Roofs and Ceilings and Doors

 

Our trouble, though you might not see it this way, is that we are much too cautious about tearing up roofs and we hesitate to rejoice when folks step through ceilings. Consider a roof that was made into a door two thousand years ago, and a ceiling that was made into a door only just a couple of days ago – while two thousand years separate these two doors, this ceiling and this roof, they are close together, in fact, as I ponder them, they are the same door; one created by passionate and determined friends, the other created ostensibly by accident.

 

This past week a contractor who was in our attic put his glorious foot through our ceiling. It happened toward the conclusion of a long hot day. We had spent hours out of the house so that the contractor could perform his work and we were minutes from returning when we received a call that there was a hole in our ceiling that would have to be repaired.

 

I feel certain that this was an accident, and yet it wasn’t – it was deliberate, it was purposeful, and it was glorious. I will admit that I did not consider it glorious at the time, at the time I said, “Really?” When we arrived home the contractor was apologetic and before leaving our house made arrangements for another contractor to come the following morning and repair the ceiling (our contractor with the glorious foot which made the glorious hole was not in the drywall and paint business). Have you ever put your own glorious foot through a ceiling and needed someone else to fix the damage for you? It is good to have friends.

 

The following morning Christian arrived – yes, his name is Christian; I am not John Bunyan and this is not Pilgrims Progress – though if you have not read the Pilgrim’s Progress I encourage you to do so for it contains much–needed perspective for our myopic vision of life. Christian’s smile was large and his command of English was small and he got right to work. There is something to be said for the language of the face, words can deceive us, but faces? Smiles? The light of the eyes? The position of facial muscles? We communicate in more than one language at any given time – life is grand when the strings of our piano are tuned and we live in balance and harmony in Christ, but when we produce cacophony…when our hearts and words and faces aren’t playing the same music…well, that is the antithesis of Biblical shalom.

 

After showing Christian the glorious hole in the ceiling, (I did not yet know that his name was Christian), I asked him if he would like coffee or water and he said no. With that I left him to his work – I leave folks alone when they are working, I want them to concentrate on what they are doing.

 

What do you think of the story in Mark 2:1-13? The one about the four friends who carried their paralyzed buddy (that’s a “mate” for you Aussies or a “homeboy” if you are from Philly) on a stretcher to see Jesus? When they arrived at the house where Jesus was teaching, the crowd was such that they couldn’t even get close to the door. What to do?

 

Well, these boys had carried their mate too far to give up. Plus, there was the consideration that if they gave up, they’d just have to carry him home again. But really, they had carried their friend this far and they had no intention of not seeing things through to the end, they had come to bring their friend to Jesus for healing and, as an old hymn goes, “they would not be denied.” Isn’t it good to have friends to not only repair holes in ceilings, but to carry us when we can’t carry ourselves, when we find ourselves in a moment of time or a season of life when we can’t put one foot in front of another?

 

What do you do when you can’t get through the door to see Jesus? What do you do when it seems impossible to accomplish your goals? What do you do when people are in need and there are obstacles to you helping them? What did these homeboys do? They did what any true homeboys would do, they carried their friend up onto the roof and commenced to dig through it, making a door. Mark writes that, “They dug an opening.”

 

Imagine the reaction of the people around them. Those on the outside of the house…what were they thinking when they saw the four friends carrying the stretcher onto the roof? What were they thinking when they saw the roof excavation commence? What about those in the house?

 

When the contractor stepped through our ceiling in 2021 making a glorious hole, blown pink insulation came pouring through the ceiling and into the room below. As the four mates were digging through the roof 2,000 years ago, dirt was falling into the house where Jesus was teaching. Dirt was falling onto heads, it was getting into beards, it was irritating eyes, it was causing people to cough – where were the face masks? What were the people in the house thinking and feeling? What would you have been feeling and thinking?

 

The religious types in the house were no doubt highly irritated, as religious types tend to be, at the disruption and the lack of respect and decorum. Others may have been wondering if they should leave the house just in case the roof caved in. But here is what I think Jesus was thinking as He watched the reaction of those around Him, “This is going to be good. This is going to be really good.”

 

Jesus had a surprise or two for the religious types before this was all over, and He had forgiveness of sins and healing for the paralyzed homeboy. As you read the story for yourself don’t miss this in verse 5, “And Jesus, seeing their faith…” Jesus saw the faith of the four friends. Sometimes we not only need others to carry us, we need others to believe for us; and this means that there are times when we need to believe for others.

 

Now if you are one of those dear people who understand the mysteries of the universe and are convinced that we must always believe for ourselves and that there is something wrong with us if we don’t have faith in a given situation, let me give you a gentle piece of advice, “Get over it.” Sometimes we need to carry others and sometimes we need to be carried – this is the essence of life in Christ, of koinonia, of fellowship, of community.

 

When we create doors in roofs, wonderful things can happen.

 

Christian did a great repair job on the ceiling, both with the drywall patch and painting. As he was putting his tools back in his truck, I stood next to him and asked, “When I think of you and the great work you’ve done, is there something I can pray for you or your family or a friend? I love praying for people, what can I pray for?”

 

Recalling that Christian’s smile is large but his English is small, he didn’t understand what I was asking. However, when I put my hands together as if to pray and looked up to the sky, his smile got even larger and his eyes lit up and he said, “I’ve been waiting for this. I will go and get paper and write my name and the name of my son.”

 

When he returned from the truck with a small piece of paper with the names Christian Montes and Josias Montes, I took the paper, read it, and then extended my hands to him, enclosing his right hand in my two hands…I prayed, we prayed…and Jesus was saying the whole time, “This is going to be good. This is going to be really good.”

 

[Many thanks to my dear friend Earl Cutlip of Strasburg, VA who, when I shared about our glorious hole in the ceiling, reminded me of Mark chapter two – he said something like, “God is still tearing up roofs.”]