faith

August 24, 27 A.D.  Do not be Afraid Any Longer #48

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Week 28 ———  Do not be Afraid Any Longer
Matthew 8:18 – 9:26  — Mark 4:35-5:43 — Luke 8:22-8:56

(**Note: Portions of the following are from a sermon done on 9/1/2024.  Some material is repeated from #47, “Jesus Calms the Storm.”)

Last week, we discussed the woman with the issue of blood that touched Jesus.  We talked about what a busy week that was for Jesus.  He calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee; he cast demons from a man on the Gentile side of the Sea.  He was teaching in Capernaum when he was interrupted by a man whose daughter was dying, and on the way to heal his daughter, he was touched by a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. 

This week, Jesus sent the disciples on a three-week mission trip to the Galilee. We know that during those three weeks, Jesus spent time teaching and healing near Capernaum, but because none of the disciples were around, we don’t have any specific accounts of that time. Next week, we will talk about Jesus sending out the 12, but today, I want to go back and look at some of the previous week’s events that we didn’t cover.  

Mark 4:35-41   On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”…  And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.   But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”   And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.  He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”  And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

The Sea of Galilee is not actually a sea but a lake.  It is about 8 miles wide and 13 miles long.  But the area’s unusual geography can cause this small lake to have waves that were measured at 10 feet in 1992. Shirley and I had a chance to witness 4-5 feet waves on our first trip to Israel.  Our boat trip was canceled, and looking at those waves, I didn’t want to be out there.   Here is a picture of waves on the sea looking from the eastern side to the west.   The steep northern slope of Mt. Arbel is visible on the other side of the sea.

The boats used on the Sea of Galilee in Jesus’ day were not large.  A drought in 1982 exposed the hull of a first-century fishing boat that had sunk and was covered in mud.  It is in a museum on the shore now.  This is what it would have originally looked like:

It was 27 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, and only 4 feet high. It could carry 13-15 people. Its very shallow draft allowed it to get very close to shore, but this also made it susceptible to taking on water from wind and waves. 

So, the 13 of them are in a small boat in a storm with large waves.  Some of these men with Jesus were professional fishermen.  They were very familiar with this boat and this lake.  But the storm that blew up that night was especially violent.  Mark tells us that the boat was filling with water, and Jesus was sleeping in the stern.  They wake Jesus, saying, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Or “How can you possibly be sleeping when we are all about to die?”  They were scared to the point of death.  They were scared of death.

Have you ever been scared of death?  I have.

We were on a flight, and the turbulence got bad. The plane was bouncing all over and, at one point, dropped straight down about 10 feet. Many were getting sick and using those bags in the seat back pocket. And everyone, if they would admit it, was scared.

One winter night, we were on our way to Memphis on a two-lane road and hit a patch of black ice. Our vehicle began spinning round and round, and an oncoming car was heading toward us. We had no control of the car. We were all scared.

I was lying on a stretcher one morning alone in a room before a major surgery.  As a medical student and resident, I saw many things go wrong in the Operating Room.  I had seen very healthy people not wake up after simple surgeries. I saw a young man have a severe reaction other than anesthesia and never make it to the first incision.  And for a few minutes, fear swept over me to the point I broke out in a cold sweat.  

But I would bet that everyone here in this room has had a few times in their life that they were scared they were about to die.

These disciples thought they were about to die.   And what was Jesus doing while they were scared to death?  Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat.  They couldn’t imagine how Jesus could be sleeping when they were scared to the point of death.  But Jesus couldn’t imagine how they could be so concerned about a storm when they were in the boat with God.

He asks them, “Why are you afraid?”   What kind of question is that? Are you kidding?  As Max Lucado says, it is like one swimmer asking another, “Why are you wet?”1  

“And Matthew records that he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”  In Matthew 17:20, Jesus describes ’little faith’ as faith less than the smallest thing he can show them, a mustard seed, so ‘little faith’ means no faith at all.  That is how Mark said it in the passage we just read: “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”  They had “no” faith.

 Why did Jesus say they had ‘no faith’?  Because, at this point, they really don’t understand who Jesus is.   Oh, they have seen him perform miracles and heal people.  But they knew the stories of prophets in the Bible who had done such things.  They thought he was a great prophet, perhaps even the Messiah.  But they didn’t have the full knowledge of who Jesus was.

