Seeing their faith

Luke 5:17-25 NASB

One day He was teaching; and there were  some  Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting  there,  who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and  from  Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was  present  for Him to perform healing.  And  some  men  were  carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him.  But not finding any  way  to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle  of the crowd,  in front of Jesus.  Seeing their faith, He said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you."  The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this  man  who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?"  But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?  "Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?  "But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,"--He said to the paralytic--"I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home."  Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.

My thoughts -

How many of us have friends who would open up the roof of the church and lower us in to be healed if that were the only way it could be done? How many of us are friends like that?

Here they are, a normal worship service. Jesus is preaching, the roof opens, and chaos ensues.

First, look at what Jesus does here. He doesn't heal the man. He forgives his sins. This sends the "good" religious people into a tizzy. That's the thing about us "good" religious people. We're always good for a tizzy. We know what we know and we're comfortable there. These people knew Jesus didn't have the authority to forgive sins. What Jesus said here was "wrong". And when dealing with matters of theology one must never be "wrong". That is a sin punishable by death, and worse.

That Jesus forgave the man's sin is no big deal to us. We know who Jesus is. We know Jesus is the Son of God. We know Jesus is our Saviour. We know Jesus has the authority to forgive sin. In fact, we're counting on it. But there is something here that I think is very much a big deal to us. Or at least it should be.

Because of whose faith was the man forgiven? Because of whose faith was the man healed?

See, what Jesus did here has never made sense to me with the way I was raised. We talk all the time about the individual's relationship with Jesus. We talk all the time about the individual coming to Jesus. But this man didn't come to Jesus by himself. He didn't really come to Jesus at all. His friends led him there. And Jesus saw their faith and forgave him.

I've heard that walked back a bit before. I've heard it speculated that the man obviously had faith or he wouldn't have been forgiven and healed. I've heard it speculated that this whole harebrained scheme was his idea. Of course it was, I've heard it said, or there's no way Jesus would have done what he did.

But it doesn't say anything about his faith here. It doesn't say that Jesus saw his faith. It says that he saw their faith. And that raises all kinds of questions for me.

Can one be saved on the basis of the faith of one's friends and family? Can we be the kinds of friends and family who would do anything to bring our loved ones to Christ, even ripping open a whole in the roof because that's the only way to get in?

That's another thing about this passage. The structural integrity of the roof of the building is far less important than bringing this man to Christ. And the faith of those who literally tore open the building was rewarded. How would this be viewed in our churches today? What of we said to the trustees, "Sorry about the whole in the roof but we led another sinner to Jesus"? How would that go over?

The Pharisees and the other "good" religious people had their hangups here. We "good" religious people today have our own. But a miracle happened here. This man was healed. This man was forgiven. Jesus saved him. And he did so on account of the amazing faith of this man's friends.

This man was restored both body and soul. Nothing could be more important than that. Not our theology. Not our buildings.

Nothing.