The book “Fencepost Leadership” tells a story I think is compelling enough for me to repeat in this article. It’s the story of the turtle on top of the fencepost. I know this for sure; it didn’t get there alone. Somebody helped it. It didn’t climb, it didn’t jump, it didn’t even strategize, it could take none of the credit for why it has such a “high position”, except that it had “friends” that helped it get there. I don’t know where Dr. Conway Edwards, my pastor, got that story from, but it was perfect for the question today.
Haven’t all of us been there at some point in our lives? It’s not just the riveting stories like that of Steve Harvey and Tyler Perry, who are transparent enough with us to share about living in their cars at one point in their journey. I, too, was homeless at one point; I lived in a sauna in an apartment complex in Dallas after being evicted for a time. I would not have come out of that if nobody cared to see me where I was to give me a chance. We all have to admit that at some point in our lives, we needed someone to help us get to the next place. In every journey, whether it’s that of Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Carson, or Ryan Leak, who speaks of people who helped him get to the place he is now, we all can admit that at some point in our lives if help hadn’t come in, we wouldn’t have gotten to the next stop.
So it is in the question we deal with today, which Jesus asked, symbolic of our invitation to a kingdom lifestyle, TheGOoDLife. While Jesus was speaking in a crowded house, A man appeared before him. The man seemed to have come from the sky, but he didn’t just appear; he had some help. When Jesus saw the faith of the four who sacrificed and cleared their schedule with the determination of getting him to Jesus so he could be healed, He chose to grant the paralytic healing. It’s clear the man couldn’t have gotten himself there; he couldn’t even walk. No amount of strategy or plan could have gotten him from where he started to sitting before Jesus, yet he found himself in a place he would have never been, had it not been for some faithful friends. I’m not even going to speculate that he knew these friends forever, and they were fond of him. The truth is, sometimes, we meet people on the street who care about our well-being more than people we’ve known all our lives.
Let us not get so sidetracked by the fact that these friends got the paralytic to Jesus that we forget to look at the real meat of this story. Jesus had enough divine authority to heal this man completely, that is the greatest miracle of all, and all glory should be given to Jesus alone for this amazing miracle. We never want to take away from the fact that it was Jesus who chose to heal, whether it was after He saw faith in the four or before. It was an executive decision, a choice He made. For this man and all of us, Jesus proves that forgiveness also equals healing. This man experienced a resurrection of a sort, and we should ponder this goodness that God, in our salvation and all that it entails, through Jesus. This revealed that his sins could be forgiven, without him even asking, all because of Jesus honoring a community-driven faith effort.
No doubt, the authority to forgive and heal was questioned in this context, and the hearts of the Scribes and Pharisees must be examined closely compared to our hearts. What side would you have been on if you were in the room? This is an issue of rigid hearts that were not flexible to change, even though God was standing before them, proving Himself through miracles, signs, and wonders. The kindness Jesus displayed to this man should not only have led to the crowd’s awe and the criticism of those who were leaders, but it should have led to their repentance as they observed His goodness, but their hearts were hardened. Therefore, they could not correctly perceive what had happened. This parallels our life before Christ, being dead to sin and raised to life by His power at work in us.
Thoughts to ponder:
Could it be agreed upon that it wasn’t the man’s condition that came to Jesus’ attention that day, but the faith of the four men who brought him to Jesus?
Do you think the man took the time to thank those four who helped him get before Jesus? Would you have gone back to thank them, even if they were still on the roof and Jesus had given you an explicit command to go home?
Forgiveness is not just pardon, it’s empowerment! The ability to exercise kingdom authority has been given to us as those who follow Christ to do greater works. It is our job to believe for the healing of our friends and get them to Jesus.
GOoDLifePrecepts
KeviJ
