Mark 2.1-12
2 When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. 2 Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, 3 four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. 4 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. 5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
6 But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, 7 “What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”
8 Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 9 Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10 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, 11 “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
12 And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”
Comments
This is one of my favorite stories (I have a feeling you may get tired of me saying that this year). Roofs were typically made of mud and straw, picture these guys breaking up the hardened roof and digging out a hole. Bits of roof rained down on everyone inside, picture Jesus and the religious leaders covered in a thin layer of dust as they argue. And note that the faith Jesus saw was that of the four friends, not the paralyzed man. He forgave and healed that man because his friends believed – because they had a shameless, tenacious faith. They really went out on a limb for this guy. What lengths are we willing to go to see others forgiven and healed? What won’t we do?
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Mike Raburn 
Nobody ever talks about how when it’s all said and done, somebody’s left with a hole in their roof! 🙂
It doesn’t say, but I guess the men could have fixed it when they were done. (Or billed the homeowner for installing a skylight.) Not the healed guy though, Jesus sent him home. Nothing is required of him here at all.