![]() ![]() Because of his physical condition, the deck was stacked against friendships emerging here at all. You should know that for the man in this story the development of these friendships did not happen accidentally. Without his friends he never makes it to Jesus, never gets healed, never gets forgiven. In one sense, this whole story takes place because of his friends. He is in one of the killer small groups of all time. What's he got going for him? He has friends. He has no money, no job, no influence, no family, and seemingly not much of a future. ![]() Anyone in this man's condition has to go through life as a beggar-be laid by the side of the road, be dependent on people dropping coins beside him to live another day. Nothing can be done medically-no surgeries, no rehab programs, no treatment centers. He will never know the sense of independence we prize so fiercely. Someone has to feed him, carry him, clothe him, move him to keep him from being covered with bedsores, clean him when he soils himself. This man's whole life is lived on a mat three-feet wide and six-feet long. ![]() Imagine what life was like for a paralytic in the ancient world. One of the great stories in the Bible about community involves a paralyzed man and the friends who brought him to Jesus (Mark 2:1-8). ![]()
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