Contemplative Bible Reading

Mark 2:4 (New Living Translation)

They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus.

In this (hi)story, “they” are friends of a paralyzed man. They have faith that Jesus will heal their friend. The crowds prevent them from coming close to Jesus by a normal route, so…they tear up the roof of the house.

Let’s pause here a moment and consider that one again. They tore a hole in the roof of the house. The hole was large enough to lower a man through it on a mat. That is a big hole.

Someone had to notice these fellas’ while they were destroying the roof of the house. I’m guessing the owner of the house had to notice this. Why didn’t the owner do something? Hey, they are destroying his house! And these men who were digging through the roof, well, that isn’t an easy task. There was a lot of picking and digging and chipping and sweating.

Faith. That is called faith. Work that hard to destroy a house. Allow some strangers to destroy the roof of your house.

When we read this (hi)story, we tend to focus on the miracle and the idea of forgiving sins. Let’s not ignore everything and everyone else. I can’t imagine a cripple being healed by the word of a person. And I can’t imagine people digging through a roof and the owner letting them do it.