Beautiful Friendship and Life-saving Commitment that Jesus blesses
Mark 2:1-12
In the above animation clip created by Come & See UNSW Student Club, voice was not added yet.
The books of the Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) tell us about people who made outstanding effort and get attention from the Lord. Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus and was noticed & saved by Jesus (Luke 19:1-10). A blind man shouted all the more “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” despite of people’s rebuke and gained the sight (Luke 18:35-42).
In Mark 2:1-12, a paralytic carried by four friends is an example of such outstanding effort.
They couldn’t get the paralytic to Jesus due to overflowing crowd. So they dig a hole in the roof and lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, He forgave the man’s sins and healed his disease.
Here, first of all, we can think of the love and faith of four friends of the paralysed man.
In the books of the Gospel, we can see many cases that Jesus healed a patient due to his/her mother, father or master’s faith and love.
Carrying a person on the mat, climbed to the roof, digging a hole on the roof, and lowering down the mat with a man all take a lot of time and effort. Without love toward the friend, without faith in Jesus, doing all these hard work wouldn’t be possible.
This type of beautiful friendship is possible in Jesus, who unites us in love.
1 John 5:1 says
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
One who is born of God loves the children of God. They are spiritual brothers and sisters. A brother naturally loves the brother born of the same father. All born of God are one family. Only family member shows care like no other.
Secondly, we can learn life-saving dedication of these four friends.
The life of Apostle Paul is full of such examples of dedication to save others’ lives. He earned his own living and shared the Gospel free of charge to save more people without becoming their burden.
Paul confessed in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23,
19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
God bless those who serve others to win as many souls as possible. Amen.
