Tear a hole in it.

¹⁸ Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, ¹⁹ but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus. ²⁰ Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.”

There are so many different levels to this short little story it’s not funny. First why were they bringing him to Jesus? To be healed or to have his sins forgiven or both? Jesus knew what the paralyzed man needed most and that was to be saved. So when you think of yourself or others what do you or they need most? The answer would be the same, to be saved. Then if you read on Jesus did heal the man but it was not really just so the man would be able to walk, it was for the benefit of all those who knew him so perhaps they would be saved as well. Jesus always has the big picture in mind. The next level would be about friends, what kind of friends do you have and what kind of friend are you? I once had a person tell me that they did not know what could have happened over the weekend because they got drunk and passed out. They were afraid of what their friends may have done to them while they were out. My response was if you have to worry about things like that are these people really your friends? Here in this story the paralyzed man had friends that were persistent for his benefit. They didn’t just say they were going to do something, or when it became difficult said, “Well we tried.” No, they crawled up on the roof tore a hole in it to get their friend to Jesus. I have to ask do you have friends like that? If you don’t you should. Then when you look at it from the other side as a believer are you ready to go to these lengths for those who are not saved? Will you even start? Will you give up when it gets tough or will you crawl up on a roof and tear a hole in it?