No Barrier Will Stop Me
Luke 5:17 – 26
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H Koplitz
17 One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. 18 And some men were carrying on a 1bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. 19 But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. 20 Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” 22 But Jesus, 1aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 “But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” — He said to the paralytic — “I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” 25 Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. 26 1They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
In Luke chapter 5 verses 17 to 26, we have the story of Jesus healing a paralytic. This narrative is chock full of all kinds of symbolism. There was one symbol that caught my attention when I read this time. One thing that you’ll find is that if you read a piece of Scripture and then you come back sometime later and read it again and sometimes later and read it again that you’re going to find that it strikes you in different ways.
The symbol that struck me this time is that a barrier occurred between the paralytic and Jesus. The paralytic’s friends who brought him in on a mat decided they were not about to let any barrier stop them. They climbed onto the roof of the house and took out a piece of the roof so they could lower their friend and his mat in front of Jesus so he could cure him. Now this shows that not only the paralytic but the friends who brought him to Jesus were believers that Jesus could heal him.
We could stop for a moment and talk about the symbolism of healing and what that meant to the paralytic. But like I said, this narrative is full of symbolism, and I just wanted to concentrate on one, and that is the barrier that stops them. What’s important is to understand that the barrier did not stop the men from helping their friend. So, we should spend a moment and determine what the barrier was physically.
So, Jesus is in a house. People were roaming in and out. He’s doing a lot of teaching and he’s doing some healing along the way. Jesus was very popular when he was walking around the Galilee partly because of the things he had already done but also because he was a new teacher and he had new ideas that were rooted in the current beliefs about God. Since Jesus did not stand by all the traditions of the day, we would’ve considered him something of a radical. The Galilee and Judea were under Roman occupation and life was difficult for people. Sicknesses of different sorts were present in the community because the Romans got the best of everything. They got the best food; they got the best water; they got the best accommodation. The common person was lucky if they lived to be 40 years old.
Oppressed people throughout history have always turned to God. The Jews in the Galilee and Judea turned to God and asked how much longer the oppression of the Romans and the oppression of their own leaders was going to last. People were yearning for the Messiah because the tradition said that the Messiah would rid the country of the foreigners. The Messiah was to get rid of the Roman government and allow the Jews to go back to self-government.
In some ways, the religious leadership of the day had placed barriers for people who simply wanted to worship God to come to the synagogue or the temple. Therefore, the common people seeing Jesus as the Messiah and as their Savior from the horrible conditions that they had a live in.
Let’s explore a modern barrier to help our understanding of what was going on in Jesus' day. There was a time when people expected men to come to church wearing a full suit, a tie, and being well groomed. Women would come to church in beautiful dresses, and many of them wore hats. Yes, I am talking about a time before the 1970s. But imagine if you had people that stood at your church doors who would not let you in unless you fit the dress code. There are restaurants, high-priced ones, that have certain dress codes. That would be an equivalent. The restaurant does not allow entry for those who are not dressed properly. In years ago, if you are not wearing the proper outfit, then you could not come into church to worship God. That’s a barrier. There are still some churches where the leadership will give you some interesting looks if you are not conforming to the dress code of the church.
We could go into a long discussion of why your clothing has nothing to do with your ability to worship God. Again, that’s not the issue at hand. The issue at hand is barriers. Jesus never put up a barrier. It was the people that came to see him and the religious leadership that tried to put a barrier up to prevent people from getting in to see him. Now when I say it’s the people that came to see him, it was because there were so many people that wanted to get into this house that probably could only hold 20 some people at one time. Imagine if you were one of those 20 in that house within an arm’s reach distance of Jesus, you certainly would not want to give up your spot. So inadvertently, people who came to see Jesus created a barrier.
The symbolism then of the barrier is that Jesus does not want a barrier between anyone who seeks him and he. The way to get to Jesus should be open to every person on the face of the planet. I serve the church where I was told that I was not allowed to go into an apartment complex to evangelize the people to come to the church because the church people did not want them. Why? Because the church was of a middle-class congregation, and they did not want the lower-class people coming into the building to worship. When confronted with the question of why these people can’t worship God, I always got the answer pastor, they can go worship God just not here. That’s another modern-day barrier. And if one of the lower classes entered that church, there were specific people in the church that would make them feel so uncomfortable they never returned. Every time I saw that happen, I spoke out against it, but unfortunately, it fell on deaf years in that church.
If you are seeing a barrier in your church that is preventing people from coming into worship, it is your obligation as a follower of Jesus Christ to stop it. Whenever we see a barrier anywhere that prevents someone from coming to Jesus, it is our obligation to stop it.
I pray that you never have to run into this barrier, but it’s unfortunate I have to tell you it exists. So, when you see it, speak out against it and do all you can to eliminate it. Jesus came to the world for all people, and no one should shun anyone from entering a church to worship Him.
