Consider This: Can You Get on the Mat?

In Mark 2, four friends bring a paralyzed man to Jesus to be healed. The house where Jesus is teaching is full of people. There is no way they can get close to him, so they use the stairs on the side of the house, go up to the flat roof and then start digging through the mud and thatch covering. Once the hole is large enough, they take the mat the man is lying on and lower it down through the hole. In this way, they get their friend to Jesus. This impresses Jesus so much that he forgives the man’s sin and heals him as well (Mark 2:1-12).

This incident can be taught from several different angles. I have heard it focused on Jesus (He is the powerful Son of God), the four friends (Have faith, bring people to Jesus and do not let anything stop you), and I have even heard a lesson about the doubters in the room (if you do not believe, you will not receive God’s blessings). Each of those lessons is good and has merit.

I wonder, though, if we have missed the point. What if the real lesson is, “Be the person on the mat”? In other words, be able to admit that you need help. Acknowledge your weakness, failings and inability to fix your own problems. Be the one who confesses that they need God’s help and healing.

Now, here is the problem: I do not want to be the person on the mat.

Why? Because my pride gets in the way!

Pride makes me pretend that everything is ok even when it is not. Pride makes me keep my problems to myself and not share them with anyone. Pride makes me compare and compete with my friends. Pride makes me think about what I should be getting rather than who I could be serving. Pride is a huge problem.

In the story above, there is no miracle without someone getting on the mat.

No one wants to humble themselves, but that is exactly where God’s grace is found.

“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6)

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