Leviticus 1:1-3:17
Mark 1:29-2:12
Psalm 35:17-28
Proverbs 9:13-18
The NT reading got me thinking, so I did a little research (or what passes for it these days with Wikipedia and the internet) and I found a blog entry by Msgr Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington from July 1 (last year, I think, but I'm not sure). In it, Msgr Pope describes typical homes in Jesus's time. About the roof, he writes it "was of real importance in everyday life. It was a flat roof with just enough slope to drain off the rainwater. Rainwater was carefully collected into cisterns or large containers, for in the more arid climate of the eastern Mediterranean every drop of water was precious. The roof of the house was flat and sturdy, enabling people to venture up on it." While it was nice to know the roof was sturdy enough to hold the weight of several people, it did not occur to me that people depended upon their roofs for that most indispensable of needs - water. So when those four friends carried their paralyzed friend onto the roof of the house Jesus was in, and dug a hole so they could lower the paralytic to our Lord, they must've known (1) the digging wasn't going to be easy; and (2) there was going to be - pardon the term, hell to pay - when the owner found out how much they'd not only messed up his roof, but his ability to quench his thirst and purify himself.
It didn't seem to matter. These five were desperate to put the paralyzed one in front of Jesus - enough not only to leave whatever it was they normally did to provide for their own needs, but to jump the queue (and I know how much that bothers me when I see people doing that), and to destroy property as well in a manner as to put the paralytic unmistakably, undeniably in front of our Lord. I can only imagine the look on people's faces when the debris - dust at first, then chunks of roof - began to fall, and then the bewilderment and consternation when, after the roof had been breached, they saw a person being lowered through the opening. I can almost hear them say "are you kidding me right now?" The indignation would've been greater than seeing Kanye go up on stage AGAIN these last Grammys. I mean, this just wasn't something one did.
I hearken back to another story - the story of Mary and Martha, where Martha did what one did when one had company, while Mary sat at Jesus's feet, eager to listen to our Lord. In both instances, God honored the unconventional - not because it was unconventional, but because it reflected a desire - indeed, a desperation - to get close to Him. It reflected a faith that their needs were not going to be met anywhere else but with Him. What an amazing conviction - which, in both instances, Jesus affirmed - first, by telling Martha her sister had made the better choice, and then by healing the paralytic.
There are so many instances I can point to in my life when I was faced with the same choice - to be desperate to get to know Him, or to do something else. The easiest, most obvious one, is first thing in the morning, when I get up - when I know the first fruits of my day are better spent with Him, but the seductive call of all everything else that seems so urgent and important makes me think twice. There are many more instances like it. I pray that God give me - give all of us - the desperation to get close to Him that we saw in the paralytic and his four friends
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