Reflecting on Mark 2:1-12“When Jesus saw their faith…” (Mark 2:5)
As a Jesus follower, I am aware how my faith affects others.
It was the faith of these four friends that helped this man.
They helped someone who could not help themselves.
They loved their friend, and they were confident Jesus could help.
So they carried their friend to Jesus for help.
They dug through someone’s roof to get to Jesus.
Jesus sees their faith, and speaks grace to the paralyzed man.
(I’ll reflect on Jesus’s words about forgiveness tomorrow.)
My confidence that Jesus can help can motivate me too.
I see people around me that cannot help themselves.
Maybe they don’t know Jesus, or received bad teaching about Jesus.
Maybe they their situation is so tough, they think its impossible.
Maybe they don’t even want help, either forgiveness or healing.
Maybe their condition is all they know, and have settled in to it.
Maybe the deceiver has been so effective, they’re totally deceived.
I should be careful though, I may be mistaken about the help they need.
These men brought their friend to be healed, Jesus chose to forgive him.
All that work, digging through the roof, and all he does is forgive?
Jesus knew better what this man needed.
We do not know what he needed forgiveness for, but what about this man?
My guess is that this man knew very well what Jesus was talking about.
Jesus knows what our deeper needs are, what our deeper struggles are.
Sometimes the things I am asking for are NOT the best thing for me.
The lesson for me in this story is that I need to bring people to Jesus.
It starts with prayer, penetrating the roof of heaven to call Jesus.
Pray, pray, pray for help, and keep watching for His answer.
It may not be when or how, but it will be Jesus doing something.
We bring people to Jesus by praying, but there is another way.
We can also be Jesus to them, by helping and serving them as best we can.
Maybe Jesus will heal them through us.
Or maybe we will just be carriers, carrying the love of Jesus.
By loving them, serving them, helping them, we show Jesus.
There will be barriers, there will be resistance.
There will be times when it seems our help is not helping.
But we persist in believing, hoping and loving in Jesus’s Name.
My faith somehow affects others.
I suppose my lack of faith also somehow affects others.
This reading is motivating me to not give up.
To be persistent in loving, carrying, digging, trusting!
Right now I am thinking of life for people in Haiti, especially kids.
The barriers to helping them (gangs) seem impossible, impenetrable.
What can I do, how can I help… my faith is not in me!
I work with Mission Possible because our faith is in Jesus.
We are praying and helping as much as we can, trusting in Jesus.
Like these men, I will bring people of Haiti to Jesus.
I will pray for the kids and staff and families of the MP schools.
I will keep loving, keep carrying, keep digging, keep trusting.
And I will keep waiting for what Jesus will do or say!
“When Jesus saw their faith…” (Mark 2:5)
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I desperately believing You can help those living in desperate circumstances. I join with many others loving, carrying and digging for others, to bring them to You and the life-changing experience of Your love.
Personally I pray for the people of Haiti, for a breakthrough with the gangs, and an end to violence and injustice, rape and murder. I pray for the devoted workers and helpers in Haiti, risking their own lives to help others. May Your kingdom goodness come, and soon!
Loving = Knowing = Doing. And all of this is done prayerfully. I need to be like Christ unto others. Remember the stafish fish story? As the four men made a difference to one man so too may my living for Jesus make a difference and inspire others to do the same. May we all be instruments of His peace.