May I Borrow Your House

          Jesus did not have a lot of possessions; probably because of the life he lived. He didn’t have a way to get around, so he walked everywhere. When it came time to enter Jerusalem, to celebrate His last Passover on this earth, he had to borrow a colt for His triumphant entry. If he wanted to cross the Sea of Galilee, he had to borrow Peter’s boat. In fact, he didn’t even have a permanent home. When he lived with Mary and Joseph, he lived in Nazareth. Once he started his ministry, he didn’t have a place to put his pillow. When he wanted to stay in Bethany, he stayed at the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. If he was visiting with Peter, he hung his robe there. Of course, as we know, he was laid to rest in a borrowed tomb. One time, when he was in Capernaum for a while, he stayed with me.

          I was delighted that he wanted to stay with me. When he taught, people came from all over. They flocked to hear him, including the teachers of the law. So many people came to my home that day, there was standing room only.  I was so proud that Jesus had come to my house. I was delighted that He had chosen my house to not only stay, but from which to teach. There, he even taught the teachers of the law.

          Then it happened. It started while he was teaching. First, it was just the sounds from the roof. That was bad enough. I didn’t want anything to distract people from Jesus’ teaching. But the sounds above were unmistakable. Scratching at first, and then clawing. Second, the dust and the dirt started to fall all around us as we sat and stood inside the room. I was really hoping Jesus would not notice. I would have to check it later. Frankly I was so embarrassed that there was something wrong with my roof. I didn’t want Jesus to think I had not taken care of everything for him to stay with me. Then the volume of the sound increased, the unmistakable sound of someone digging through my roof. People were starting to not only get distracted from what Jesus was teaching, they were looking up, dirt falling on their heads. I looked apologetically at Jesus, mortified that my home was no longer the perfect setting for his words of wisdom and truth. He kept right on teaching, as if not noticing that the roof was falling in on him. Paralyzed from the sheer embarrassment, and the inability of knowing quite what to do, I just kept pretending to listen, trying to focus, but every few moments I found myself inadvertently glancing upward.

          It did become a little difficult to ignore when through the roof came a mat, with a man lying on it. By this time, all eyes were on the man on the mat. People had cleared a space for the man on the mat to rest on the floor, followed by four more men who had apparently lowered him into my house. I am not sure which of us was more befuddled, the man on the mat or myself. He didn’t get up. Apparently, he couldn’t get up and walk. It was now too great a disturbance and too much of an intrusion to the teaching of Jesus to ignore. Jesus had stopped teaching. Now, everyone’s eyes were on Jesus. That was fortunate. I didn’t want them looking at me. Jesus was not looking at me either. That was also good because I didn’t want him to be upset with me that my house was now a full blown mess, totally unfit for Jesus, and totally unsuitable for a rabbi. It was as if everyone in the room stopped breathing for just a moment. I know it was only a moment because Jesus immediately assessed the entire situation: hole in my roof, mess on the floor, paralyzed man and four friends staring at Him. He “said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” I thought, Jesus was probably as annoyed with the man on the mat as I was, interrupting Jesus’ teaching, let alone destroying my house. Ah, I was so relieved. He wasn’t angry with me for my roof falling in. Jesus saw the obvious error of the man on the mat’s sin of barging into my home and interrupting his teaching. So I thought.

          Those teachers of the law who had also come to hear Jesus-they were not happy with what had just happened. They weren’t saying it out loud. But their annoyance with Jesus was as obvious as my relief that he wasn’t mad at me.

          “Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ¹² He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

          Jesus eventually stopped teaching and people went home.  Later that day, as Jesus and I cleaned up the mess from the hole in my roof, we talked about that hole and the mess in my house. We laughed about it and I had to admit to him, that had he told me about the mess to come when he asked to stay with me, I am not so sure I would have said yes. Sure, I loved having Jesus stay with me in my house. I really loved when he was teaching and people would come and hear him. But that mess.

          On that day, he did something more than teach and preach in my house. He stopped the clucking tongues and accusations of the teachers of the law. He healed a man.  He answered the prayers of four men whose friend lived his life on a mat. It required a hole in my roof. It required a temporary mess in my house.

          That night, as we sat down to eat a simple meal, I thanked him for coming to stay with me, and together, we blessed the mess.