God spoke the sea into existence. They are in the boat with the creator of the sea, and they don’t know it.  They don’t yet have that understanding, or, more importantly, they don’t have that relationship. Remember that understanding or knowledge in the Bible means relationship.  You don’t know something until you experience it for yourself.  They knew a lot about Jesus.  Some of them have been with him for months. They know him as a great teacher, prophet, and healer.  They know him as a great man of God — but they don’t yet know him as the man who is God.  And that is all the difference.  

There are a lot of people today who are, well, in the same boat.  They know Jesus as the man in the New Testament who did miracles and taught.  They may have sat in church for years and heard stories after stories of what Jesus did.  They may be church members, give money to the church, or hold office there.  But none of that will help when the time comes when you are scared to death.  You must have knowledge through a relationship with Jesus as the Son of God.  Unless you know him as your personal savior, then you have no faith.  As Billy Graham often said, there will be a lot of surprises on the day of judgment for people who thought they were good with God because they did all the right things, but then Jesus said, “Depart from me.” And why does Jesus tell these people to leave?  “For I never knew you.”  On the day of judgment, either you have a personal relationship with Jesus or you don’t.

But at this point, these disciples have zero faith.  But this week, Jesus is going to challenge their thinking. If they thought of him as just a prophet, he will show them how he calms a storm and later raises the dead. 

For you see, faith is trust built up through experience.  Our faith grows as we witness God’s trustworthiness.  God sees us through something, and our faith grows.  God keeps his promise, and our faith grows. This is one reason it is so important to study the Scriptures.  In them, we see the long history of God being faithful to his promises.  We learn more about God’s trustworthiness through the people’s experiences with God in history.  Perhaps we won’t have to learn every lesson for ourselves the hard way.  This is why sharing our walk with God with the people around us is so important.  Our faith can grow through each other’s experiences by telling the stories of God’s faithfulness.  We don’t spend enough time telling each other our stories.  With whom are you sharing your stories of your walk with God?

But these disciples are not there yet.  They have no faith so they are scared to death in a storm.

Then Jesus, who in the beginning, spoke the water into existence, calms the storm with a word.  The storm is over; the waters are calm, and the danger has passed.  So now the disciples should be relieved. But Luke tells us that they are afraid.

Luke 8:25  And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

What are the disciples afraid of now?  They had seen Jesus do miracles before, but he just turned off the forces of nature like we would flip a light switch. They were amazed and confused after this awesome display of power.   Who is this guy?  I imagine the rest of that boat trip was really quiet.   There were prophets of old who could heal or do miracles, but this controlling nature is God-stuff.  Whatever they thought of Jesus before has been challenged.  Just who is this man that speaks and the world obeys him?  Who is this guy who has the power of God himself?  And honestly, they are scared of the answers to those questions.

But the boat arrives safely, and we continue:

Mark 5:1-20   They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.  And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.   He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him.   Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.   And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.  

 The Bible doesn’t tell us how the disciples reacted to this, but don’t just read the words; picture them in your mind.  This man who is so strong no one can subdue him, strong enough to break chains and shackles, sees Jesus from afar and comes running out of a graveyard towards them, and he is naked.  Imagine how the disciples felt.  How do you think they reacted?  Were they afraid?  Did some of them start running toward the boat?

 “And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”  

The demons know something the disciples haven’t figured out yet: Jesus is the son of the most high God.  And they are terrified of Jesus.   They should be afraid, for they stand in opposition to God. James, in his discussion about belief without the obedience of good works, said it well: (James 2:19) “The demons believe [there is one God] and they tremble.”  

“For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”   And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”   And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.   Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside,  and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.”   So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

“The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened.   And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.   And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.   And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.”

This man was possessed by many demons.  This whole area lived in fear of him.  But Jesus comes and heals the man; he casts out the demons, and then we see him clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus.  So, how do the villagers respond?  Well, of course, they throw a big party.  They celebrate that this scary man is not scary anymore.  They celebrate that Jesus has healed one of their own.  Nope.  “They began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.”  They were no longer scared of the man; they were now afraid of Jesus.  Just like the disciples in the boat, they went from fear of a situation to fear of Jesus because they, too, didn’t understand who he was.

