How Strong is your Faith?

Jann Martin February 19, 2006

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Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28

Gospel Lesson

Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man
¹ And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. ²Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. ³Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. ⁴And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." ⁶And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ⁷"Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" ⁸But immediately when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, "Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? ⁹Which is easier to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise, take up your bed and walk'? ¹⁰But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" He said to the paralytic, ¹¹"I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." ¹²Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!" (NKJ)

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

One of the first things we may wonder about this story is how the men carried the paralytic man up to the roof. At that time, the houses were made of stone and usually had a staircase that went up the outside to the flat roof. This could have been how the men were able to get up to the roof easily. The roofs were made of a mixture of straw and mud made into clay tiles, which would have been easy to make an opening to lower their friend. Can you imagine the faith all of these men must have had? First the four men, knowing in their hearts that Jesus would heal their friend after hearing stories of the other miracles that He had performed. Also, the faith of the paralytic man allowed his friends to carry him up on a roof and then lower him into the house. I don't know about you, but in the past I would not have been really comfortable being carried around like that. I have always had a fear of heights. After my first Workcamp trip, I learned to not be quite as afraid. My youth group always liked to go to the top of the bleachers, which terrified me, but I wanted to sit with them, so I would hang on to someone and do my best. Then one day at my worksite, the rest of my crew was up on the roof doing repairs and I was painting. It got to the point that I had to go up a ladder to paint up to the gutters. No one else was available, so I prayed for God to calm my nerves and have an angel on each side of me to keep me from falling. I went slowly up the ladder, and gradually my fear subsided. I'm still not thrilled with heights but I can go up a ladder and the bleachers without being terrified. Sometimes we just have to step out in faith to try something new or to turn a fear over to God.

Jesus had come into town quietly, but He had been spotted, and the people quickly came to see and hear Him. The religious leaders had come to hear what Jesus was saying to the people and to make sure He wasn't stepping into their territory. So many people had come to hear Jesus that a man who needed to be healed was not able to get close to Him. We all need to hear the Word and be fed by it, but we have to make sure that we are not crowding out others who are in need of hearing the Word for the first time. We need to be mindful of those around us and their needs, we need to look at people and hear the words they are speaking and also the non-verbal language that may be missed if we aren't careful. Since we are faithful followers, we may need to step back and let someone in who doesn't know the message and give them our place if all of the seats are taken. If we don't, we may be standing in the way of someone coming to know Jesus.

The first thing Jesus says to the man is, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." This sends up a red flag to the religious leaders who are there listening to Jesus. They are thinking to themselves that only God is able to forgive a person's sins. Jesus knows what they are thinking and confronts them asking, "Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? 9"Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise, take up your bed and walk'? 10"But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins." He said to the paralytic, 11"I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."

The paralyzed man never spoke to Jesus, and we may wonder: "If Jesus can read the hearts of the scribes, could he not have also read the heart of the man who does not speak? Perhaps Jesus understood that the man's deeper need was forgiveness, and being restored to health was an added blessing, however great."

Which would be more important to you, the healing or having your sins forgiven? I would like to be healed, but if God can use my illness to reach out to others, then I have to yield to Him and pray for strength to do what He needs me to do. If I can have my sins forgiven and live a better life, then that is more important. We see in other stories of healing that they are healed by faith. Like the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment and her flow of blood was stopped. In her heart she felt that if she could just get close enough to touch the hem of Jesus' robe, she could be healed and not have to bother Him by asking for healing. Can you imagine having a faith that strong? Sometimes our faith is that strong, but sometimes we feel inadequate and think that we are asking for too much. Having a strong faith means that we are able to be forgiven and possibly healed, even though we can't walk up to Jesus and speak face to face with Him.

Have you ever felt like the scribes that were listening to Jesus? Have you ever doubted what Jesus is able to do?

Another familiar story in the Bible is about Zacchaeus. In that story, he also was not able to get close to Jesus. Because he was short and couldn't see over the crowd, Zacchaeus climbed up a tree so he could just get a glimpse of this man Jesus that everyone was talking about. Jesus saw him and told him to come down from the tree and spend time with Him. Sometimes we are stuck in a tree and kept from being close to Jesus. Many different things in our lives can come between us and developing our faith, such as thinking we can handle things ourselves. Are you a yoyo like me? There are times I turn things over to God in prayer then take it back and try to take care of it myself. I guess that is our human side. I really would like to be more faithful and leave things in God's hands.

Have you ever thought you couldn't go to church because you didn't have the right clothes or shoes? I prefer to wear my good clothes when I go to church, but I'm sure that God would rather I come to Him in rags than not come to worship at all. Our outfit can change how we act, when we dress up, we somehow feel differently than when we are in clothes to play around. But, what is most important is how we feel inside when we come before God to worship. Don't shun someone that has come to worship because they aren't dressed the way you think they should be; it's more important to be here. Our family went to a church many years ago and I was separated from Jim and the girls as we were leaving after the service. They were in front of me and the pastor ignored them, but when I came through, he thanked me for visiting and asked my name. At that time Jim's hair was down to his collar, he wore it that way in the winter because he works down on the Detroit River, and at that time was outside a lot. His hair would help him to stay warm. He would cut it short again in the spring. This is an example of judging someone without ever knowing who they are and where they are in the faith walk. We need to be careful not to judge people before we really know them. We need to be open-minded and ask God to help us to be faithful to Him in all we do. The scribes were judging Jesus, they felt He was blasphemous because He said to the man, "your sins are forgiven." They didn't believe that He was the promised Messiah, so they felt that He couldn't talk as if He was God. Again, we need to be careful not to judge someone before we know the whole story.

Amen.

©Jann Martin 2006