Mark Notes - (4)

One Way or Another Faith

Mark 2:1-12

I love the story of the four friends who not only carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus, but who carried him up on the roof, made a hole in the roof, and then lowered their friend through the roof into the room where Jesus was. 

“And Jesus seeing their faith” (verse 5). This is really faith in action, these friends really believed that Jesus was going to heal their friend, and I suppose the friend believed it too…or did he? Well, we don’t know. Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t. Maybe he trusted the belief that his four friends had in Jesus. In a sense the paralyzed man put his life in the hands of the friends who carried him. In turn the four friends put the life of their paralyzed friend in the hands of Jesus. 

How did he feel when he was being carried up on the roof? How did he feel when he was being let down through the roof? 

Most of us are familiar with the story of footprints in the sand, but perhaps we lose sight of the fact that there are times Jesus uses His Presence within others to carry us, as He did with the paralytic and his four friends. O how we need one another. Community is elusive in our individualistic society and in our churches. Whether a congregation is large or small, true koinonia is elusive. Programs are poor substitutes for relationships.

Programs are not going to produce friendships that result in four friends carrying another friend up on a roof, through a roof, and down to see Jesus. 

I don’t know whether these five men were discouraged as they approached the house where Jesus was and saw the crowd, they may have thought, “We’ll never make it through the crowd, we’ll never get to see Jesus.” If they did have such a thought it didn’t last long, for they were determined to get to Jesus, one way or another. 

I think Jesus encourages and honors “one way or another” faith. This is a faith that defies convention, including religious convention, and wants to get to Jesus no matter what, one way or another. 

We see similar determination in the woman of Mark 5:21–34, one way or another she is going to make it through the crowd, as sick as she is, as drained of energy as she is, she is going to touch Jesus. She is thinking (5:28), “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” 

Lots of people were making contact with Jesus physically (5:31), but only the woman was actually “touching” Jesus, and Jesus sensed that touch, He sensed that transfer of Divine Life and healing. 

Then there is blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46 – 52. As he is sitting by the road he senses a large crowd. When he asks what the commotion is about and is told that Jesus is passing by he starts crying out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” When people tell him to shut up he cries out even louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

Jesus stops and says, “Call him here.” Bartimaeus throws aside his cloak, jumps up, and comes to Jesus. 

No one, and no set of circumstances, was going to stop the four friends from getting their paralyzed friend to Jesus. No crowd was going to prove a barrier to the terribly sick woman touching Jesus. No amount of telling him to “Shut up” was gong to quiet Bartimaeus’s crying out to Jesus.

These are three examples of “whatever it takes” and “one way or another” faith in Jesus Christ. Let’s take note, that in each case Jesus was there for these people, in each case Jesus responded to them, in each case Jesus acknowledged, affirmed, and honored their faith. 

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Well friends, how can we exercise our “one way or another” faith today? Who can we carry to Jesus? Who can we help touch Jesus? 

And what do we need to bring to Jesus in our own lives? What are our own burdens? Our questions? Our struggles? 

He will never turn us away, never, ever, not ever. 

Let’s go through the roof, let’s push through the crowd, let’s keep crying out to Jesus…because we can be assured that He is here for us.