When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Mark 2:5
The Gospel series was plugging along with very little stir in the community, and very little stir among the Christians’ children. Despite the best efforts of the preachers and the faithful attendance of the local Assembly, it looked like it was going to be a disappointing series. But some of the ladies had taken an interest in one of the women who worked in a nearby store. They were able to convince her to come out to a Gospel meeting. Every day they met to pray for this woman, and to discuss ways to witness to her and encourage her to attend the meetings. They made frequent shopping trips to the store where the woman worked, and took a keen interest in her in many ways. Reluctantly at first, the woman began to attend the meetings regularly, and soon came under conviction, and was saved. Like the palsied man in today’s text, she was saved by the faith of her friends.
The man with palsy had good friends. But the good friends were not content with merely letting Jesus know about him. They were willing to put their faith in Jesus into shoe leather and elbow grease. They were willing to go as far as it took to bring him to Jesus. The extent to which they went shows they had no doubt that Jesus could heal the man. Maybe the lack of extent to which we go to bring sinners to the Lord shows our lack of faith that He can save them. Does our lack of effort mean our lack of faith? Does our commitment to do no more than pray for people show any lack of faith on our part? Is our faith measured only by the number of names we can recite at a prayer meeting? If faith without works is dead, so faith without displaying that faith in real effort on our part is just as dead.
Notice that Jesus did not refer to the man’s faith, but to the faith of his helpers. We are not told whether they were neighbours, relatives, or even if they were friends. But their effort showed they cared a great deal. How thrilled they must have been to see the sick man back on his feet, and to receive the Lord’s commendation for their faith! In days to come, they would discuss this miracle and be thankful that they were willing to do what it took to bring the sick man to Jesus. We could have such times of rejoicing and thankfulness too, if we were willing to care more for the lost and to do what needed to be done to see them reached and saved.
How much we care, and how much we are willing to do to show that care, are the measuring sticks of our faith, saving faith that could bring others to our Saviour. -Jim MacIntosh