Faith needs Action

Mark: 2:3-12

     

Introduction:

The gospel according to St. Mark is an interesting gospel as it gives a clear account of Jesus’ ministry. The remarkable aspect of Jesus’ ministry is evident in his character. His character evidenced as manifested compassion.  When Jesus saw the sick he was moved with compassion. The story of the paralytic needs to be understood in the line with the manifestation of Jesus’ compassion for the weak ones in the society. 

The healing took place in Capernaum, which Matthew calls Jesus' "own city" because it was His continuous home as an adult and certainly after His rejection by the Nazarenes. The miracle's focus is the issue of Christ as the Son of God, which is shown in an obvious and amazing way. The Pharisees, the scribes, and the common people were unaware that they were about to witness strong proof of Christ's deity and the power of God.

Compassion Driven Friends vv.1-4

          The text indicates the situation that Jesus was inside the house. As we read in that place house became the centre of Jesus ministry. Have we found proclaiming the reign of god to a crowd gathered in the house There were no space for anyone to enter into the house were was. They were four friends who interested the public ministry of Jesus. They were moved with a high degree of compassion. When they located the paralytic man they beside to carry out this man to Jesus.

In the pronouncement story the term Paralytic needs clarification in order to understand the nature of this man’s condition. Paralytikos in Greek means that the man was suffering from the relaxing of the nerves of one's side of his body, or sick with palsy, or disabled or weak of limb. This man could not work for food, feed himself, or even take care of himself. His condition would have been considered a curse because he could not get what he needed to survive because of his affliction. There was no longer room… Not even at the door - There were Many people gathered together, as much as the whole city (Mark 1:32-34, Matthew 4:23-25). They would be gathered to hear Jesus preach, as they were accustomed to usually Sabbath evening after sunset. But this time there was no room even at the door of the house. These words make us ask who was present at the house. From the surrounding passages we can ascertain that there were sinners, sick people, demon possessed, and religious leaders. From the sister passage in Luke 5 we know that there were scribes present from every town in Galilee.

First was compassionate nature that propelled them to reach out to the paralytic although the text dose not clearly (explicitly) say the overall ministry of Jesus might have produced in them compassion. Their commitment to compassion results in action. This makes us to ask are we compassionate and concerned towards the needy people who live in our society.

Concerted Faith vv.5-7

          In this gospel portion, we learn of four people who brought their paralysed friend on a mat to see Jesus. First, the friend’s faith is an audacious faith in that it brought the paralytic to the only One who could heal.  Four men arrive late, carrying a paralyzed man on his bed. When they realize that they cannot possibly get him through the door, they carry their helpless paralytic friend upstairs to the roof and lower the bed in front of Jesus as He is speaking.

 Their determination to place him before Jesus displays their faith that he would be healed. Instead of being frightened by the problem of the crowds, they see the possibilities for solving it. If they could only involve God, they thought, things would go well. The persevering efforts of the four friends pay off for their paralytic friend as they help make possible his spiritual healing as well as his physical healing.

Mark uses the contrast of the proper faith of the friends of the sick man against the inappropriate disbelief of the scribes to strengthen His theme. The proper faith resulted in the gift of salvation along with the healing. The disbelief of the scribes was a result in poor discernment which was a result of not allowing scripture to permeate their hearts

 Their actions are an example of the Apostle James' statement in James 2:18:"I will show you my faith by my works."

Christ finds faith in the friends, and He honours their faith, rather than any faith the sufferer has. Of course, no one can be saved by another's faith. Yet, another or others can help him along to Christ since only He can deliver him from the bondage of sin.

 Being pleased with their works, which exhibited their faith, Christ responds to their resourcefulness and perseverance in behalf of their suffering friend. Their faith in Christ, then, is the catalyst in His performing this miracle. Our Savoir works where faith is present (Luke 5:20). Obviously, He can perform His work anywhere regardless of human faith, but He often chooses not to act when people lack faith in Him, as happened in Nazareth (Matthew 13:58). The manifested faith empowered which is called hope. In midst of negative situation they injected hope into their action.Jesus’ prerogative was certainly to confront the powers of the world, whether spiritual or political.

Complete Healing  vv.9-12

           These four friends carry the paralytic man to Jesus for physical healing they wanted the paralytic to get restoration form the bondage of paralytic. Their intention was to help him for getting the physical healing. Jesus was also interested in physical healing prior to bring physical healing. Jesus draw attention to sin the text explains that four friends are forgivers.  This highlights that Jesus was indented in spiritual healing. The paralytic needed to be forgiven first, in other words the healing that effected paralytic was a holistic healing. Jesus wanted to heal him from spiritual as well as physical. A true healing takes place when mind, body and heart healing. This is called comprehensive healing. It is not our body that needs healing but also mind and heart do need healing.

          What Jesus did to the paralytic man signifies a holistic healing. This healing invites to aim at holistic healing. People need a complete healing which included mind, body and heart.  It is important for us to bring about complete healing in the lives of people church and society.

Conclusion

Mark 2:1-12 serves as a model of faith, a warning against doubt, a lesson of spiritual discernment, and a testimony of the power of the Saviour to change lives, heal, forgive sins and grant eternal life. From this passage we can glean many lessons that are applicable for the Christian today. As a model of faith this passage teaches us that when we have trouble, problems, or circumstances, we are to bring them to Jesus. The biblical truth illuminated in this passage is that the Jesus who forgives our sins is able and has the compassion to heal your circumstances. Secondly, it teaches us that it pleases the Lord when we diligently seek the Lord and intercede on behalf of a friend or loved one. Our faith in Christ can result in the salvation of our neighbour.

Another lesson we can learn is from the Scribes, is that knowledge of the scriptures without application of the principles of scripture to our personal lives is dangerous. We must allow the word of God to permeate our hearts and transform us toward Christ-likeness, and to be under the authority of Christ and His Holy Spirit. Finally, The paralytic man not only walks away with is bed as a testimony of his healing, but also as a result of his encounter with Christ, he walks away with eternal life. 

In other words, get involved in the lives of other people. It's so easy to sit back, wrapped up in our own lives and our own problems, so that we don't have time to care about anyone else.  We all need forgiveness that only Jesus has power to bestow with friends of faith willing to help. Are we like the friends of paralyzed man in regards to faith?