Take Up Your Mat

If someone else’s walk depended on the healing of your lameness, would you take up your mat?

In my last post, “Out of the Valley”, I wrote that our purpose is not for us alone. I would like to reiterate that in this week’s post. As Christians, especially those desiring to be or remain married, we often forget that the cornerstone of every romantic relationship is an overall healthy understanding of how relationship works. Not relationships as in husband and wife, but relationship, as in the state of being connected as people.

In order to know how to treat your (future) spouse, you need an accurate understanding of how to treat your fellow man. All of our relationships are connected, beginning with our relationship with God. The way that we respond to and interact with others is a direct result of our relationship with and closeness to Him.

In my upcoming book, I write about the way that communication affects our relationships once we have learned to focus as much on what is not said, as we focus on what is said. We have to understand this same concept with the bible. If prayer is us speaking to God, and He speaks back to us when we read the bible, then in order for us to fully grasp what He wants to say to us, we have to consider what is not said. I’m not saying to make things up and I’m not even referencing interpretation; I’m talking about inference – information that can be reasonably deduced from what we read.

In Mark 2 we are told the story of a paralyzed man whose four friends carry him through the village of Capernaum to encounter Jesus, that he might be healed of his paralysis.  The bible says that ‘some men came, bringing to Jesus a paralyzed man…since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof…and then lowered the man before Jesus’. It goes on to say that when Jesus saw their faith, He declared the mans’ sins forgiven and bid him to rise, take up his mat and go home - which he did!

Here's the problem, when we read the bible, we focus on the takeaways that a pastor or teacher told us were important, or we focus on the words that we read instead of processing context. If you truly want to get the meat of the word, I challenge you to focus on the relationships that you’re reading about, because here’s the fix – the true miracle at work in Mark 2 isn’t in this man’s healing by God’s word. Jesus performed miracles all the time, causing a lame man to walk wasn’t necessarily all that special. The miracle is in the relationship between those five men and their faith.

Consider for a moment, the ‘law of gathering’ is reliant on a five-fold investment. If you want 3 people to show up somewhere, you will generally need to invite about 15 people, ESPECIALLY if you’re looking to do something as “outrageous” as see a lame man walk. But this man was paralyzed, feasibly for his entire life, he didn’t have the wherewithal to gather 15 people. He had only that good, strong four; four men who knew God to be the omnipotent Jehovah Rapha that he needed.

Here’s the catch, we make a lot of assumptions when communicating with God. We assume that God is too busy with the “big stuff” to bother with our “little problems”, or that our prayers are going unanswered because we don’t see God show up in major ways, without realizing that God most often shows up in other people. I remember a Bishop telling me once that I needed to learn to accept help when it’s offered, not just because I need it, but because the blessing, faith and even the deliverance of the PERSON OFFERING might be reliant upon it. That’s what we learn from the parable of Mark 2, because in all the things that we take from this story and all that this chapter says, what it does not say is that the trip to Capernaum was taken at the request of the paralyzed man! 

WE DON’T EVEN KNOW THAT THIS MAN DESIRED TO BE HEALED!

He’d been paralyzed his entire life. He may have been perfectly content in his infirmity. This entire trip could’ve been planned by any of those four men. Any one of them could’ve heard of the healing power of Jesus and thought to himself that the greatest test of his faith would be seeing his friend walk, knowing that surely if Jesus could heal the brokenness of a man who has never taken a single step, He could heal the brokenness of the man who brought him there.

Never neglect the importance of your relationship with other believers. You may be the only bible that someone sees today and their salvation or wholeness might rely solely on your willingness to take up your mat and walk!

Follow Me as I Follow God

@RevealingRuth