Joe the Roofer

A couple weeks ago, I came across a podcast that I've really begun to enjoy listening to called "The Catholic Man Show", and I recommend it for anyone (dads in particular) to listen to some real-important topics but in a light-hearted way. One episode in particular that has stood out to me was The Virtue of Hope with Fr. Philip Bochanski. 

Do you remember the story of Jesus healing the paralytic who was lowered down through the roof in front of Him because there were too many people there (Mt 9:1-8, Mk. 2:1-12, and  Lk 5:17-26)? Well, Fr. Bochanski mentioned a detail of the story in St. Mark's account that I had never noticed before. St. Mark tells us that this happened when Jesus "was at home" (Mark 2:1). 

Well, that means that the guys, who let the paralytic through the roof, had disassembled a part of the roof of Jesus' house, which means that he had to fix it after the incident. Put another way, Jesus was not only a carpenter, He also was a roofer, and who do you think taught him everything he knew about roofing? Joe, of course.

As a side note and pure speculation, perhaps the paralytic had encouraged his friends to take apart the roof and let him down through it. Since he encouraged the destruction of another's property, he would have been culpable for the other mens actions. So, perhaps these were the sins that Jesus forgave (Mark 2:5). After all, I would have been upset if someone had torn apart my roof too.