Jesus Sees Their Faith

Mark 2:1-12

Jesus Sees Their Faith

     

     And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “My son your sins are forgiven.”

     The story about the faith of a Paralytic and his persistent friends has been passed down from generation to generation and is just as powerful a witness now as it was then. What a lesson for us as Christians. There are a couple of things I would like to point out that should grab our attention. First, the faith of the men who carried the paralytic to Jesus had a big part in the outcome of the man being healed. It was their action of physically carrying him to Jesus that brought him there. If they had simply told the man that Jesus could heal but didn’t bother to bring him to Jesus what good would it have done him? Could he have gotten up and walked to Jesus himself in order to be healed? No, he had to be carried. It was beyond his own ability to get himself to Jesus. Second, after getting all the way to the house where Jesus was they found that there was no way to get close to Him because of all the people. Can you imagine how discouraged they would have been at such a sight? They had carried this poor man all the way only to find that the last one hundred feet were going to be the hardest. Now here is the scary part. What if they had given up at this point and gone home? Would the man have been healed? He had gotten so close and yet not close enough. The story is well known because the men persisted and a way was made where there was none. It was faith in Jesus ability to heal the man that caused them to overcome the last one hundred feet.

     What a lesson we have before us. It is our faith in action that will see God’s hand so abundantly. Words of help and comfort are great, but it is the actions that do the job. All men and women are like the paralytic, unable to bring themselves to Jesus. They can’t carry themselves and must be carried. So how do we carry people to Jesus? There are a couple of parts to this equation which need to be in place. The first is that they need to hear about Him, and the second is that they need to desire to be healed by Him. Our job is to live in such a way that our actions glorify God. Turning people’s eyes and hearts to Heaven is essentially carrying them to Jesus. If people see our deeds and are touched with a desire to know our Savior, than we have succeeded.

     But this is only the beginning to what God has called us to do. Jesus left us with the command to make disciples of all nations, which means that we must be training and teaching them after they have been healed. People who truly meet Jesus want to know what to do next. It is our job to work with them like a child being raised by older brothers and sisters or parents. The child needs protection and training. This is what we are called to be part of.

     We have been called by God and no matter how little we feel we have to give, yet if we are faithful to make use of it, He will turn it into something greater. Let us pray for God’s hand to be upon us so that we will be diligent to do all that we can for people. In our weakness He will be our strength.