn’t work.
Their friend was important to them, and they wanted to do everything they could to give him healing and hope.
As they arrived at the house, I’m guessing they may have experienced a moment of discouragement when they saw how many people were already there. After the physically demanding journey just to get to the house, they immediately came to the realization that getting their friend to Jesus would not be possible with their Plan A. But that didn’t stop them because taking their friend to Jesus was too important for them to quit now.
“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 midst before Jesus.” That’s how it’s recorded in Luke, while Mark explains that “they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.”
These four friends literally removed sections of the roof to lower their friend to Jesus.
The process of removing the roof would have required immense amount of time and energy and patience. It likely would have caused a significant distraction to the teaching that was happening with Jesus. And it likely would have been very messy. This is the ultimate example of disabilities ministry—time, energy, and patience; distractions; and messy ministry. They refused to allow the reasons why it shouldn’t work to prevent them from having the faith and belief that it would work.
So, what happens when they literally go the extra mile to take their friend to Jesus?
What happens when they’re willing to create a disturbance so their friend with a disability can get to Jesus?
What happens when they don’t worry about the challenges or the messiness of making their friend with special needs a priority?
And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” That’s what happens when they do those things.
We’re not told exactly whose faith Jesus was referring to, but we know it was the faith of multiple people and that faith certainly included some, if not all the man’s friends. And it seems likely the man himself had some level of faith as he allowed his friends to follow through with their plan. In fact, can you imagine for a moment being the paralyzed man and seeing the love and faith and belief of your friends as they not only carried you to the house where Jesus was teaching but also carried you to the roof, ripped a hole in the roof and then lowered you through the hole to the feet of Jesus. That kind of faith and love from your friends would most certainly foster faith and love in you as they did everything possible to take you to Jesus.
And why Jesus? Because only He can forgive sins. As the Pharisees and scribes watched all this occurring, they didn’t like any part of it. They probably didn’t appreciate the work of the friends to bring the paralyzed man to the feet of Jesus and they probably didn’t enjoy the disturbance it most certainly caused in the scheduled activities. They went from sitting and listening to the teachings of Jesus to asking “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Matthew describes it as evil in their hearts in his gospel. They knew that only God was able to forgive sins, but they didn’t believe that Jesus was who He said he was. Knowing their questions and their unbelief, Jesus asks them to consider whether it’s easier to forgive someone of their sins or to heal them from paralysis and then he tells them that he, the Son of Man, has the authority to do both.
And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.” Did you catch that? Amazement seized them all and they glorified God! This house full of people were left amazed and they glorified God. And what did they say about what they experienced? “We have seen extraordinary things today.” They most certainly did see extraordinary things that day. And they were left in awe!
When I think about this story and how it should impact us today, I often wonder how many of our churches are places where a group of faithful friends would actually want to take their friend with a disability?
Would they believe their friend with a disability would be received with the same kind of love and care and compassion we see from Jesus with the paralyzed man? Whether inadvertently or not, have we setup our church systems and services and classes in such a way that we’re actually blocking the path to Jesus for the disability community?
To double down on this, are our churches willing to tear through a roof to take someone to Jesus?
As pastors and ministry leaders and elders and deacons and followers of Jesus, we should have an urgency to take the Gospel to all people.
When we read the story of the paralyzed man and his four faithful friends who carried him to Jesus, my prayer is that we would a group of pastors and ministry leaders and elders and deacons and followers of Jesus would be willing to rip the roof the off of a building or to create a sensory room or a quiet room or find and train volunteers to lead a buddy ministry or create ways for those with disabilities to find community in our churches so they can experience the same kind of love and care and faith the paralyzed man experienced with his friends as they found a way to take him to Jesus.
As we close our time together today, I encourage you to consider the possibility that God wants to honor the faith of you and your church as you take the Gospel to the disability community in the same ways he honored the faith of the paralyzed man and his friends.
We should begin by following the lead of Jesus. As Chris Hulsof writes in “Jesus and Disability,” “Jesus’s interaction with the paralyzed man demonstrates a personal desire that forgiveness and inclusion be extended to the disabled.”
Jesus wasn’t bothered by the distractions or the messiness or the challenges that came with the paralyzed man. He saw the faith; he honored it by healing the man and he received the glory.
As we seek to share the good news of Jesus, let us have a persistence and a faith like that of the four friends, who refused to allow any obstacle to prevent them from delivering their friend to the Son of Man. And if we live with that kind of love and faith and perseverance in our churches today, we will see extraordinary things through the power of Jesus Christ in the lives of our friends and families in the disability community.
Thank you for joining me again this week for Key Ministry: The Podcast. You can find a transcript of this episode as well as helpful links and notes related to today’s conversation at keyministry.org/podcast. We appreciate each of you and our prayer is that this week’s episode will help foster even more conversations in our churches about taking the Gospel of Jesus to everyone and removing barriers that prevent our friends and families in the disability community from experiencing the life-changing love of Jesus. Have a blessed week and I look forward to talking with you again soon.
