Text: “….when they could not come nigh unto him….. they uncovered the roof where he was: and… let down the bed….” (Mark 2:4)
By Henry O. Adelegan
There are times in life when the road to one’s destination is blocked and forward movement or progress becomes impossible and delayed. Such hindrance or delay can either be physical or spiritual. In our world today, there are lots of people that desire marital progress, bliss and peace but are seemingly to no avail. It is also obvious in our polity that we have a retinue of graduates that are desirous of occupational breakthroughs all without result.
There are also occasions in life when friends or people one ought to lean on at one’s trying times have hands that are lacerated with thorns. There are also events in life when family members or colleagues who are supposed to assist to blow off the speck from ones hurting eyes have mouths that have been spiced with pepper. It is nonelective to note that when one gets to those ugly life junctures, it will be obvious that this life is empty and one will realise that human beings have limitations, lots of us are not dependable and many are unreliable, very self-centred and grossly wicked (Genesis 6:5). Anyone who trusts in a godfather, a leader, a ruler or any human being and takes his eyes off God the father is in for a life shocker. Godfathers, rulers and leaders will fail and disappoint but God the father, the ruler of the universe and the leader of leaders will always be there at the thicks and thins of life. (Jeremiah 17:5-8)
From the story of our text, there was a man who was with palsy at Capernaum, he was paralysed, possibly a spinal cord issue. When he heard that Jesus Christ, the miracle worker, was in town, he sought for assistance of four men to take him to where He was on a stretcher. He was confident that if only he could set his eyes on Jesus Christ, his problems of longstanding years would be over. Unfortunately for the paralysed man, when they brought him to the pavilion where Jesus Christ was, the entire compound was filled to the brim, and there was no way forward. The paralysed man with the men carrying him must have begged the people there to kindly allow him gain entry because of his terrible predicament but nobody bulged as they were also there to be attended to. They must have showed him their blind eyes, their issues of blood of many years, the corpses of their children strapped to their backs, their cancer issues, the hole in their hearts, their fruitlessness of many years etc. They must also have suggested to the sick man to return home and wait for another time because the people that needed divine attention were many.
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The sick man looked forward and there was no way – it was an obviously hopeless situation but the paralyzed man must have informed the men carrying him that he was unwilling to return home in his paralysed state. He must have told them that, if there was no way forward, let us look up for the way. This instruction must have come from what the Psalmist said in Psalms 121:1-2 that, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. When Jesus Christ saw the faith of this man, when He saw their unconventional attitude, when He saw the paralyzed man as a man with the wisdom of God, He forgave his sins and the man of faith was singled out from the multitude for miracle of long standing years. While other sick people were pressing one another to get in through the door, the paralysed man found his way to Jesus Christ, not through the conventional access route but laboriously through the unscientific path – the roof! He looked up and he got up!
Beloved, it is not over with you, whenever you get to a dead end in any life matter and there is no way forward, please don’t feel bad or sad, don’t murmur or contemplate to go back, and don’t ever say it is over. Look up to Jesus Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:20. The hen that isn’t dead still has hope to eat maize. That troubling situation of your life shall, during this season of Lent, end in praises in the name of Jesus