Don’t you just love that story in the Bible about the men who carried their crippled friend up on the rooftop? Then they tore off the roof and let him down on his bed to where Jesus was.
What were they thinking? Were they crazy to pull a stunt like that? Where did they ever come up with such a strange idea? I wouldn’t have thought about doing it that way, would you? What if they had dropped him? He could have been crippled or even worse, died. But there was a crowd and there was no other way to get him in to see Jesus.
“And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee…. Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day. “Luke 5:20, 24-26 KJV.
Yes, it was strange to see. Jesus saw the faith of the man’s friends. They had faith that told them if they could just get this man to Jesus, he would be healed. Faith causes people to go out of their way to do something unheard of, never thought of before. Faith says, “if we can just get him to Jesus, all will be well.”
Are you a friend like that? Do you love your friend so much that you will go to all that trouble, to do whatever it takes to get him to Jesus? Are you willing to lay down your life for your friend by spending time in prayer for her?
John 15:13 says “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Everyone needs a few crazy friends like that, don’t they?
Great Biblical lesson about friendship.