Faithful Friends Bring Sick Friends to Jesus

     If you had a friend who was dying of an illness, you would do anything to get them healed. I would bet to say that you would probably help get them to the doctor, get medication, search out articles that address their illness, etc. Or maybe you have friends in your life that are just too stubborn to go to the doctor when they are sick and you have to badger them to go to the doctor because they keep saying they are fine (I am one of those, I hate going to the doctor). Either way, if you had a friend that was sick, you would want them to be healthy and to receive help, and would probably go to great lengths to make sure they are healed. 
     This is the story of the men who carried their paralytic friend to Jesus in Mark 2:1-12. Four men are told to have been carrying their paralytic friend to Jesus, and mostly likely because they believed in their hearts that if this man could get to Jesus or if he could just touch the paralytic, the man would be healed. They would do anything to get this man to Jesus because he would be healed, so much so that they cut a hole in the roof of the man's house Jesus was in so that they could get the paralytic to Jesus. The story says that the crowds were so large that there was no way to get to Jesus, so these men were so determined that they lowered their friend through the roof to Jesus. Talk about a mighty faith, a faith that so moved these friends to take drastic measures to see their friend healed. 
     The question that is so convicting here is how great is your faith, does it move you to bring people to Jesus? I promise you we all have a sickness, it is called sin, and the only remedy to sin-sick people are the blood of Jesus Christ. The faith of these men moved them to do anything to get them to Jesus, and as I read this story, I begin to ask myself if I would be willing to drag my friends to a house and lower them through a roof just for them to see Jesus. When people have experienced the goodness of Jesus they cannot help but bring their sin sick friends to Jesus as these friends had brought their paralytic friend to Jesus. Faithful friends bring sick friends to Jesus because they know there is healing and life in Jesus. 
     This is no prosperity gospel that he does anything and everything you want, rather, in Jesus there is freedom from sin. In this passage, the first thing Jesus says to this man is that his sins were forgiven; he does not tell the man to get up and walk until the end. Jesus frees us from the bondage of sin, so that we may get up and walk. So just as Jesus says to that paralytic, talk up your mat and walk, he says to us, your sins are forgiven because of your faith. Faithful friends bring sick friends to Jesus because they have been able to walk since they've encountered Jesus.