We All Need Help

 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

Mark 2:5 (NKJV)

Mark 2 tells the story of a paralyzed man that had to be carried by four of his friends to the place where Jesus was so that the man could be healed. Upon arriving at the house where Jesus was teaching, they found that it was packed with people. With persistence and determination, this man’s four friends lowered him through a hole in the roof in order to get the attention of Jesus.

When Jesus sees this, He discerns the faith that inspired it. The text says that Jesus saw “their” faith, which has to include the faith of not only the paralytic man but the four friends who consented to help.

And because of the weighted presence of this much faith, Jesus teaches the power of one’s spiritual condition and the impact it can have on one’s total health and wellbeing. Notice that Jesus doesn’t address the man’s paralysis first. He instead addresses the man’s spiritual condition. Jesus sees that the man is more restricted by the confining weight of his sin than he is by his paralysis.

So Jesus does not say, “Be healed and rise.” He says, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then, after his spiritual condition is addressed, Jesus sees to his physical condition.

It’s amazing to me the maturity and depth Jesus wants our faith to possess—the tenacity and imagination, the determination and focused effort, the deep trust and abiding belief that our faith should possess. He wants us to have a faith that amazes Him, a faith that can inspire Him and others, a faith that can be challenged and corrected. But in this text, Jesus teaches that we also have to accept that we live with a faith that needs help.

Our faith is personal, no doubt, but is often pushed and sometimes carried by the help of others who are working to bring us into the presence of Jesus.

This text is not just about Jesus’ power to heal, nor is it only about these friends having faith to push and persevere, but it is also about a man’s faith needing to trust his friends to help him—and to trust God enough to know what He can’t do on his own. He demonstrates a faith that needs help.

How does your faith need help today? And on the opposite side of the coin, are you helping others by presenting them to Jesus in prayer?