Let Others Carry You To Jesus

By Odon Bulamba (10 May 2002)

Luke 5:25. Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.

This text has great meaning for our Christian lives. A man was lying on his bed and in an instant he got up and praised God, and many Christians don’t do this today. They receive from God but they don’t have time to praise Him. One day I asked a friend how many times he praised God in his life and he said only when God does miracles for him, so I asked him what kind of miracles, and he said none. It means that since he was born he has never praised God, but I want to say to you that the greatest miracle of all is salvation.

People think a lot about physical miracles that attract the human eye, but God needs to see a transformation in you. I told my brother that the breath of life he has is a miracle but he said ‘no’ animals can breath also, and I said ‘yes’ that is a miracle because if they stop breathing they would have no life. Many wealthy people will do anything in their power to prevent death because they are afraid, and sometimes doctors use oxygen to resuscitate them but they die.

There was a man who was paralysed and his brothers tried really hard to find a cure. One day they heard that Jesus was coming to their area, so the paralysed man told his brothers to carry him to the house where Jesus was. This brother was paralysed so he had to find a bed to lie down on. The paralysed man confessed his weakness in front of his brothers, and he asked them to help him see Jesus.

As Christians today we don’t want to confess our weaknesses to each other. Someone who is paralysed is not dead, they are still alive. Just like many Christians today who are alive but are paralysed one way or another. You can be healthy but your hand can be useless, you may think Peter is strong but he might have a problem with his leg. So how will you know if he has problem if he doesn’t admit it? Peter must first humiliate himself and lie down on a bed, and when others are stronger than him, he has to ask them to carry him to Jesus.

First admit your weakness and second ask others to help you. Some Christians think they are powerful by saying they have no weaknesses, but they will always tell you about other people’s weaknesses. If you don’t admit your weaknesses it will be hard for you to lie down on a bed, and we all know the meaning of a bed.

Children use beds as a trampoline and sometimes adult’s use it when they are tired, but if you ask an adult to lie down on a carpet they will wonder why. It is because your body doesn’t like to sleep on the floor. When we admit our weaknesses we have to try and find comfort in the Lord because Jesus said, you will find rest in Me.

Jesus Christ Himself is the rest and the bed is the synonym to rest.

The man who was sick called his brothers and they helped him straight away to see Jesus. Unfortunately there was a big crowd so they decided to send him through the roof. Jesus saw this man coming down from the roof and said to him, your faith has healed you and your sins are forgiven. So what can we learn through this?

If someone who is spiritually sick or tired calls us, we must show good will to help him or her. So what is it to have a good will? It is to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, if you were Oscar what would you do? If you are different from Oscar it doesn’t mean that you can’t help him, because if you can’t help him it will cost you one day. We are called to help those who are weak so we must comfort them by taking some of their load.

The Bible says help each other. If someone has a heavy load try to help them with a good attitude and do not complain. Open your spirit and God will bless you. A normal man weighs around 80kg; try to imagine carrying a man on a bed 5 kilometres or so. You will need to use your strength and accept that your hands will become tired, and this is what we lack today. When we carry other people’s loads we don’t use our strength, when you pray for Kelly you tell God, God you know Kelly and you know what she needs, amen! But when it comes to praying for yourself when you have a problem you can kneel down for 10 hours and pray with all your strength, but when it’s time for you to pray for someone else, distractions come.

This is a problem for Christians today. If the church doesn’t grow it is because we don’t use our strength for others. The brothers that help the paralysed man didn’t complain, but when someone comes back to us with the same prayer request three times we give up.

When a Pastor gives his prayer request to the church, people will pray with power, but when they pray for someone who is poor everybody will be quiet. When a wealthy person leaves the church after being prayed for everybody will go up to him and encourage him, but when a poor man leaves they just say, be courageous and God will help you, and nobody will want to listen to his problems. This is the wrong way to use your strength because you cause division.

The brothers carried the sick man to Jesus but a crowd was blocking the way, so they thought hard for a solution because God gave us a mind to think. The brothers did not become discouraged because of the crowd but wanted to find a solution for him, so they decided to go through the roof. Even though they didn’t own the house, the roof was the only way in so imagine the mess and noise. When they were up on the roof they needed rope to lower the sick man down, so how much effort do we put in to carrying someone onto a roof? How many times do we carry someone’s load onto a roof? How many times do we accept to destroy our homes so that someone can find life? What ropes would you use to lower someone to Jesus?

Rahab used a red rope and this shows us the salvation we have through Jesus Christ. The brothers needed at least four ropes to lower the sick man down to balance it.

Jesus said to the sick man, get up your sins are forgiven, and the paralysed man went off praising the Lord. So how many times do we have the victory like this brother? How many times have you done this in your life? How many times have you sacrificed your time for your family and the people around you? As Christians we must help each other, and a Christian that doesn’t want to carry someone’s load is a sick Christian.