Faith Has Friends
“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”” Mark 2:1–12
Sometimes the most important thing we bring to someone’s life is our refusal to give up on them.
Rather than making this primarily about the healing of the paralyzed man, let’s focus on the extraordinary friendship surrounding him.
We don’t know much about these four men. We don’t know their names, their backgrounds, or how long they’d known their friend.
But we know what they did.
They refused to allow an obstacle to become an excuse.
Have you known the quiet power of faithful friendship, people who carry us when our own strength fails, and the possibility that God has placed someone in our lives who needs that kind of persistence?
And there’s an important distinction: sometimes faith means trusting God with an outcome we cannot control.
