If You or I were lowered through the roof

This image is an African depiction of Mark 2:1-12 where a paralytic is lowered through a roof by his four friends. I just love this image, in large part because it forces me out of my "Jesus is a white man" worldview.
       What is more fascinating to me is the scene of the man being lowered through the roof. We sometimes make light of this scene, as if it is a fantasy that we wish could happen but won't happen.
       Mark tells us it DID happen, and that Jesus in challenging the religious leaders of the day illustrated his coming Kingdom with this great act of mercy.
       Here is a few reflections I had this morning while re-reading the Mark 2 passage:
*  First, the paralytic and his four friends had faith (verse 5). I have wondered if the paralytic could have enlisted my help to lower through the roof. Would I have that much faith?
*  Second, when the paralytic stood up and took his bed it says, "all were amazed and praised God." (verse 12) Does "all" mean the scholars and religious people also? They had just been questioning who Jesus is and what he was doing. Now they praised God for this miracle?
*  Third, I wonder what it would be like to be lowered through a roof so that I could be in Jesus' presence and he could heal my deformities - physical, spiritual, emotional.
       My Jesus (the one I think of most of the time) is far too "safe" and secure and tame. He does not challenge the status quo, does not call me to dreams and vision far beyond my imagination.
       But that is not the Jesus of Mark chapter 2 - the Jesus who is accessible to the cripple, the Jesus who challenges the religious establishment, the Jesus who is gathering his talmidim (disciples) to change the world, the Jesus who is compassionate and direct, who has mercy and confronts. This is the Jesus I met in Mark chapter 2 this week.