And you, would you break a roof?

Gabriel met Rubén at work. He’d like to invite him to church on Sundays or to an evangelistic event held on Fridays, but he can’t do so because Rubén has a hearing impairment.

Marta invited her friend Ruth to a youth event at her church. Everything was going well until Ruth found she couldn’t access the building’s toilet in her wheelchair. In the end, she had to leave in a hurry and now doesn’t want to go back for fear of needing to use the toilet and not being able to.

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These are just two examples of people we’re leaving behind… there are many more, and their families too.

When I think about this, the following story springs to mind:

“It happened then that some men carried on a stretcher a paralysed man and tried to take him into the house where Jesus was so that they could lay him before Jesus. But UNABLE TO DO SO because of the crowd that had gathered, they climbed onto the roof and, after breaking through the roof, lowered him on his stretcher and placed him in the middle, in front of Jesus.” (LUKE 5:18–19 RV20)

Someone needed an encounter with Jesus, but something was standing in the way. They realised this, but they knew that this encounter was vital, so they had to find a way to clear the path to Jesus.

Just imagine! They carried a paralysed man up onto the roof of a house and then… broke through the roof so they could lower him down right where Jesus was. What motivated them to do such a thing?

Only if you are aware of the importance of that personal encounter with Jesus will you be able to ‘break through roofs’. Today, the roofs we need to break through are the barriers that people may encounter along their path. Remove them to clear the way so that others may have that personal encounter with Jesus, just as you did, and also be able to participate, grow and serve in His Church, just as you do.

Perhaps you are not aware of where these barriers might lie. There are different kinds: for example, architectural, communicational, attitudinal, instrumental, methodological, and so on.

Open your eyes to other realities and you will begin to see barriers that you did not see before.

The people we have seen broke through the roof for those in need, so that they might have their encounter with Jesus.

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