As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him.  And he did not permit him…

Notice the difference between the villagers’ and the healed man’s reactions.  The villagers beg Jesus to leave.  The man who was healed begged to stay with Jesus.  What is the difference?  It is faith built on experience.  This man has seen firsthand what Jesus can do.  He has experienced the power of God.   And this experience is the difference.   He is the only one in these two stories that gets it.   So, he wants to stay with Jesus.  But Jesus refuses to let this man stay.  Is it because he is not Jewish?  No.  Jesus has a mission: 

“Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”  And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Jesus just sent this man, the former crazy, naked, strong man living in a graveyard, to be his witness in the Gentile area of the Decapolis.  And in about three weeks, Jesus will return to the same area that he was asked to leave. And you can’t believe how different the people will react to Jesus.  He will be welcomed, and thousands will stay for days to hear him teach and be healed.  And how in the world is it possible for things to change so much so quickly?  Who or what made these people change their minds about Jesus?  We’ll talk about that in 3 weeks.

But for now, they were asked to leave, so they headed back in the boat to Capernaum.

Jesus is then teaching in Capernaum, but he gets interrupted by one of the synagogue leaders, Jairus, whose daughter is dying.  Jarius is afraid.  He fears for his daughter’s life.  Nothing strikes fear in the heart of a parent or grandparent than a child who is sick or in danger.  On the way to Jairus’ house, Jesus is interrupted by the woman we talked about last week who is healed by touching the tassel on his garment.  While Jesus is talking to her, a man comes to Jairus and says, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”  Jairus’ heart sank.  His worst fears are realized.  His daughter has died—a parent’s worst moment.

But then Jesus interrupts:

But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”

And Jairus stands in the middle between these two. Between horror on one side and hope on the other.   Between disaster and diety.   Between fear and faith.  Have you lived in that moment between the two?  That’s why Matthew is telling these stories.  In this troubled world, we are often thrust into the middle between fear and faith.  What are you afraid of?

The Greek word for fear in the New Testament is ‘phobos,’ the base for our word phobia.  There are currently more than 550 named phobias.  The four most common are: 1. Social Phobias (fear of crowds, social situations, speaking, etc.)   2. Fear of Animals (dogs, snakes, insects, or mice), 3. Claustrophobia (fear of closed-in spaces), and 4. Acrophobia (fear of heights).   However, how words are used changes over time, and this can cause confusion when reading what the Bible says about fear.  For example, if I asked you to quote a Bible verse about fear, you might say:

Proverbs 9:10   The fear of the LORD [Yehovah] is the beginning of wisdom.

And then I might ask you, “Are you afraid of God?”  Does that seem like an odd question?  These days, when God is pictured as a ‘kind old man’ or ‘your best buddy,’ it may seem strange.  But I remember hearing many “fire and brimstone” sermons as a child that made me very scared of what God might do.

The Bible is not telling us to be afraid of God.  As a matter of fact, the most common command in the Bible is “Do not be afraid.”  So what is Proverbs 9:10 saying?  Remember that the way words are used changes over time.  Think back to the days when people were ruled by kings who held absolute power over their subjects.  To ‘fear the king’ did not mean the same thing as to ‘be afraid of the king.’  To fear the king meant to be utterly loyal to the king, carrying the idea of awe and respect in the realization that this king has absolute power over you.  In contrast, to be afraid of the king was to be scared of what the king might do.  So “the fear of Yehovah” in this verse is about having absolute loyalty and obedience to God, with awe and respect.  

There can, however, be a good reason to be afraid of God, as Jesus implies:

Matthew 10:28-31 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

For those who oppose God (like the demons we talked about earlier), fear of God’s justice is warranted. This fear can lead some to repentance. However, contrary to my childhood experience of scary sermons, this should not be our primary tool for evangelism.

Now, we can see how the disciples’ reaction to Jesus in the boat differs from that of the people across the lake.  The disciples witnessed Jesus do more than any prophet had ever done before.  They have awe and respect after that display of power.  After learning that Jesus had cast out the demons from the man into the pigs, who ran into the sea, the villagers were scared of what Jesus might do next.  They were already missing 2000 pigs and weren’t happy about that.  These are two different displays of fear.

The difference in these reactions is significant.  This is the place Jairus was standing, between fear and faith. The difference is your worldview.  What kind of world do you live in?  

Skip Moen said it this way:

“There are two different worldviews competing for your allegiance.  The first is the world of constant familiarity.  It is a world of risk and fear.   It is the world of the nightly news where tragedy, risk and trauma are given prime importance.  This world is the world of security concerns, insurance protection, hedge funds and hurricane warnings.  It is the world of the terrorist, the thief, the con man and the kidnapper.  In this world, being afraid is an important component of capitalism.  We are taught to be afraid of bad breath, crooked teeth, wrinkles and out-of-fashion clothes.  This kind of fear produces all sorts of actions in attempt to reduce risk.  But in the end, this world is unpredictable, hostile and dangerous.  When I believe that the world is ultimately fearful, nothing I can do will actually overcome my dread of the future.  I will always confront “but what if”.

