Luke 5:17-26 - We Must Bring Them to Jesus

18 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. One of my favorite stories in the Gospels is this one found in Luke 5:17-26. To get the full picture of what happened on this occasion you should also read Matthew 9:1-8 and Mark 2:1-12. Jesus is in Capernaum healing and teaching the crowds of people that are coming to Him from the surrounding region of Galilee. On this “certain day” Jesus is in a house teaching, and sitting closest to Him was a group of Pharisees and teachers of the law.   This group of religious leaders must have previously set a specific time, and they came from different towns in Galilee, from the region of Judea, and from as far away as the city of Jerusalem. They were not there out of curiosity, but to find fault with Jesus and His teaching. It is apparent that already Jesus has become a threat to the religious authority and stronghold they had over the people.   As this group of religious leaders show up with their entourage, I can picture the crowd parting and make way for them to get into the house to sit the closest to Jesus. But in verse 18, when four men show up with their paralyzed friend, no one gets out of the way as they attempt to go through the crowd to get him to Jesus to be healed. Just as the leper in the previous verses is a picture of sin diseased sinner, this paralyzed man is a picture of a helpless sinner who cannot get to Jesus on own. He needs someone to bring him.   Amazing, it is no different today. The crowd often stands in the way of helpless sinners trying to get to Jesus. It could even be the crowd of “church goers” who are so busy with their activities of singing, serving and other ministries that they don’t take the time to be friendly, or speak to the lone strange looking visitor who is there seeking the healing touch of Jesus.   It could be that the “crowd” is that group of people at church that are the hypocrites that the sinner sees when he shows up at church. When he saw them at the workplace or in the neighborhood, they were anything but a Christian. It could be that the “crowd” is a group of our family or friends that we are afraid will make fun of us, or even reject us, if we attempt to come to Jesus and start living a transformed life.   What crowd is keeping you from Jesus today? What crowd is keeping you from bringing your lost friends to Jesus today? But thank the Lord for these four friends that each took a corner of this paralyzed man’s cot, found a way to the back of the house, carried him up a ladder to get on the roof, tore up a hole in the roof big enough to put him down through, found a rope to tie to the four corners of the cot, and then work together to carefully lower him down “in the midst before Jesus”.   They truly believe that if only they could get their helpless paralyzed friend within touch of Jesus he could be healed, and nothing was going to stop them from trying! I wonder what excuses we are making today for not bringing our family and friends to Jesus. It is so sad that there must be so many sin sick sinners just waiting for someone to invite them to come to Jesus and they are saying like the Psalmist in Psalm 142:4, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.”   May the Lord help us to be like these four friends and do all we can to bring others to Jesus!   God bless!