The Man with the Wibbly-Wobbly Legs – with Video!

Matthew 9:1–8, Mark 2:1–12, and Luke 5:17–26

wibbly wobbly legs heart

Yes, I know this is not the set text for this week, but The Man with the Wibbly-Wobbly Legs is a great passage that is almost entirely absent from the lectionary. It follows last week’s passage in Luke 5, but the lectionary skips straight over this story.

Year A does the same in Matthew, and Mark’s version is only ever read when you get 7 weeks in Epiphany B, which you often don’t.

So, rebellious iconoclast that I am, here is the wrong reading for this week!

Click here for a video of this script.
You can use it for practice or show it to your group.

Disclaimer: Please be assured that this humorous re-telling of Jesus’ miracle is no way intended to belittle the conditions of paraplegia or paralysis, or to be disrespectful towards those with mobility difficulties.

The Man with the Wibbly-Wobbly Legs

 You will need:

  • four strips of card or laminated paper, approx 30 cm x 6 cm
  • three split-pin fasteners

Punch holes near the ends of the strips and join them into a line with the fasteners. Make sure that the holes are the same distance from the end as from the sides so that the strips form neat right-angles.

4 strips Legs

Make shapes to illustrate the story when indicated in the script, below. Click for illustrations of the shapes.

LEGS Hold by middle joint and swing the lower legs
BODY/ ONE Tuck all four strips behind each other (free ends at bottom for BODY)
ARMS Starting from BODY, open out lower ends
HEAD/HOLE Bend straight line into a full circle
JESUS Bend straight line into a curved J (make sure this is backwards for you)
HOUSE Initially form walls and pointed roof, then pull apart to make flat-roofed house
SAYING Hold BODY horizontally, place finger in middle of strips at open end, push ends together to make middle open in time with speech
DOOR Tuck one strip behind, form remaining strips in to upside-down U
WINDOW Square (on point for medium hole)
MAT Horizontal straight line of four
FOUR Tuck one strip behind, form remaining strips into a backwards 4 shape
STEPS Right-angle zig-zag
TRIANGLE Tuck one strip behind, form remaining strips into a triangle
LOWER Hold MAT high, then fold ends of MAT vertically like ropes and bring downward
CHAINS Bend two strips in a circle towards the centre on each side
FREE Starting from CHAINS, hold one end and release other strips
MAN Horizontal straight line of two (ends in middle)
SIT UP Starting from MAN, lift one end to vertical and extend arms slightly
STAND UP Starting from SIT UP, lift body and arms, allowing legs to straighten
PICK UP Starting from STAND UP, keep legs straight and bend body and arms down
FOLD Starting from MAT, concertina into ONE
WALK As LEGS, but hold at knee joints (knees slightly bent) and walk sideways
HEART Starting from LEGS hold top joint and bend nearer leg over the top to meet other leg, top joint turning upside down


I’m going to tell you about Jesus and a man with the wibbly-wobbly LEGS. Everytime you see this I want you to say with me “wibbly-wobbly LEGS“.

Here is the story of the man with the wibbly-wobbly LEGS. His BODY was alright. His ARMS were alright. His HEAD was alright. But he did have wibbly-wobbly LEGS.

Now, one day somebody famous came to town. Who do you think it was? Here’s a clue [form J, making sure it is backwards for you]. That’s right JESUS came to town and he went into a HOUSE. Except their houses didn’t look like this. We have pointy roofs on our houses, but they didn’t have that much rain, so they had flat roofs.

Jesus was talking to everyone in the house, SAYING “God loves you very much”, and the HOUSE got more and more crowded. There were people peeping in at the DOOR, there were people leaning in through the WINDOW. It was so crowded that you couldn’t get even ONE more person in.

Our friend with the wibbly-wobbly LEGS has heard about JESUS and knew that Jesus could make his legs better. But how could he get to the HOUSE? All he could do was lie on his MAT all day. He could not walk because of his wibbly-wobbly LEGS.

So he called FOUR friends, and asked them to carry him on his MAT. So they did. But when they got there, of course, the HOUSE was full. The only space was on the flat roof. How could they get all the way up there? Aha! STEPS!

In those days, they put the steps on the outside of the houses. So the friends carried the man on his MAT up the STEPS to the roof of the HOUSE.

What now? Well, they started to dig, and made a hole in the roof. First, they made a little hole [TRIANGLE]. Then they made a bigger hole [WINDOW on point]. Finally, they made the HOLE so big you could get a person through it!

So they got the man on the MAT and LOWERed him down right in front of JESUS.

Jesus looked at the man with the wibbly-wobbly LEGS and said, “Your sin, the things you have done wrong, are like CHAINS locking you up. I forgive you. I set you FREE.”

Some of the people were cross, SAYING, “Only God can forgive sins!”

But Jesus replied, “Which is easier, to forgive sin or to heal this man’s wibbly-wobbly LEGS?” And Jesus said to the MAN, “SIT UP!”, and he sat up. Then Jesus said, “STAND UP!”, and he stood up. Everyone was amazed.

PICK UP your mat and go home”, said Jesus. The man bent over and picked up his MAT. He FOLDed it neatly, then tucked it under his arm and WALKed home with legs that were perfectly normal and not wibbly or wobbly at all!

He was very happy about his brand new legs, but he was even happier because he knew that Jesus had forgiven him and given him a brand new HEART.




Luke 5:17-26 The Message



That set the religion scholars and Pharisees buzzing. “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemous talk! God and only God can forgive sins.”



The Message

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