Contemplative Bible Reading

Luke 5:20 (New Living Translation)

20 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.”

This is part of the (hi)story of the crippled man and his friends. We heard this one many times in Sunday School as kids. The men carried their crippled friend on a stretcher to Jesus to be healed. The crowd was too thick to reach Jesus. In a stroke of genius, the men carried their friend up to the roof where they cut a hole in the roof and lowered their friend to Jesus.

Wow. This is a great (hi)story that has been told a million times.

Jesus saw their faith. Not just the faith of the crippled man, but also the faith of his friends. They believed that if they did whatever was necessary to put their friend in front of Jesus their friend would be healed.

Can you imagine the love these friends had for the crippled man? They should have gone to jail for damaging someone’s house. And, oh by the way, this all happened on the Sabbath day. They were breaking the Sabbath laws by carrying their friend around. They were breaking the Sabbath laws by making a hole in the roof of a house. They were breaking the Sabbath laws on and on and on and on.

The faith of the crippled man and his friends was not just, “Belief in something we cannot see.” Their faith was the acts of carrying a man on a stretcher to wherever Jesus was, trying in vain to penetrate the crowds, climbing on the roof with a stretcher (that’s not easy), digging a hole in the roof, and lowering their friend to Jesus. That is a lot of actions that go along with believing in the power of Jesus.

That is belief plus action. That is active faith.

Sit on the couch and say, “I believe.” Well, maybe and that is a long discussion for another day.

Say, “I believe,” and then do whatever I can. That is what we see in this (hi)story. Keep telling it to kids in Sunday School. Live it as well.