Ignoring for a moment* what “being saved” even means, are we saved by what we do** for others, how we love, how sorry we are for the things we did wrong? What else can save us? In this story, it is your friends. You are paralyzed: lets go for metaphor a minute. You have messed up your life so much, so deeply, you are frozen. Your friends lift you up. Your friends get you to Jesus. (That could even be another metaphor: Your friends give you a “come to Jesus” moment like “no ‘retirement’ doesn’t mean life won’t have anymore trouble for you, silly old bear, just a different type of trouble”.) Your friends took action and in this story Jesus saw their action (verse 5), he forgave you.
Okay you can argue the “their” in verse 5 means both you and your friends who did the work of getting you to Jesus.
But really you are paralyzed and had no choice but to go where your friends took you.
Or did you implore your friends?
Or are they really your friends? For years I thought that verse 3 said “friends”. And it doesn’t actually.
Or in a new interpretation that I am not sure about (The Bible for Normal People, Ep. 266, guest Candida Moss), they could be enslaved men. In the podcast/transcript, this is toward the end. Dr. Moss thinks that a “mat” would not be sturdy enough to lower down a roof, that it would be a “litter,” which were what rich people were carried about on. And a litter would be carried most likely by enslaved people. She is not sure about the interpretation used for the word “people” in verse 3, that “friends” would perhaps not be a valid interpretation even though it is common. Is it even people? Is is more like, “the unseen labor lowered him down on his mat”? However if this is so, then when Jesus thus forgives the paralyzed man, we can imagine how there would be stuff to be forgiven, yes, in this case? And when Jesus then heals him, to show that Jesus has this power of forgiveness, Jesus tells the man to go home and now take care of people too. This was a really fascinating episode of the podcast.
Because I want actions on the behalf of others to matter to God. I want “to be saved” — while mostly a private mystery — to also be somehow, in some cases, a group effort. That friendship and loyalty matter.
Although if Dr. Moss’s interpretation is pressed on, then your prayers and actions on behalf of anyone, even someone you hate, could “count.” Could save them. Could save yourself. Could save the world.
Perhaps I just don’t think as big as Jesus and God who want to free and forgive the whole world, whatever it takes!
Unseen labor, people, friends — Jesus saw their faith — they were not unseen or just people to Jesus. He looked right at them, at the hole in the roof, and brushed the dust created off his robe, and smiled. I bet his eyes twinkled right at these men, seeing them. I bet Jesus was filled with joy at this messy situation that he was going to clean up, a carpenter rolling up his sleeves.
FTGOG
*I’m ignoring defining “to be saved” but I would suggest it means being forgiven for your sins, to be “remembered” that is put back together from all the broken pieces that make us up. Maybe? I’m not talking about “heaven.”
**Yes yes faith by grace not by works. But seriously “doing” is important too, isn’t it? The older I get the more I know I need grace. And more I know I need to try to do something that helps. This just can’t be an either/or, can it?
FTGOG 