Through the Roof
Devotions for Growing Christians
Through the Roof
Mark 2:2-11 – “While he was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, “What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”
Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
The expression, "through the roof" is sometimes used to in reference to skyrocketing prices, taxes, and tempers. No fun! In Mark 2, a man went through the roof the opposite way. He was literally lowered down through the roof by his concerned friends into a situation controlled by Jesus.
The healing of this paralyzed man contains a number of lessons for us. The most unique feature, of course, is the creative way in which his friends brought him to Jesus. A crowd was overflowing the house where the Lord was teaching, so there was no way they could get the paralyzed man through. But the friends had an ingenious idea: they opened up a hole in the roof and lowered the man and his mat down to Jesus!
It's important to recognize that “digging a hole” in the roof on this house was not destruction of property. First century homes in Israel had flat roofs, composed of clay or stone tiles that were relatively easy to remove and replace (the parallel account in Luke 5 actually says they “took off some tiles.”) These tiles were sometimes covered with earth or sod for insulation. So these men weren’t ripping up shingles or sawing through plywood to get through this roof. God’s Word does not teach us that it's OK to break the law or destroy property in our efforts to get a person to Christ. The roof was not destroyed, but only temporarily opened up.
Additionally, homes in that day had an outside staircase leading to the roof. This enabled the men to easily carry their paralyzed friend up to the roof on his mat. They didn’t need a ladder or pulley system. The hole in the roof did not have to be very big. All of these basic background notes preserve us from making wild applications.
Your sins are forgiven!
Do you think the paralyzed man was disappointed when Jesus said, "My child, your sins are forgiven"? After all, he and his friends were expecting a healing. Would he have felt shortchanged if he was forgiven but not healed?
In the Jewish mindset of that day, physical abnormalities and sickness were thought to be the judgment of God for serious past sin. Even the disciples were indoctrinated with this idea. Remember when they were confronted with a man who was blind from birth, the disciples asked, "Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” (John 9).
It’s true that some physical problems in those days were the direct result of sin (and the same is be true today). For example, consider the Lord's statement to the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda in John 5:14: "Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” So most likely the paralytic lowered through the roof was weighed down by a burden of guilt that he had carried, rightly or wrongly, for many years. To hear the Lord pronounce that his sins were forgiven surely lifted a great load from this man's conscience!
Pick up your mat and walk!
In verse 6-7 we see that there were some religious skeptics in the crowd who thought to themselves, “Only God can forgive sins.” Jesus knew their thoughts and said, “Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’?” Then the Lord pronounced, "Pick up your mat, and go home."
The fact that the paralytic was healed not only caused the crowd to marvel and give glory to God, it also defused any argument the skeptics had about Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God.
It's hard to miss the picture of salvation in the healing of the paralyzed man. It’s the main spiritual lesson of this miracle. We must be cleansed from the defiling aspects of sin, as seen in the miracle of the cleansed leper (Mark 1:40-45). But we also need to be healed from the paralyzing effects of sin, as seen in this miracle. Sin is stifling. It hinders us from being all that God intended us to be. However, the Lord Jesus frees us from our paralysis - and He gives us the power to "Pick up our mat and walk."
Strength to obey
At the risk of over-spiritualization, it’s interesting to note that the Lord didn't pick up or carry the healed man's mat for him, but rather He told him to pick up his own mat. With that command came the strength to obey. He was given the necessary strength in his arms and his legs to resume a normal lifestyle. When the Lord heals our disease of sin and removes its devastating effects, He gives us the strength to carry the normal loads of everyday life. He doesn’t relieve us of all our workloads and responsibilities. He doesn’t take away all burdensome problems and trials of normal daily life. But He enables us to carry them.
Some Christians have a hard time getting up from the mat. They remain partially crippled by a victim mentality, or by memories of their past lifestyles. They haven't fully taken advantage of the strength the Lord provides. Some Christians get up from the mat, but they don't want to shoulder the responsibilities of an active Christian daily life. And some Christians might even feel that the Lord is obligated to provide for their every desire, whether they're willing to be obedient to Him or not.
Here we learn that the Lord asks us to get up off our mats of disability, take up the duties and obligations of a normal lifestyle, and move forward in the Christian life. If we obey in this manner, He will give us the strength! Let's not expect God to do for us what He gives us strength to do for ourselves.
Jesus saw “their” faith
The wording at the beginning of verse 5 is very significant: “Seeing their faith…” The Lord saw the faith of the paralyzed man, and He also saw the faith of his four friends. God honors the faith of those who "assist" in the salvation process. We all know that our faith can't save someone else. No one is saved by proxy! But we can assist in salvation by helping our friends come to Christ.
We can do this by praying for them… and relating to them… and answering their questions… and, by all means, showing Christ's love to them. It's like carrying one corner of the paralytic's mat. It will take extra time and effort on our part, but God honors the faith of those who are actively concerned about bringing their friends to Christ. Are you actively engaged right now in carrying a corner of the mat on which a paralyzed friend is lying?
Creative Evangelism
How creative are we in getting our friends to Christ? Creative evangelism is one of the lessons God wants to teach from this miracle. Jesus was creative in His approach to people, and in His ways of drawing them to faith in Him. When He spoke to people about spiritual realities, He looked for common ground on which to relate with each individual.
Early Christians "turned the world upside down" as they shared Jesus Christ with others. They didn't have the many tools for evangelism that we have today: websites, apps, streaming video, fancy church buildings, etc. They were creative by necessity! They didn't conclude that difficult circumstances, hard times and an unfriendly political climate meant that the "timing was bad" for bringing others to Christ!
If we had been the friends of that sin-sick and paralyzed man, would we have concluded that God had “closed the door” when we saw the crowded house? Would we have concluded that it wasn't God's timing? Or would we have been like the faithful four who creatively engineered a way to get their hurting friend to Christ?
Using creative ideas, we can open closed doors to get our friends, co-workers, family members, and neighbors to Christ. Have we spent time searching out just the right book or website for an individual? Have we prayerfully sought just the right kind of invitation? Most importantly, have we really gone out of our way to be friends and find common ground with a person whose life is literally paralyzed by the results of sin? We should pray for, and be open to, every "through the roof" possibility!
Many creative and ingenious techniques of evangelism are yet to be discovered. Let's be willing to expand our thinking with "through the roof" ideas about church evangelism as well as personal evangelism. We may be surprised at how many of our “paralyzed” friends and neighbors are willing to be carried to Christ.
- Dave Reid
(Updated 2021, Ron Reid)