Jesus and the Paralytic
A well-known story is found in Luke 5:17-26, the story of Jesus healing the paralytic. From it we can learn some important lessons about discipleship in action.
Read verse 17. What powerful and important point can be found there? What message of warning should it have for us, as well?
Here they were, leaders, teachers of the law, coming from all over, apparently to hear Jesus. The text says that at the time, the "power of the Lord was present to heal them." In other words, Jesus was there; the power of God was there; help, healing, and salvation were there. The only problem was that self, sin, and pride got in their way. What a powerful warning to us all.
Meanwhile, in this story, we can see discipleship in action. First, there were those who brought the paralytic to Jesus. Notice how hard they worked. Unable to get past the crowd, they had to resort to other means. Think about how desperate they were for their friend. How easily they could have given up! Notice, too, how Jesus acknowledged their faith. Whether they had personally been healed by Jesus, the texts do not say. What we do know is that their works truly revealed their faith. They acted as disciples in the sense of bringing someone needy to Jesus.
After the paralytic was healed, he left glorifying God. No doubt his body and his words were a powerful tool for witness and discipleship (see also vs. 26).
Meanwhile, as all this is going on, the leaders fulminated in darkness over Jesus' blasphemies. They let their religion, faith, and teaching get in the way of a living experience with Jesus. What a lesson to us all!
In what ways can we, even as professed disciples of Christ, let things get in the way of the Lord working in our lives, or even in the lives of others? What are some of the things that we harbor in our hearts that can blind us to the power of God? Most important, how can we get rid of them?
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