My friend Laura asked me to write a guest post about faith on her blog, Fresh Perspectives. This is an expanded version of that article.
In Mark 1, a group of men bring a paralyzed man to Jesus for healing. The problem is, a lot of others had the same thought, so when they get to the house where Jesus is staying, they can't get through the crowd. But these men are undeterred. Rather than give up, they climb to the roof and dig through it. Upon digging through, the text says that “Jesus saw their faith…”
We learn two things about faith here:
- Faith can be seen. It's active and obvious. The men in the story have faith that Jesus can help their friend, so they naturally take tangible, bold action based on that faith. For them, faith looked like falling bits of plaster, the sound of digging, and a badly damaged roof. What might faith look like for you?
- The object of faith is harder to see. These men had no guarantee that Jesus would heal their friend. In fact, the far more likely outcome would be a lawsuit for destroying private property. Regardless, they envisioned a near-future that was not guaranteed - one in which their friend walks home, carrying the cot that had carried him there. This future was dependent on Jesus curing him of an incurable affliction.
As the writer of Hebrews writes, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (11:1)
The men in the story move confidently on a hope, modeling for us a fundamental, essential paradox. Living faithfully means living as if the kingdom of heaven were here, even when all the evidence is to the contrary. It means trusting the providence of our Lord Jesus, though we can't see his invisible hand. It means hoping for the impossible, and living as if it were inevitable.
The men in this story show a tangible faith by trusting Jesus for an impossible healing. And Jesus delivers, even exceeding their grandest hopes. What tangible faith is Jesus beckoning you toward?
