The faith of others

"If you just had enough faith..."

I've heard this phrase used a number of times over the years to "help" someone with an illness, a financial need, a problem. The implication is that the solution, or rather the lack of one, is your fault because you don't have enough faith to get God to act.

But what if you had no faith at all? Would God do something if you weren't even trusting him? Would he help you if you are simply paralyzed by sin and unable to ask, unable to believe, unable to go to him for help? Would God respond then? Many would tell you, "NO! He wouldn't."

May I offer a different picture of God, his love and work in our lives?

Here is the passage from the gospel of Mark. It's a great picture of God's grace and love for us wounded and broken people,

"A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Here is a man, paralyzed and unable to walk, but what we don't know is how pervasive this paralysis really was. We know he couldn't walk, but did it paralyze his speech? Did it handicap him in other ways? Really, we have no idea. All we know is that Jesus did not act based on his faith. We don't know if he had faith in Jesus at all, in fact through this whole story we hear no words from this man at all. What caught my eye as I read this passage is that his faith was not necessary for Jesus to respond.

Did you see it in the passage? "When Jesus

saw THEIR faith, not the man on the stretcher, but the men lowering him, he acted, he forgave, he healed. It was the faith of others that moved Jesus to action. If we were to judge the sick man's faith we might conclude he had none at all, but Jesus acted because of the faith of his friends.

These are encouraging words for me as I pray for others who may be paralyzed by their sins and unable or unwilling to trust God on their own. As I bring the friend, the family member to Jesus it's not necessary they have faith at all. It's the Lord, and my faith in him that brings mercy and grace to the one in need. The actions, prayers and love of others are often important ingredients for someone paralyzed by the sins of their life or the problems they face. They don't see God as the solution and would never approach him on their own, but when I bring them to the Lord, as these friends did, Jesus responds, forgives, and heals.

"When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

I pray that I will be such a friend to someone else, carrying them to the Lord in prayer, trusting him to do what they may never ask for on their own.