Mark 2 and John 5 give the accounts of two invalid men. They had a lot in common. Both were paralyzed and unable to get around on their own; both, in their helpless states, encountered Jesus unexpectedly. Both were healed.
The difference is how the two men ended up meeting Jesus. In John 5:1-15, we see a man surrounded by people, yet he was alone. He’d given up hope. He lay on his makeshift bed in the colonnades of the Sheep Gate by the pool year after year, despairing. He had no one, he said, to help him into the healing waters. When Jesus and the crowds trailing after him came into the neighborhood, the paralyzed man couldn’t get anywhere near them.
The paralytic in Mark 2:1-2 needed Jesus’ healing touch too, but he was more fortunate. He had friends. Word had gotten out that Jesus was back home, and the crowds filled the house to hear him speak. “There was no more room, not even at the door” (Mark 2:2, ESV). “No problem!” say the man’s friends. “We’ll get you to Jesus.”
Jesus, of course, knows where we are. Still, there are times when he’s watching those around us to see if they will step up and help. In Mark 2, he’s not only ministering to the sick man, but he’s also testing his friends. I’m imagining the moment the paralyzed man came through the roof in front of Jesus. What friendship! The men who climbed on that roof were invested in the outcome; they were part of the miracle. Everyone there was affected, not only by Jesus’s healing the man and forgiving his sins but also by the persistence, loyalty and faith of the man’s friends.
The Lord sought out the man at the pool because he knew no one would ever help him. Time and again in his ministry Jesus did this, seeing a gaping hole in people’s lives where there should have been love and friendship and support. It is why he drew bystanders into his miracles. He wanted them to understand the power of sacrificial love, that their efforts would be part of the miracle.
“Bear one another’s burdens,” said Paul, “and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Whether it’s small or big, a temporary fix or a long-term care commitment, each act of love and service is vital to the kingdom of God.