Then some people came, bringing to Jesus a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.
-Mark 3:3 NRSV
How many sermons have we heard about this paralytic and his four friends? We have made much of their camaraderie. But what if the four weren’t the man’s friends? What if they didn’t know him very well – or even at all? What if one of them just happened to see the paralyzed man, recruit three helpers, and carry the man to see Jesus because they believed something good might happen?
A worker in the school where my wife teaches told us about an 83 – year old woman living near us whom we did not know, This grandmother had reared her grandson from infancy and, in his forties, he had died of cancer. She was worried sick about being unable to pay the funeral bill.
I spoke with the funeral home staff, who agreed to reduce the amount owed by 25 percent if I could raise the rest within two weeks. I called some churches and organizations and told the story to a few friends, and God brought people to help. When I called the grandmother to tell her we had enough money to pay the bill, she could hardly speak. Later my wife and I went to the grandmother’s home with the paid – in full receipt. We stood on the porch, all of us in tears, as she kept hugging us.
God calls us to be present even to the stranger. Were those men the paralytic’s friends? Does it matter?
Gene Cotton (Tennessee)
(The Upper Room July – August 2010)
