“There is nothing that the presence of Jesus cannot cure.” Mike Wells
There are many types of paralysis. Physical paralysis is the most obvious kind, but there are many forms of paralysis that limit our movement with God.
In Luke chapter 5: 17-26, concerned friends bring their paralysed friend to Jesus for healing. Ripping off the tiles of the roof of the house where Jesus was curing people, these men literally dropped their motionless friend into the presence of Jesus.
The story ends with these words from Jesus: “ ’I tell you’ he said to the man who was paralysed, ‘get up, pick up your bed and go home!’ Instantly the man sprang to his feet before their eyes, picked up the bedding on which he used to lie, and went off home praising God.”
In the same chapter in Luke, verses 27-28, Jesus heals Levi from an entirely different kind of paralysis. This is the same Levi who became one of Jesus disciples.
“Later on, Jesus went out and looked straight at a tax-collector called Levi, as he sat at his office. ‘Follow me,’ he said to him. And he got to his feet at once, left everything behind and followed him.”
Levi was just as paralyzed as the other man who was healed by Jesus. Both needed to get to their feet as Jesus spoke and head home praising God. Both of them needed to be made able to leave behind the paralysis of their past and folllow Jesus.
All of us are paralysed by something that holds in one limited reality. When our friends take us to the presence of Jesus or when Jesus comes to where we are paralysed, everything will change when we hear Him say “Get up! Follow Me!”
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. I have not come to invite the ‘righteous’ but the ‘sinners’---to change their ways.” Luke 5:32 Phillips
Bud McCord
Abide International
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