'..... He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home."He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God saying, "We have never seen anything like this!" (Mark 2:10-12 NIV)
As Jesus enters back into Capernaum, the place where he normally lived, many begin to gather. Men began bringing him a paralytic, but they couldn't get him to Jesus, so they made an opening in the roof and lowered the man on the mat. I can just envision how excited these people were that Jesus, the healer they had heard about, had come back to town. The ones knowing that someone needed healing wouldn't take no for an answer. They were going to do whatever it took to get the sick to Jesus, even if that meant taking extreme measures!
When's the last time we've done something extreme just to get to Jesus? We have trouble actually believing that somebody could be healed, but these guys it talks about here in Mark 2 knew that, if they could ever make it to Jesus, the paralytic would be healed! Once they got him to Jesus, He said "Get up, take your mat and go home!" Did Jesus heal the paralytic just because he could? No, Jesus says in verse 5 that he saw their faith!! Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, or better yet, it can heal many who are sick!
Mark 2:13-17 is one of my favorite descriptions of how just our Jesus is! Jesus is seen in this scripture eating with tax collectors and 'sinners', and when questioned of his motives, Jesus simply replies, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Living in a small town, which most of us around here do, I just know by the time we would have gotten back home that everybody would already be calling or texting asking you why you were with them. Many of us, who admit it or not, have our standards for how people should look or talk and that can have an effect on how we react to those around us.
If somebody fits our standard, then we are more likely to approach them and strike up a conversation than with someone who looks out of our standards. I believe one of our calls of being a Christian is to associate with those that don't always fit the standard or those that aren't always accepted by everyone else. When we do these things that aren't the normal, it can strike up a conversation and will allow us to explain that Jesus has no standards by which to judge! Use things that aren't of the normal to strike up a conversation about God, and who knows---you may lead someone to Christ!
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