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63. The Faith of Friends


Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, & Luke 5:17-26
Key verse:  “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, …” He said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”
Matthew 9:6, Mark 2:10-11, & Luke 5:24

This episode in the life of Jesus serves as a good example of faith and determination to get to God no matter what the perceived circumstances.  The friends were motivated by their faith that Jesus could heal.  We don’t know anything about the faith of the paralyzed man.  He may have asked his friends to help him out, or he may have thought that the cause was hopeless.  He did, however, display faith in them.  Imagine being hoisted on a flimsy mat to the roof of a house, knowing that there would be little you could do to protect yourself if you were to fall.  Imagine the planning and discipline required by the friends to pull this off!  How about their audacity, removing roof tiles to accomplish their goal?  Talk about trespassing! 

Jesus seemed to enjoy the risks that were taken here.  Here were four men who were not held back by social convention, or limited in their thinking to do only the possible.  The crowd could not stop them.  The ridicule of the religious would not stop them.  They continued to move forward, motivated by concern for a friend, and faith in Jesus. 

When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the Paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”  He didn’t stop to admire the friends amazing physical abilities and congratulate them on their daring.  He didn’t stop to whisper words of sympathy for the plight of the paralyzed man.  He focused on the man’s heart condition and made the offer of forgiveness His top priority.  Hadn’t God Himself told Samuel, when searching for the next king of Israel: “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7B) This was Jesus’ focus. 

The religious, however, also weren’t focused on the man, or his daring friends.  They were focused on Jesus, only to criticize and find fault with His teaching and His methods.  There was no concern for the man’s situation at all!  There was only concern that God’s laws and traditions be followed and that Jesus remember His proper place in it. 

How misguided their focus was.  Again and again, Jesus would have to face this harsh, critical attitude.  How frustrating to Him it must have been, that these men, the ones who should have recognized and known Him the best, were allowing there concern for tradition blind them to who He was.  Instead of joining His ministry, they only wanted to quell it.  What a waste of the knowledge of the truth! 

Jesus knew the price that would be required to forgive this man’s sins.  He knew the price of the true gift that He had already given.  “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, …” He said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”  He did what took less effort, because it was all that the religious could see, to demonstrate that the greater achievement would also be completed. 

Too often we focus on what we can see and miss the value of what is hidden.  The world would look very different if we saw it through our heavenly Father’s eyes.  Then we would truly know reality.  For Jesus, healing was just rearranging matter, but sin has a price tag that none of us can pay.  We often pray for physical healings.  What if we were truly concerned for souls?  Perhaps then, our prayers would be filled with names of those who still need to know of and receive Christ’s love.  We are so taken with the concern for physical comfort in the here and now, but in truth, dying in sin means eternal discomfort.  When you understand it that way, how does your prayer for loved ones change?  That is Christ’s heart within you. 

Hymn: “Victory In Jesus” 

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