On Spiritual Friendship

I was pondering some true friends in a story Luke tells in chapter 5 (after listening to an excellent lecture I downloaded by Barbara Mutch),  who were trying to get into a house meeting Jesus was speaking at.

She described how the pharisees were already there with their critical thinking at work and so many others jammed shoulder to shoulder these friends could not get in.  People were spilling outside the doorway trying to hear.

These friends had brought a fellow along who was so sick he was on a stretcher. Stumped, one of the friends spied a set of stairs leading up to the roof where the family cooled off in the evening breeze coming off the lake. 

...Here’s where I saw myself in the story and started to laugh until I cried: They decided to try to haul the mat up the steps, leveraging it carefully so as to not dump their cargo off the stairs.  Once atop the roof they then got the goofy idea to pry off the ceiling tiles and made a hole.

Bigger and bigger they widened the hole so they could lower down their sick friend.  They needed ropes and somehow rigged the bed down the hole, dangling their paralyzed friend in front of Jesus. He beheld that crazy friendship and loved it.  He called it faith.

Do you have a friend like that?
Mine is Steve Anonby.  He sells hot-tubs and knows how to single handedly get them in and out of the tightest spots. And I know he'd always find a way to help me get to Jesus somehow – he's just crazy enough.  I figure there are some others in my life who might make the same persevering, crafty effort to help a guy out.

And I know Jesus sees this kind of friendship and smiles at it too.

Kenton J. Kutney