Carrying each other to Jesus

June 5, 2025

IT MAY BE true that God loves us unconditionally, but it’s also true that experiencing the fullness of that love is conditional. For instance, take His great John 3:16 love for the whole world—its offer of eternal life is for “whosoever believes in him.”

Then there’s Jesus’s pretty clear and cool promise that “whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” (Matthew 21:22, emphasis added). Faith is essential. Thankfully, we don’t need a lot: in Matthew 17, Jesus said that just a mustard seed was enough for us to move mountains.

But what if we can’t even muster that much? What if we’re like the father of the boy tormented by an evil spirit, who tells Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). The good news is that if we don’t have any faith of our own that God can do the impossible, we can borrow it from others.

Remember the time Jesus was teaching at His place in Capernaum? It was packed, with people hanging outside (in the days before overflow seating and loudspeakers). Some friends brought a paralytic man on a stretcher, and when they were unable to get inside, they made a hole in the roof and lowered the man down. When Jesus saw what happened, He first told the invalid that his sins were forgiven and then healed him.

 Now, we don’t know how this remarkable event came about. Did the lame man ask his friends to take him to Jesus? Did the friends decide their friend needed to go to Jesus and they were going to take him (a friendly kidnapping)? It’s unclear.

 But one thing is clear: Jesus moved miraculously—pronouncing salvation and declaring healing—“when [He] saw their faith” (Mark 2:5, emphasis added).

Which leads to a question for anyone desperate for a miracle but without a mustard seed in hand. Do you have friends whom you know well enough to be able to ride on their faith, to ask them to carry you to Jesus? Do you have friends who may know you well enough to decide for you that you need to go to Jesus? Do you have friends who love you enough to be willing to make a bit of a scene to see their prayers answered (note: I am not advocating vandalism…)? The Mark 2 encounter is a reminder that we need others—something that runs counter to some church ways.

Though I’ve lived in the United States for more than half my life now, in some ways I am still a bit of an outsider. One observation I would make is that some churches have made the mistake of importing the rugged individualism that made America a great country into their congregation’s culture.

But while cowboys may ride alone, believers are intended to walk together. The Christian life isn’t meant to be just “Me and Jesus.” It’s “We and Jesus.” In Jesus’s masterclass on prayer He taught the disciples to pray, “Our Father… give us… forgive us… lead us not… deliver us…”

Do you need someone to carry you today? Or is there someone you need to offer to carry? “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2 NIV).