BLOG 11 – “SEEING” FAITH
Early in His ministry, Jesus wanted to make sure that people understood who He was and what He had come to accomplish. Reflecting on my last blog on “Christmas Faith,” the angel Gabriel told Joseph that Mary would give birth to a son, and he would be called Jesus (“The Lord saves”), because He would “….save His people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21). And to the shepherds, the angels proclaimed that “Today, in the city of David (Bethlehem), a Savior has been born….” (Lk. 2:11). And so, as He began His ministry some thirty years later, He used a unique incident to reveal who He was and what He had come to do.
On one occasion, Jesus found Himself teaching in a house that was likely quite large (maybe the house of a prominent synagogue official). In his account of this incident (Lk. 5:17-26), Luke tells us that Jesus was surrounded by Pharisees (religious leaders who followed the most rigorous requirements of the Law of Moses) as well as teachers of the Law, who had come from Jerusalem and “every village throughout Galilee and Judea.” While these religious leaders were sitting down, others from the community crowded into the doorways and peered through every window of the house.
Some friends of a paralytic had heard that Jesus was “in town” and they believed that if they could just get their friend to Jesus, He would heal him. And so, they quickly placed him on a mat and carried him (one on each corner) to the house where Jesus was teaching. Unable to find a way into the house because of the crowds, these friends climbed onto the roof, bringing their paralyzed friend with them. Just imagine for a moment the engineering feat required to accomplish that! Once upon the roof (roofs were generally flat in those days, as they are today in Israel), they began to peel away the tiles from the roof, making a large enough hole to lower their friend down to Jesus (another amazing engineering feat). Imagine the shock all of the guests in the house (including the owner) as they wondered what was happening as they witnessed how a small beam of sunlight suddenly appearing in the roof had grown into a gaping hole in just a matter of a few minutes!
As Jesus witnessed the four friends lowering the paralytic through the hole in the roof, Luke records that “Jesus saw their faith.” Say again! How can someone see faith? Well, there it was, as plain as the hole in the roof! The truth is, genuine faith requires action. And this fact is true throughout the Scriptures – God speaks and people respond. For Abraham, God promised that he would be the father of a great nation in a new land, but Abraham had to first believe God, and then pack his bags and get moving. For Moses, God promised that He would part the sea so that the Israelites could pass, but Moses had to first believe God, and then raise his staff and stretch out his arms over the water. For Naaman, the Syrian commander and a Gentile, God spoke through a young servant girl and then through the Prophet Elisha that if he wanted to be healed of his leprosy, he had to bathe in the Jordan River seven times. At first, Naaman was angry because Syria had much more impressive rivers than the Jordan, but Naaman believed God’s word spoken through Elisha, went to the Jordan to bathe, and was healed. Why should we expect something different from these four friends of the paralytic? They believed that Jesus could, and would, heal their friend, so they did something radical, they lowered him through the roof and placed him in front of Jesus.
How would Jesus respond to their act of faith? He clearly “saw” it, but now it was time for Him to say something. I believe that you will find the first words out of Jesus’ mouth to be quite shocking. But, this blog is already getting too long, so I will hold off on that part of the story until next week.
But before I sign off for this week, I want you to understand that faith, just like the four friends of the paralytic, requires an active response to God. The Bible is clear, “God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). You have probably heard this message in church or from friends many times, and you may even believe it. But in order to experience the forgiveness of sins, you must do something. Pack your bags, raise your staff over the sea, jump into the river (metaphorically speaking, of course). The Bible says that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful to His promise to forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confession is probably the most difficult thing that anyone will ever do, because we must agree with God about our wrong thinking, wrong actions, and wrong attitudes (the Bible calls it “sin”). Simple? Yes! Easy? Certainly not. But we must face reality and see ourselves as God sees us – a sinner in desperate need of salvation, a salvation that Jesus came to provide, a salvation that comes through the forgiveness of sins.
The Psalmist invites everyone to “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Ps. 34:8). So why not go ahead and take a drink from the waters of salvation, and you will discover, as millions of others have, that not only is the LORD good, but so is the salvation that He provides.
