Mark writes a story of a lame man whose four friends take him to a rooftop and open a hole in the roof to lower him down to where Jesus is.

In Jewish culture at the time it was commonly believed that someone who had a physical condition also had a spiritual condition. That is they were cursed. They were to be avoided. So how is it that this lame man has four friends?

I wonder if the friends were equally cursed socially? Did they have their own physical conditions? Is that how they met? Or was this a man who recently became lame and these were faithful friends from before the onset of the laming condition?