HE SAW THEIR FAITH

HE SAW THEIR FAITH

"And when He saw their faith, He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." (Luke 5:20)

WHEN JESUS ENTERED into a mainstream of humanity, He brought a freshness that had never before been realized. John the Baptist prepared the way for the Savior, awakening men to their need for a Savior, and holding forth the hope of remission (Matt 3:1-3; Mark 1:4). When Jesus returned from the wilderness, after being "tempted for forty days by the devil" (Lk 4:2), He came "in the power of the Spirit," and "there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about" (Lk 4:14). He "taught in their synagogues," transforming that environment into one pulsating with new life. The people had never heard anyone speak like He did (Lk 4:15; John 7:46). He did not give learned disquisitions like the scribes, but spoke "as one having authority" (Matt 7:29).

SHORTLY AFTER THE COMMENCEMENT of His prodigious ministry, "the people pressed upon Him to hear the word of God." Once, by the Sea of Gennesaret, He had to get into a boat and push out a little distance from the land in order to teach the people without distraction (Lk 5:1-3). Later, in Capernaum, He entered into a house to teach the people. When word got around that He was there, immediately many people rushed together. Quickly the house was filled, and there was room for no more, even around the door. Jesus did not move to a more commodious place, but remained there, preaching "the Word unto them" (Mark 2:2).

SOON FOUR MEN ARRIVED on the scene, carrying a paralytic on a portable bed. Finding no way to transport the man through the unyielding multitude, "they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus" (Lk 5:19, NKJV). It is at this point that our text occurs – and a glorious point it is!

THE MAN WAS LET DOWN through the roof, caused to rest "before Jesus." It was the kind of thing that could not be ignored by anyone, much less the matchless Son of the Living God! This was nothing less than a revelation of faith– hearts that trusted in Jesus, and did not question His power and grace. But Jesus is not said to have seen this faith in the paralyzed man. Rather, He saw the faith of the four men who brought him! They had been diligent to pick up the man on his bed and bring him some distance to Jesus. When confronted with the obstacle of a crowd, they were ingenious to find an unusual way. They refused to be turned back by circumstance, and Jesus "saw their faith." They had carried the man to the roof of the house. They had disassembled the roof, providing access to Jesus. They had patiently lowered the man so precisely that he ended up right before Jesus. That took faith, and Jesus "saw their faith."

BUT JESUS DOLES NOT APPLAUD their faith directly. Instead He says to the debilitated man, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." That is what he needed to hear first! But it did not end there, the man who was carried to Jesus, and lowered through the roof, would be fully blessed that day. When the Lord said, "Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house," it is recorded, "And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God" (5:24-25). And all because Jesus saw the faith of those four compassionate men!

WHAT DO YOU IMAGE the Lord would do if He saw YOUR faith? Surely you know that He has not ceased to work because people believe in Him. Ponder your faith!

– Given O. Blakely