My husband and I have been trying to get together with a friend for a while. Earlier this week it occurred to me that we had a free evening that might work for us to connect. Our friend said that she could come as long as we could watch Jeopardy on TV while we were together. She had to keep an eye on it for her job.
That seemed easy enough to arrange.
I called a restaurant to ask whether we could ask to watch Jeopardy while we were eating in the bar, and the employee who answered the phone said, “I don’t see why not.”
When we arrived, though, I asked another employee the same question. He laughed and laughed. “Oh, I can’t do that,” he said.
Clearly he couldn’t. So, we went to another restaurant—one I hadn’t called in advance, but where there were three seats at the bar. And, without much hope, we made our request a second time.
“That’s fine with me,” the bartender said. When it was time for Jeopardy to start, he found the channel and we watched as we chatted. We had a lovely time together, and I was grateful to the staff who happily changed the channel for us.
We had two very different encounters—both with professionals who were doing their jobs, but one who saw possibility in meeting our request and one who didn’t. Neither was wrong. They just viewed the question differently.
Sometimes you have to knock on more than one door to get a yes. But it’s worth asking—and asking again. Each of us has the opportunity to make things possible—even when others might see them as impossible.
In one of the Gospel readings this week, Jesus encounters the paralytic who comes to him to be cured. The people who bring the paralyzed man to Jesus open the roof and lower him down to be near Jesus.
Nothing about it sounds simple. How far did those people carry that man to bring him to that space? Was it difficult to open the roof? Was it an arduous task? How many people had to say, yes, let’s give it a try…yes, let’s make sure you get to meet Jesus…yes, this will be worth all the work and the time and the trouble?
Anyone along the way could have said, “No.” “Not today.” “Why should we bother?” “Who is this Jesus anyway?” But people said yes—or at least the ones mentioned in the story did—and because of their yeses, the man does meet Jesus. Then he walks away, healed.
The point of the story is that Jesus is a healer and miracle worker. But if we see ourselves as the other people in the story, we might realize what powerful and important work we can take on.
Each of us can say yes to a task in the hopes that it will lead to something greater.
Each of us can be a person who helps someone encounter Jesus.
Each of us has the chance to help make the impossible possible.
In that story, we see people who cared enough to overcome challenge and bring hope to a man who was paralyzed. Maybe they believed he would be cured. Maybe they just thought the visit would give him a little bit of comfort and peace. We will never know. But the steps they took, the way they supported the man opened the door for Jesus to perform a miracle.
It can be so easy to say no and walk away. It can be simpler to think someone else will take on that task—or that the task itself doesn’t matter. But what wonders await us when we simply say yes—and give of our time and energy and love to allow God to step in and make miracles happen.
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