We don’t often the sacrifices that people go through to accomplish certain tasks. There are the sacrifices that help people reach earthly goals such a sports awards, higher paying jobs, new vehicles and more.
Then, there are spiritual sacrifices… Or, what do we sacrifice to make sure we are doing what Jesus wants to us too? What do we endure to make sure we are following Him?
In the Bible, there are examples of people going above and beyond to get a chance to see Jesus, to be in his presence, and hopefully, have the opportunity to be healed by Him. They sacrifice many things to get where they need to be in order to be with Jesus.
Mark 2 starts off with the story of the paralyzed man. At this point, Jesus became very popular in each city He was traveling in. When people heard He was around, crowds began to immediately develop. It didn’t matter if He was beside the sea or in a house. Jesus, at this moment, was inside of a house in Capernaum. People knew He was around and started to gather quickly. The house became so packed with people wanting to hear His teachings that there was no more room even at the entrance of the house.
Now, within the crowd outside, there was a paralyzed man that wanted to get closer to Jesus in hopes that he would be healed. Due to the number of people, there was no way that the man’s friends could carry him through the crowd to get to where Jesus was. Instead, they decided that they would uncover the roof of the house. This man was determined to meet Jesus.
These men had a lot of faith in Jesus. Enough faith that they knew that if they could only get him into the house to meet Jesus, that He would heal him and he would be able to walk out of the house. At this point, they are sacrificing a lot to get to meet Jesus.
Jesus saw these men lowering their friend through the roof. Jesus saw the men’s faith and immediately forgave them of their sins. But, this was not the reason that they were there and Jesus knew that. He knew that He needed to forgive the men so that once the paralyzed man was healed, the man and his friends would be able to walk faithfully with Christ.
Jesus then told the paralyzed man to get up, take up his bed, and go to his house. Immediately, with no pause, the man got up and walked.
There are so many stories that go with this miracle that Jesus performed. We can look at how not only Jesus spoke forgiveness to the friends of the men. We can also direct our attention to how Jesus spoke, a known paralytic into a completely healed state.
The focus that I want to put on this story is the faith that the men and the paralytic had to go through so much trouble to meet Jesus.
In our life, how much trouble do we go through to make sure we are doing the right thing to please Christ? If we need to be healed, how much trouble do we go through to be sure that Jesus knows that we need Him and want His help to get through the troubling times? What do we sacrifice to show our love for Christ and faith in Him?
Put Christ first in your life.
We see so many people that are attached to worldly things that they draw further and further away from Christ. If we sacrifice or give up, those things to dedicate our lives to Christ, the end will be much more rewarding. Like the paralyzed man, he sacrificed so much and in the end he was rewarded. We can be rewarded as well with eternal life with Him.
God is Good.
30 Second Thoughts 