The Faith Of A Friend

The Faith of a Friend

Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.” Mark 2:5

WHEN YOU PRAY FOR SOMEONE, whose faith matters? Yours as the one who prays or that of the person who will receive the benefits of the answer? The answer in Scripture and history is varied. There have been times when ungodly kings or priests have prayed for people who believed God would answer, and their faith resulted in healing. There have been times when very godly, faith-filled people have prayed for unbelievers and miracles happened. In almost any situation we can think of involving the faith (or lack thereof) of the one praying and the one prayed for, we can find contradictory examples. Even Jesus seemed limited by the faithlessness of people in his hometown (Mark 6:5).

Scripture is clear that faith matters, and someone involved in the prayer must have it. But in the case of the paralyzed man whose friends brought him and lowered him through the roof to see Jesus, the focus is on neither Jesus’ faith nor the paralytic’s faith. It’s on the faith of the four men who carried his mat and so audaciously found a way to get him in front of Jesus. That faith prompted divine forgiveness for the paralytic, an important and contentious discussion of Jesus’ authority to forgive and to heal, and then the paralytic’s actual healing. Spiritual and physical needs were addressed, an example of great faith was evident to all, and bad theology was corrected. All in all, it was a breakthrough moment for Jesus’ ministry and certainly for this man’s life.

But the friends who brought him got to see it all. They clearly believed Jesus could heal, and they went away even more convinced that Jesus could heal and forgive. They didn’t sit back and assume that if God wanted to heal, he would open a way to Jesus. They were desperate enough on their friend’s behalf to find whatever way they could. The walk home must have been an exuberant experience for all five of them. They worked hard to put their faith in a position to work, and they received the answer they were looking for and more.

Faith is to prayer what the feather is to the arrow; without faith it will not hit the mark.