{"id":3426,"date":"2024-02-26T07:56:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T12:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3426"},"modified":"2024-02-26T07:57:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T12:57:17","slug":"with-a-little-help-from-my-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/26\/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"With a Little Help from My Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at the miracles of Jesus \u2013 his spectacular displays of supernatural power that are reported in the Gospels.    <\/em>

A number of years ago I invited five couples at the church I was leading to join me in a small group experiment.

We would get together every week for one year.  During our gatherings we would study the Bible, talk about things happening in our lives, and support each other in prayer.

It turned out to be quite a year.

One of the husbands died of a heart attack while playing racquetball. 
My five-year-old daughter had emergency surgery to remove a mass in her abdomen.
One of the couples entered marriage counseling to try to resolve some serious relationship issues.
Several members of the group revealed they had major doubts about the reality of their spiritual lives.
All of us struggled as parents.

The following year I launched a second group with five new couples.

The same thing happened again.  Those twelve months were marked by marital squabbles, addictions, clinical depression, a lost job, and various medical crises.  What was going on here?

Around the church people began to say, \u201cIf you join one of Glenn\u2019s groups, you\u2019ll have one of the worst years of your life!\u201d

The truth actually turned out to be much more fascinating.  Those groups were experiencing the kinds of things that happen to a dozen people during the course of any given year.  The only difference is that we were talking<\/em> about them.  We were bringing them out into the light and experiencing them together.

Our church would unquestionably have rallied around the woman who lost her husband.  And Mary Sue and I know that people would have supported us, no matter what, during our daughter\u2019s scary time in the hospital. 

But virtually everything else that happened might have been concealed \u2013 unless we had chosen to be part of a group that was trying, haltingly, to walk with each other through life\u2019s most difficult realities.

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke we encounter a group of friends who are doing just that.  And they\u2019re not merely walking with each other metaphorically.  They\u2019re literally doing all<\/em> of the walking for one of their number, a man who is paralyzed.  Here\u2019s Mark\u2019s version of events:

When [Jesus] returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door, and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, \u201cChild, your sins are forgiven\u201d <\/em>(Mark 2:1-5).

We aren\u2019t told how this man lost the use of his legs.  Nor do we know how long he\u2019s been in this condition.  But we can try to imagine his circumstances.

He is entirely dependent on others.  He cannot eat or drink or move from one place to another or even relieve himself unless others help. 

Even worse, he lives under the shadow of theological suspicion.  It was widely assumed that a crippling injury was a sign of God\u2019s disfavor.  So he must have done something seriously wrong.  Or maybe his parents had grievously sinned.  No matter what, somebody had done something awful.  Somebody had caused this disaster. 

In his book Everybody\u2019s Normal Till You Get to Know Them<\/em>, pastor John Ortberg observes, \u201cHe has no money, no job, no influence, no family, and seemingly not much of a future\u2026 What\u2019s he got going for him?  He has friends.  He has amazing friends.  He\u2019s in one of the killer small groups of all time.\u201d

And because of that, he\u2019s on the receiving end of incredible grace. 

His friends choose to bear, as Ortberg puts it, the \u201csocial stigma, inconvenience, financial pressure, [and] high cost of time and energy\u201d that are wrapped up in being his companions.  They know they are incapable of providing him with the gift of a brighter future, at least in physical terms.

But maybe they can bring him to Jesus.  Maybe that will make a difference.

From the start, their eagerness and good intentions are thwarted.  Jesus is teaching inside a house, presumably one of the multitudes of small dwellings that dotted the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  He is engulfed by his listeners.  There\u2019s no obvious path from the fringes of that crowd to a spot where their friend can be noticed.

Challenging circumstances call for innovative solutions. 

They head for the roof.  Palestinian houses typically have exterior stairways leading to a flat roof, where residents might recline under a canopy and enjoy a cool breeze on a sweltering day. 

Setting their friend aside for a moment, they begin to create a skylight by digging right through the roof.  In our own time it might be best to turn over such a project to Chip and Joanna Gaines of Fixer Upper<\/em> \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s demolition day, so let\u2019s start with the roof!\u201d But first century rooves aren\u2019t particularly daunting.  They\u2019re a combination of wooden beams, matting, straw, and dried mud \u2013 chunks of which begin to rain down upon Jesus and his audience.

The homeowner must be thinking this is not what he imagined when he volunteered to host that day\u2019s Bible study.  It\u2019s time to call Jake from State Farm.  \u201cSince Jesus is in my family room, does this count as an act of God?\u201d 

There\u2019s an unusually compelling word found in verse five of Mark\u2019s account: \u201cWhen Jesus saw their<\/strong><\/em> faith\u2026\u201d  Whose faith?  We presume the paralytic has brought some degree of hopeful trust to this moment.  Then there\u2019s the faith of his friends. 

This is vicarious trust.  Here is a small group exerting faith on behalf of<\/em> one of its members.

It\u2019s still happening today \u2013 every time friends come together to rejoice over victories, weep over sins, cry out to God for mercy, and carry, literally or figuratively, a broken person to the feet of Jesus.

Their<\/strong><\/em> faith is the chief feature of part one of this drama. 

Part two \u2013 the conversation that follows \u2013 is just as dramatic.

That\u2019s where we\u2019ll go tomorrow. 
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at the miracles of Jesus \u2013 his spectacular displays of supernatural power that are reported in the Gospels.     A number of years ago I invited five couples at the church I was leading to join me in a small group experiment…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[449,11],"class_list":["post-3426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-healing","tag-miracles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3426"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3429,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions\/3429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}