Experiencing Jesus, thanks to others’ love and selflessness

By Medicine Hat News on August 25, 2018.

Imagine four friends who loved you enough to lift you up, and physically carry you, who knows how many blocks, to get to where you need to be to receive breakthrough and healing in your life. Now imagine those same four friends, unable to get you there by normal methods, lift you on top of a building, tear through the roof, and lower you down, regardless of any physical or financial consequences that they will have to endure. Four friends that love you so much, that they will do anything to see you set free of that which is holding you back, even when you are at your lowest, even when you are paralyzed and unable to move, and just want to be left alone.

In Mark 2, we see four friends do exactly that, carry their paralyzed friend to Jesus, but with the crowds so thick, they had to go through the roof to get their friend to the One who could set him free. Where others might have given up, these friends pressed on and found a path that no one else dared to take. It was risky, and it would have repercussions, but they knew that in order for their friend to walk again, they needed to get him to Jesus regardless of the cost. In the end, Jesus tells us it was “their faith” (5), the faith of the friends, that allowed the paralytic to be healed.

The man did nothing but allowed his friends to take him to Jesus. He couldn’t get there on his own, he was completely dependent on those around him, to take him to the place he couldn’t get to, but needed to be. He had to allow himself to be humbled and to accept the fact that this was something he could not do by himself.

I have been there. Years ago, in one of the darkest moments of my life, I was curled up on the floor of my living room, unable to move, paralyzed by fear, doubt and grief. Though I had preached hundreds of sermons, led many to Jesus, even was used by God to start Christian radio in our community, I know what it is like to be emotionally and spiritually paralyzed. It was at that moment, that friends knocked at my door, true people of faith, who had heard what was going on, and where others judged and let their tongues wag, they came got into my house, refused to listen to me when I said I just wanted to be left alone, and physically, emotionally, and spiritually brought me to Jesus. They knew what I needed. They loved me enough not to let anything stand in their way from bringing me to the place where I could be set free. They knew that “thoughts and prayers” were not enough. They knew that they had to come and actually pick me up and carry me to where I needed to be, because I was incapable of doing it myself. Because of their love and selflessness, I was able to experience Jesus again, even at my low point, and that made all the difference in enduring suffering and trials that looking back, I know not how I would have made it.

This is why I believe Paul warns us “not to forsake meeting together” but to “encourage one another daily” (Hebrews 10:25). No matter how strong spiritually you think you are, we all have moments when we stumble and fall (think Elijah), and need those in the faith to come around us, to encourage us, and to help us move forward to where Jesus is so we can be set free.

And let us remember we reap what we sow; we need to be the type of Christian that judges not, but that moves heaven and earth to help those who are at their lowest, knowing that Christ Jesus is what they need so that they can experience freedom from all that would hold them back. If you are looking for a church community, I encourage you visit the church directory page at 937praisefm.com.

Scott Raible is a pastor at Medicine Hat Church of God and an on air personality with 93.7 Praise FM.