Level 3
Lesson 16: Four Friends Help

Wherever Jesus went, there was always a crowd of people to see Him and listen to Him.

One day in Capernaum the people heard that Jesus had come back to Peter’s house. They hurried at once to the door to watch for Him coming out. Four friends met at the house and said to one another, “If only we could get the man sick of the palsy to Jesus, He would make him better at once.”

“Let’s go and get the sick man,” one of them said.

At once they hurried to the little house where the man sick of the palsy lived. “We are come to take you to Jesus,” they told him as he lay on his bed on the floor. “Jesus will make you better.”

“But I cannot walk,” said the helpless man.

“We will carry you on your bed,” said the four friends. “There are four of us, and we will each take a corner of your bed.”

The bed was just a thin mattress, and they placed it on sticks so that each friend could lift one corner, and the sick man could lay safely.

Out of the dark, hot little house they went, the sick man blinking at the sunshine.

Soon they came near Peter’s house, but the crowd was so big that they could not get through to Jesus. They stood still and said, “What shall we do?”

“I know,” said one of the four. “Let us climb up the outside stairs to the roof of Peter’s house.”

The sick man lay very still on his mattress, and the four friends were very, very careful. They went slowly up the stairs, which were outside the house, not inside like ours. The roof, too, was flat like a table, so the sick man lay quite comfortably upon it.

Then one of the friends went for some strong ropes, and another set to work to make a hole in the roof. Soon they were back, and they began to dig through the roof. When the hole was big enough to let down the sick man on his bed, they tied a strong rope to each corner of the bed.

Then, very gently, they lowered the bed down, until it rested at the feet of Jesus. Next the four friends heard Jesus speak so tenderly to the sick man.

First He said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Then He said, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

The friends, watching, saw the sick man stand up, lift up his bed, roll it up, and carry it away. How glad they were!