The other day I was reading a story I've read and heard at least a hundred times thanks to growing up in church. It's a pretty popular one, Jesus is teaching and some guys bring their friend to be healed. But the crowd is so big they can't get into the house to see Jesus so the friends make a hole in the roof and lower their buddy in front of Jesus Who forgives his sin and heals him. A nice, feel-good type of a story.
But for the first time I noticed something:
Soon the house where he (Jesus) was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room... (Mark 2:2a, NLT)
Jesus wasn't at some random person's house, He was at a friend's house, the house He was staying at while in town. Think about that for a second, this poor guy said he'd help Jesus out as the traveling preacher. And what did it cost him? To give Him a bed probably didn't cost anything (other than space), but what about food? What about all these other people, were they fed too? The traffic of crowds and wear on the house? And now, the roof? And how did all this effect not just the guy who said Jesus could stay but his wife and children, what was this costing them? What probably started out as a simple "here's the spare room" to help Jesus out turned into so much more. Their lives would have stopped because of it, and now their lives and home were being broken.
There was a huge cost to having Jesus stay with them.
Here's the real question: Does it still cost to invite Jesus to stay with you? And if so, what?
T
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