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URC Daily Devotion 9 December 2024

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9 December 2024
 

St Luke 5: 17 – 26
One day, while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting nearby (they had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem); and the power of the Lord was with him to heal.  Just then some men came, carrying a paralysed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus.  When he saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.’  Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, ‘Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’  When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?  Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you”, or to say, “Stand up and walk”?  But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the one who was paralysed—‘I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home.’ Immediately he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God. Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’

Reflection
‘When he saw their faith …’

If you could ask one question about Jesus what would it be? Religious teachers and guides had not one but two concerning Jesus when he told the mattress man that his sins were forgiven. ‘Who is this that is speaking blasphemies?’ ‘Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ Such loaded questions!

Jesus responded in a like for like fashion with two of his own, demanding to know why they asked such questions, and confronting them with a conundrum about the relationship between forgiveness and healing.

The questions of Jesus’s interrogators are not my questions. Instead, I’m intrigued (and disconcerted) by the Gospel writer’s comment that it was when Jesus perceived the faith of the friends that he pronounced the paralysed man’s sins were forgiven. Not his faith (if he had one) – their faith.

So, I was wondering, might my faith save others from their sins and/or whatever ails them? Might the faith of others do the same for me? That seems at odds with my experience of religion where I have been invited to have faith so that my sins might be forgiven, and it’s suggested that it is up to others to have faith so that theirs also might be forgiven. Maybe I need to take more seriously this business of praying for the wellbeing of others.

Speaking of prayer, I suppose I could put my questions to Jesus, but contemplating this Bible passage, I fear he might just respond with some questions of his own. Particularly, how should I respond if Jesus says, ‘I like your idea about “thoughts and prayers” for those in difficulty, but did you notice that the “saving faith” of friends is one expressed in practical, helpful actions?’

Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me to have a faith that helps others in their need, and grant to others a faith that helps me in my need. Amen.

Today’s writer

The Revd Dr Trevor Jamison, Minister at Saint Columba’s URC, North Shields 

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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