Faith of our Friends

Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 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 fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? But so 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, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” Mark 2:3-12

It struck me again today in this story how important is the faith, not of the paralytic, but of his friends. All he really had to do was lay there, presumably accepting enough of their plan not to be screaming how crazy they were to be tearing a hole in the roof and lowering him down on top of this famous prophet. And then it is THEIR faith that Jesus honors by healing their friend. To me this is one of the most beautiful pictures of friendship in the Bible. And it makes me really glad for the friends that I have, that we have been there for each other in the best and worst of times, and will continue to do so.
We are praying for you, today, Linds. We'll be carrying you to Jesus.