The second paradigm is God’s view of the world.  It is not based on fear.  It is based on the fact that God loves what He creates and that He can be trusted to manage His creation.  From God’s perspective, the only proper fear is the fear of Who He is.  That fear is designed to bring me to repentance and seek Him.  That fear produces faith in His grace and trustworthiness.  When I believe that the world is actually in the hands of an almighty God Who loves me and has my best interests at heart, I no longer dread the future.  In fact, I can give up trying to manage the consequences of my life.  I stop living with the myth of control and start living with the reality of submission.”2

One view says God is irrelevant and that we should all live scared to death of many things. The other says God is sovereign—in complete control of everything—and we need not be afraid of anything or anyone, but we are to be loyal, obey, awe, and respect God alone.

The airplane drops 10 feet, and  I get scared.  Oh, me of ‘little faith.’  
The car spins on the ice, and I am afraid.  Oh, me of ‘little faith.’
I imagine everything that can go wrong as I enter surgery, and I become frightened. Oh, me of ‘little faith.’   

Moen said, “Fear produces faith.”  How does that work?   

The airplane drops, but we are all okay. The car spins, and through a miracle of God, the ongoing vehicle doesn’t hit us. On the day of my pre-surgical fear, God’s voice comes to me as clear as you hear me now and says, “Don’t worry; I’ve got this. ” Though I could look at my previous fears as failings, God used them as experiences where my faith could grow.  

Aristotle said the thing to be feared most is death because it appeared to be the end of everything.3

Mark 5:36  (NASB)  But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.”

Hear the good news as Jairus did!  You do not need to be afraid any longer!   You do not need to fear storms, weird people in the graveyard, or even death.  (Aristotle was wrong about this and pretty much everything he ever said.)  Jesus said, “Fear not anything that can kill the body.”  You aren’t leaving this earth until Jesus says so.  This past week, my friend Danny died.  He was a wonderful man of God who spent his whole life as a teacher and coach, influencing young people for Jesus.  Let me tell you, Danny did not fear death because Danny knew Jesus, not just knew of him, but had an active relationship with him. 

The most common command in the Bible:  “Do not be afraid!”
The most common promise in the Bible:  “I will be with you.”

Do you see how these fit together?  We do not need to be afraid because God is with us.  This is the message of the Bible from beginning to end.

Psalm 23:4   “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.”

John 14:1-2  (NLT)  “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.  There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.  If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you will always be with me where I am.

God has promised to always be with us.  We need not fear the storms because Jesus is in the boat with us.  We need not fear death because when we leave this world, God does not abandon us – He will be with us forever.  

Hebrews 12:1-2  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

Danny outran me to the Father’s house.  I will see him soon.  There is plenty of room.  I look forward to seeing you there also.

  1. Lucado, Max.  Fearless.  Page 6.
  2. Moen, Skip.  “Do Not Fear”  February 9, 2005
  3. King, R.A.H. Aristotle on Life and Death. 2001.

July 21, 27 A.D.  Jesus Heals a Paralytic that Drops By #41

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog ,

Week 23 ———  Jesus Heals a Paralytic that Drops By
Matthew 9:2-8,  Mark 2:1-12,  Luke 5:17-26

Mark 2:1-12   And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.  And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.  And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.   And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.   And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,   “Why does this man speak like that?  He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”   And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts?   Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?   But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—   “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”   And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

“And when Jesus saw their faith”    

This is a concept we desperately need to understand.  Faith is something you can see.  We often talk about “faith” as if the word is simply a belief you have.  “What faith are you?”  Do you have faith?  Is your faith strong?  That is not the way Jesus talks about faith here.  This faith is not a belief or idea in your mind but an action you can see.  

These four friends went to a lot of trouble to get their paralytic friend to Jesus.  They tore a hole in the roof and dropped him in, knowing they would be responsible for repairing it.  They would not have gone through this trouble if there was any doubt in their mind that Jesus could heal their friend.  

