Paralysis and Prayer
“Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your, sins are forgiven.’” (Mark 2: 2-5)They push through a crowd, dig through a roof, and lower a mat and all this while carrying a paralyzed man. We hear nothing else about them but that they placed a suffering man, a man who was unable to place himself, before the dirt trodden feet of majesty. And that their actions were more than those of four men seeking an adventure is evident in the phrase, “when Jesus saw their faith”; with that phrase begins spiritual and physical healing. Jesus addresses the spiritual paralysis of sin before he takes care of the physical paralysis. These friends literally felt the weight of the man they were carrying, the weight of a broken body incapable of doing anything for which it was created. They brought him to Jesus, past the crowds, past the construction, past the possible scorn and derision of others, and all the while concentrating on no one else but the man on the mat for those few moments in their lives. When there was no way that the paralyzed man could come before Jesus on his own, he was carried.Paralyzed men lying on mats hoping to be carried from one spot to the next are no longer common sights in our society today; however, what is common are souls paralyzed in fear, sin, sickness, addictions, hopelessness, in utter despair, in the cruelty that others have imposed on them, souls so paralyzed that they are incapable of living the lives for which they were created. Carrying a paralyzed person was not easy then, and carrying one now - even it if it be in the form of prayer is not easy, and yet that is the call. We are called to carry those who can’t walk. And if we genuinely carry someone, concentrating on no one else but that person, we will feel much of what weights that person down, and in doing so, we share in that person’s sufferings, and thus prayer becomes more than something to check of on our list of achievements for the day. If we do not experience a certain type of exhaustion for having interceded for a suffering soul, we might not have participated in genuine prayer at all. Unless we have felt some of the weight of the sorrow and burden that paralyzes the soul whom we are carrying before the throne of God, it might be that we have prayed a prayer that relieves us of some guilt but nothing more.To pray for the young girl who was brought to Mumbai on the premise of getting a job and who now waits trembling in a dirty dark room for her first client- as if she were your own – is the beginning of sincere prayer. Only the heart of the Messiah is strong enough and tender enough to carry every aspect of this child’s pain; the call is not to become her Messiah, but to share in her sufferings by bringing her to her Redeemer when she is too weak to walk to Him on her own, and in the process of bringing her to the throne, to allow ourselves to experience for those few moments a glimpse of her despair. The suggestion is not that God’s answers are dependent on how hard we work in prayer, but that in sharing in the sufferings of another we become more like Christ for we share in His sufferings.Participating in a prayer life that produces spiritual exhaustion is not a burden, but a divine privilege; it is in reality participating with the heart of God himself, with the groans and moans of the Holy Spirit. We don’t know anything about these four men, but they are forever etched in the pages of history for having carried a man who could not carry himself to Jesus. All we know is they broke through everything that stood in the way, they placed their friend before the feet of royalty and stepped back to let God be God . Their paralyzed friend walked away never to be the same again, and there is no doubt that they walked away never to be the same again either. In praying for the healing of others, we, ourselves, walk away healed on many levels for having been in the presence of glory. Let us push through the crowd of our own cares and concerns, let us dig through layers of unbelief, and let us place a suffering world before the throne of Divine Love and Beauty and in the process have our own minds and hearts transformed and conformed more and more into the character of Christ.Written by Jooly Philip Friends, the work of Bombay Teen Challenge continues to move forward because of generous partnerships. Would you consider partnering with us today? Here’s how,
