EXTREME DESPERATION

Image result for CLIPART SHOWING EXTREME  In Mark 2, I was introduced to four men who were extremely desperate to get to Jesus.  Jesus has come into a home in Capernaum and because Jesus has become known as a "miracle worker and teaching with great authority", He is surrounded by crowds wherever He goes.  He is preaching in the home and people are even crowded outside the home listening to him. The four men have carried a paralyzed man on a mat hoping to get him to Jesus.  Now deterred by their mission at hand, they carry the man to the roof, lift the thatched roof and lower the man on his mat down to the feet of Jesus.  That is extreme determination!  

 Jesus' response when He sees their faith, He speaks to the crippled man that his sins are forgiven.  The religious teachers of the law have several clueless remarks and make them aloud.  No problem...because He knows what is in their hearts, He has no problem speaking to them about their thoughts.  Just wondering, does it dawn on our hearts and minds that Jesus knows our thoughts and He knows our hearts?!  To the paralytic, He commands him to "Get up, take your mat and go home."  That is a show stopper for the crowd to witness.  Their responses:  "We have never seen anything like this!" 

Because cancer has so rudely interrupted the lives of three of my loved ones and another loved one almost lost his arm in an accident, I can understand their desperation to get to Jesus.   Extremes: numerous surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy, stem-cell transplant, annointings,  anti-rejection drugs...just to name a few.  Not to mention the numbers of people who carried the pain with us and entered in with prayers and hundreds of other ways to show support.  The four men were willing to take on the paralytic and were not going to be stopped by a crowd and inconvenience of digging up a thatched roof! 

I love the extreme actions that we have witnessed from the great throngs of people who stepped up and out in Houston, Beaumont, Rockport, throughout Florida, and in Puerto Rico in rushing to give aid.  May we as Christ followers be accused of being desperately extreme in offering gestures of help and solace, and most of all, sharing the gospel being the hands and feet of Jesus.  Forever learning.  In process.  #IHAVETHREESONS.   


 

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