Being Faithful Where I am Found

Luke 4:17-20 (ESV)

17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."

Not all pharisees and other religious leaders rejected the Lord. However, many who came to Him came to judge His authenticity by their own standards. They had codified and supplemented the Mosaic law with hundreds of years of "interpretation" and application that had effectively added the precepts of men to the words of God and, in some cases had superseded God’s clear commandments. (Mark 7:6-9)

From the human viewpoint it must have been difficult for many of them to accept Christ because He did not fit their mold. Yet His authenticity was attested to by the power of the Lord to heal. They ought to have believed Him for the works themselves, if nothing else. (John 5:36-38,10:37-38,15:24) This is a perfect picture of the responsibility of man to believe - a responsibility that God justly holds man to. But it is also a call for we fallen men who have been granted repentance and light to have compassion on them in their lostness. They are as we were - and we are all without excuse. Grace made the difference and not something that we ourselves did. For who makes one to differ from another? (1Corinthians 4:7) Is it not Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth, Sustainer of all things, and Sovereign Lord of all His hands have made?

Difficult as it may have been for them, then, from God’s viewpoint the Pharisees displayed their stubborn hearts of unbelief, as is seen in next section of Luke.

In the meantime, it is worth noting that the "some men" that let the cripple down through the roof were the same men whose faith the Lord honoured by forgiving the paralytic. I need to stop and think about this. The paralytic was healed not on account of his own faith, but on account of the faith that others had to bring him to Christ. As with many of His healings, the Lord saw faith in people and recognized it as the gift of God’s grace to them, for His sake, so that He could walk in the honouring of that faith and complete what He came to do. (John 5:19,30,14:10) If we see faith in any one, we ought to glorify God and not men.

But surely this is also a figure either of intercessory prayer or of evangelism. The paralytic represents someone who is faithless. Someone who cannot walk. Someone who is unable to follow in God’s ways. Short of being dead (a simile used elsewhere to describe the unbelieving) this is as close to a picture of spiritual impotency as you can get. Yet God has put these men into the paralytic’s life and has granted them to have faith in His Son. The exercise of that gift of faith is seen by their bringing another to Christ for restoration.

I cannot emphasize too greatly the vicarious nature of this faith. This incident is the proof positive of the fact that God chooses to bless others through people. It is all God - but He uses means to achieve His ends, and people are His means. If I am a believer it is by God’s grace. If there are people in my circle of life who are in need of Christ’s healing power for their bodies or their souls - that is, if they need salvation - then I am part of the means by which God is working in their lives.

I must bring people to Christ in prayer or in person as opportunity is presented in God’s providence. If I am a believer, and I am pressing into God, then He will lay upon my heart the burden and the care for others whose lives touch mine. And I can have hope in this. For if it is God’s doing to burden me then He is purposing something in that burden. It may be the salvation or help of another. It may be to teach me patience and submission. It may be both. But it is the Sovereign God of all that is at work in me no matter what.

The sort of faith that finds its source in God as the means by which He works in people to bless others is persistent and inventive. God is not boxed in. When there is no access by the door He can just as easily bring people through the roof. We musn’t limit the way God works, though we must take note of that He never acts contrary to His Own nature. Blind adherence to form and tradition in us is just as bad as it was in the Pharisees. I only add this - that it is God who breaks the mold - not men. Men follow Him as He does it. Men have faith in the God that leads. Men do not invent new ways of themselves. If it is not wrought in Christ, then it is of no avail.