Let’s look at this differently.  Say these friends had a ‘little bit of faith’ in Jesus.  They thought there was a possibility that Jesus could heal the man, but they weren’t quite sure.  I would imagine that they would have gone back home when they approached the home and saw it was impossible to go to the door.  So, this ‘little bit of faith’ would lead to inaction.  Is that really any faith at all?

In Matthew 17, there is a story about a boy possessed by a demon. The disciples are unable to help him. Jesus rebukes the demon, and the boy is healed. This has the disciples wondering.

Matthew 17:19-20   Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Here, “little faith” (Greek oligopistia) means having faith less than a mustard seed.  The black mustard plant in Israel grows all over in the wild.  I have seen it on the banks of the Jordan and the side of highways outside of Jerusalem.  This mustard seed is even smaller than your local grocery store’s 1 mm mustard seeds.  Jesus is saying that any faith less than that size is, in effect, no faith at all. “Faith,” in Matthew, means the confidence that God can and will act on his people’s behalf; without that, however much a person may “believe” intellectually, they are, for practical purposes, “faithless.”

R.T. France, in The New International Commentary on the New Testament, says it this way:

“Faith is not a measurable commodity, but a relationship, and what achieves results through prayer is not a superior “quantity” of faith but the unlimited power of God on which faith, any faith, can draw. The disciples, Jesus implies, had failed to bring any faith at all to bear on this situation.”1

“Fatih is a relationship,” France said.  You can think of it as trustworthiness.  Our faith in God is never blind.  It is the result of built-up trust over the years. In what is perhaps the most important verse in the Old Testament, Exodus 34:6, God describes himself to Moses with five character traits, the final one being faithfulness.  The Hebrew word there is ‘emet,’ a derivative of the commonly used transliterated word ‘amen,’ which means “that is true.”  

Throughout the Old Testament, we see God’s faithfulness in keeping his promises and being a reliable covenant partner. Trust builds in the relationship as one repeatedly shows himself to be true to his word. Our faith is not blind but is based on a long history of God always keeping His promises in the Bible and our relationship with Him, in which we likewise experience the reliability of His word and covenant with us.  Your trust in God, your faith, grows with every day you experience God’s reliability in keeping promises to you.  

So the paralytic and his four friends know that Jesus can heal.  They probably heard of his healing others and likely witnessed some healings.  Perhaps one of the friends was healed himself.  Regardless, their faith was not blind but was based on experience.  When they picked up the bed on which their paralyzed friend lay, they were making their faith visible.  Jesus saw their faith not just of the one who would be healed but of all of them.  This is not the only time in the Bible that the faith of an outside party led to the healing of another.  It was the Centurion’s faith that healed his servant in Matthew 8:10-13.  It was the faith of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 that healed her daughter oppressed by a demon.  This is why we lift up others in prayer.  We come before the Father, trusting in His promises to be a loving, merciful God who wants to work all things for good.  Our faith in God can lead to the healing of others.

Is your faith visible?  Can Jesus see your faith?  

James 2:14-20   “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?   So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.   You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!   Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?”

Don’t misread James.  James is not a proponent of “works-based righteousness.”   Martin Luther was not a big fan of the book of James because, for a while, at least, he felt it contradicted Paul’s idea of justification by faith alone.  He called James an “epistle of straw” [from his preface to the New Testament.)  He considered it a ‘lesser book’ because it “has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.”2 

This tension of grace and works is something we have invented — it wasn’t a problem for Paul.  Paul states in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  But in the very next verse (10), he says what the result of salvation is: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  Paul had no trouble seeing that God’s saving us leads to us doing the good works that he created us to do.  Works are not the cause of our salvation, but they are a natural result of our salvation.  Our faith has to be visible.  It is manifest in our works.

We will continue this conversation of faith, “little faith,” and doubt as we move through Jesus’ ministry. But I want to briefly discuss Jesus’ statement to the paralytic that his sins were forgiven and the scribes’ response to this statement.

Jesus surprises everyone by saying, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  To this point, Jesus has not demonstrated that forgiving sins are a requirement for healing.  Certainly, in the day’s culture, many believed that all illnesses resulted from sin. (Jesus will specifically contradict that idea later.)  Faith, not forgiveness, seems to be the prerequisite for healing elsewhere.  Here, the pronouncement of forgiveness is related to the healing of illness only because the proof of Jesus’ authority to forgive is the healing of the paralysis.  

“Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,   “Why does this man speak like that?  He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Jesus “perceived their thoughts.”  The Greek word for ‘perceived’ carries the idea of seeing or witnessing. Jesus ‘saw what they were thinking.’  This doesn’t mandate the use of Jesus’ supernatural power to know people’s thoughts, though the Gospel writers are not hesitant to show that Jesus has this power (Matthew 12:25 and 22:18, for example). We all have experienced occasions where it is easy to discern what others are thinking by their expressions or body language.  (Perhaps, like me, you have a friend whose facial expressions are always in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!)

They think Jesus is committing blasphemy because he has just claimed to have the power only God has – to forgive sin.  Then Jesus responds “ “Why do you question these things in your hearts?  Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?”  Notice that Jesus didn’t ask them what was easier to do, but what was easier to say?  Clearly, forgiving sins is the more difficult task. Many Old Testament prophets were able to heal, but none forgave sins.  We have the ability (and requirement) to forgive others when they wrong us, but I like how Chad Bird says it:  

“Sometimes we treat forgiveness like it is our property… we’re going to decide to whom we can give it because it is ours to give.  But in Christianity, forgiveness is never your property…forgiveness always belongs to Jesus…When we forgive someone else, really, what’s happening is that the stream of forgiveness, which flows from the heart of God our Father through Jesus Christ, passes through us and into the heart of someone else.  We just don’t dam it up. We don’t stop it.  It is not our property.”3

But Jesus said, “Which is easier to say…”.  Anyone can say, “Your sins are forgiven,” because a claim to forgive is not easily tested, but a claim to cure paralysis is easily observed immediately as true or false.  So, Jesus uses his healing power to prove his ability to forgive.  And the scribes think, “But only God can do that,” to which the story proclaims, “Exactly.”

Before we conclude, remember that I often ask you to put yourself into the story.  Especially the very familiar stories in the Gospel.  See these stories through the eyes of all those involved.  So, just for a moment, put yourself in the place of the paralyzed man.  Consider how this has affected your life in the days of Jesus, when medical care was primitive by our standards. You have no wheelchair (much less motorized).  If not for friends, you are immobile and unable to care for yourself.  There are no social programs to support you.  You have to depend on friends for food and shelter, or you have to beg.  Then, one day, you have hope.  This prophet is in your area.  He is healing many diseases.  You have heard about it.  You know he can heal you if you can only get close.  Some friends are kind enough to carry you there.  But the crowd is so thick you can’t get anywhere near Jesus.  Disappointment.  Then, one of your friends has the crazy idea of dropping you down through a hole they cut in the roof.  It sounds ridiculous, but this is your only chance, so you agree.  Carrying you up the ladder to get to the roof was sketchy, and now your friends demolished this person’s home.  They tie ropes to your bedding and lower you down in front of Jesus.  How will he react?  Will he admonish you for destroying property?  Will he have mercy and heal you?  Then he says, “Take heart, my son. Your sins are forgiven.”  

How do you respond to Jesus’ statement?  You didn’t come here for forgiveness; you came for healing.  What good is forgiveness if you can’t walk?  Can’t Jesus just heal?  Consider the moment while Jesus has the interchange with the scribes.  Why didn’t Jesus heal me?  “Didn’t you see what horrible shape I am in, Jesus?”

Indeed, Jesus saw.  Jesus saw that this man’s greatest need was not for legs to be made new but for a life to be made new.   His primary need was not for his legs to be strengthened but for his heart to be strengthened.  “Take heart, my son,” Jesus said.  What you need most is to know your heart has found peace with God, to know that I have called you son. 

After that brief pause, Jesus heals this man’s paralysis and proves his authority to heal and forgive. But we will not all find healing so quickly. Some of us will not be healed until Jesus comes again. But we can all find that peace with God if we desire it.  All who seek healing will not be healed in this life, but the gift of salvation is free to all.  

Finally, we have to compare ourselves to the four friends. They would stop at nothing to bring their friend who needed healing to Jesus. They were willing to demolish a roof. What are we willing to do in order to bring our friends to Jesus. Do we bring our sick or troubled friends before God’s throne in prayer with this kind of fervor? Are we willing to go out on a limb or put ourselves at risk to make sure our friends find Jesus. God forgive us for taking our access to you for granted.

  1. France, R. T.  The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Eerdsman. (2007).
  2. Luther, Martin.  Word and Sacrament Volume 1.  page 362.
  3. Bird, Chad.  From a TikTok video: https://www.tiktok.com/@chadbird1517/video/7197510765635669294]