Today's "Moment With Mark" (26) - Tangible Faith
8 December, 2012
Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn't get to Jesus through the crowd, so they dug through the clay roof above his head. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "My son, your sins are forgiven." Mark 2:1-5
"Seeing their faith...." How do you see faith? Isn't faith one of those 'spiritual issues' that we talk about but never expect to see with our natural eyes? Would we know it if we saw it? The fact is that Jesus saw exactly what the others saw in the house that day.....faith.
Faith is not an "ethereal mystery" but a very practical 'feet-on-the-ground' reality. In a sense we don't see faith but we see the result of faith. Four men brought the paralysed man to Jesus but the crowd blocked the way. So they cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down at the feet of Jesus. That's what Jesus saw and He recognised it as faith.
In other words, faith is seen in the action of the men that day. In what they did, not in what they might have said or claimed to believe. Here's an exercise for us to undertake: read through Hebrews 11 and note that, in every case, faith was seen in what was done. Each of those Bible characters did something. Then read James and note this proposition: faith without 'works' is dead - is not faith at all.