There’s a hole in my roof
I’m an easy going sort of woman…
….nothing much phases me…
men fighting outside my door…
…daughters going off with fishermen…
sons-in-law leaving to become itinerant preachers…
….men digging a hole in my roof….
That happened to me once!
It was a long time ago…
….Jesus was alive then…
In fact, Simon and Andrew had been off with him on one of their trips
and they had just come home.
Everyone had come looking for them – well, for Jesus – and they found him in our downstairs room!
Everyone was packed in, you couldn’t have squeezed in another Galilean fish!
Jesus was telling stories and, of course, everyone was hanging on to every word.
Gradually, I became aware of some noises up above.
Simon whispered to me as a joke, “I think there’s someone coming in through the roof!”
I whispered back, “There is someone coming in through the roof!”
The look on his face was a picture!
He pushed and squeezed his way out to the door to see what was happening from the outside.
When he came back, rather red in the face, he said, “Its Josiah from up the road with some of his mates! They’ve got David the cripple on his stretcher and they mean to get him to Jesus!”
Well, there wasn’t really a chance to respond because everyone was silent now,
ooking up at the hole appearing in my roof.
Jesus looked at me and I somehow knew it was important how I reacted.
So, I smiled.
He smiled at me and then nothing else mattered.
Everyone was trying to make a space under the hole.
They wanted to give room for the stretcher but they also didn’t want to be conked on the head!
When David was finally lowered down, he looked absolutely terrified.
Terrified because of his unusual mode of descent but I think he was also very scared of meeting Jesus.
But he needn’t have worried.
As he landed, Jesus smiled at him and asked him his name.
“David, sir”, he managed to stammer.
“David” said Jesus, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Well! I caught the eye of my friend Martha across the room.
We were both thinking, ‘Can Jesus forgive sins?’
But we were also thinking, ‘What sins has he committed??!!’
Whatever sins they were, David looked mightily relieved when Jesus said this.
In fact, it was as if a huge burden had been taken from him
and you could see him relax and become – well – peaceful, rather than tense.
The people who weren’t peaceful were the synagogue leaders.
Rabbi Ben Hassa was there with his cronies and they were grumbling amongst themselves.
But Jesus seemed to know what they were thinking.
He asked them whether it was easier to forgive sins or to tell a paralysed person to walk.
That foxed them! They didn’t know what to say!
And while they were being all confused, Jesus turned to David and said,
“My child, get up and go home.”
And that’s what he did.
He walked to the door with people parting to make way for him like the Red Sea and then –
and then, you couldn’t see him for dust!
And suddenly, you couldn’t see anyone else either!
They all went in a babble of excitement and wonder and amazement.
And Jesus went too, and Simon and Andrew…
…and I was left with a lot of mess… and a hole in the roof…
But, as I said, I’m an easy going woman…
Jacqui A Horton 2009