Wonder is a key to transformation, faith and worship. Understanding ourselves in proper context to God will lead us to a childlike faith and out of the day-to-day grind of earthly life.
False humility is the flip side of arrogance. Both mean that we are failing to give God the glory for what He has done and the gifts that He has given. God may need to work in us to properly orient our outlook and behavior in one direction or the other.
But what do those two truths have in common, and how do they connect to this story of the man lowered through the roof?
The story starts with the earthly enemies of Christ watching him for anything they can use against Him. But Jesus was doing what he so often did, healing the sick.
We would prefer to see ourselves in Jesus in this passage, but so often we are the Pharisees, knowingly or unknowingly putting barriers between Jesus and the people seeking Him.
In reality, we should be seeking to be the friends in this story, loving others with a creative intensity that drives us to seek their good by any means. But the best good did not come from them, but from the infinite power of God through Jesus Christ. God doesn’t need us – and yet we matter to Him and he invites us into what He is doing.
There is a tension and even a paradox here. God’s work is not about us – and yet at the same time, God’s work is about us, transforming us into the person He has already proclaimed us.
Within the church community, we play both the role of the friends and the man on the cot at different times. We cannot be too proud or protective of ourselves to be the one who needs others to lower us down to Jesus. We cannot be too afraid to step into the unknown and the difficult – the possibilities of failure open up broader opportunities as well. God wants us in this vulnerable position so He can do “unimaginable things” that will give Him the glory.
God has put people in all of our lives who will lower us in a cot. Anything we accomplish is bolstered by the people and opportunities God has placed around us to glorify himself through the work He and they do through us.
— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, November 6, 2022