Sermon Faith by Pastor Andrew Marttinen December 6, 20264
Luke 5:18-20
18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
In this passage, Christ pointed out their faith. The Greek term translated faith is pistis, and it also has the meaning of trust.
The verse thus raises the questions: Their faith in what? Their trust in what?
An Orthodox Jewish author who lectures in New Testament Theology answers these questions with: The most accessible meaning is faith or trust that Jesus’ healing can make their friend walk again. But I see no reason to limit this faith. Perhaps we should add another connotation. Jesus saw their faith and trust in their own ability to get the paralytic man to Him. They may well have had faith in Jesus, but they may also have had faith or trust in themselves. They managed, despite heavy odds against them, let alone a heavy fellow on a bed, to carry the paralytic man safely without dropping him, get him up on the roof top, get him down through the hole they dug (actually Luke mentions tiles they neatly removed because he was visioning a more European house in the story rather than the mud-brick structure we see in Mark’s version), and lower him safely to the ground. The writer continues: If we are to have faith in God, it often helps to have some faith in ourselves as well, or at least that God will give us the ability to do what needs to be done. My preference is to think of God and us working as a partnership. Amy-Jill Levine “Signs and Wonders” p. 11.
Faith in Jesus’ power to do what He promised. Faith in our own ability to have God work through us. These are two that Amy-Jill Levine mentions. My take on faith adds a third element–a 3rd dimension. A third level that we can see as we reflect on the story.
I explain it this way: Faith acts like a 3 legged stool. The 3 legged stool analogy represents stability, with each “leg” being a crucial component of a balanced system. A stable, practical faith contains these 3 parts.
1. Faith that God will do what he promised. This is easily the most accessible form. We pray that God will give us daily bread. Our faith is rewarded with yes, no or wait. God will provide. We pray for healing, our faith is rewarded by an immediate miraculous healing, healing over time using principles of health that God has created for us or grace to handle whatever the future holds. (These are the three options that EGW gives in the “Prayer for the Sick” chapter in “Ministry of Healing”). Faith that God will do what He promised doesn’t need much explanation or elaboration.
2. Faith in God himself. This is the most important form. It’s my addition to Amy-Jill Levine’s previous 2. Abraham’s Faith was based not on God’s provisional promises but on God alone. Abraham’s faith wasn’t based on what God would do–give him descendants more numerous than the sands of the sea, resurrecting Isaac or an inheritance in the Holy City, but it was based on God himself. “Abraham believed God” it says in Romans 4:3 and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Abraham’s faith was relational. It was not one of ascribing to a list of doctrines that a church believes about cosmology, soteriology, apocalyptic eschatology, etc. Abraham, as “father of our faith” had a trust not based in God’s promises or teachings but in God Himself.
3. Faith in oneself (and system of support-like a family or church). In my real life experiences at the Owen Sound Hospital, spiritual care providers, or chaplains, as they used to be called, are instructed to help people during what may be when they are feeling the most vulnerable (lying in a hospital bed) to discover how to have faith in themselves and their system of spiritual support–whether that’s prayer, a church, family, friends, or their circle of care in a health setting. For this you have to look at yourself. Romans 12 says we need to truly see who we are. Evaluate ourselves.3 Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. In spiritual care this is called “safe and effective use of self.”
When it comes to the three legs of a stable faith, this is the meekest one. True humility is required. This is also the trickiest one because it involves a balancing act, much wisdom and daily attending to. God gives us the ability to have faith in ourselves and our ability through the Holy Spirit. “Self-Control” is the capstone Fruit of the Spirit that we see listed in Galatians.
The world heavyweight boxing champion Oleksander Usyk was once asked “what motivates you?” “I don’t have motivation”. He answered, “I have discipline.” Faith in oneself requires discipline and it’s God we have to acknowledge who gives us this self-control as a gift of spirit. The friends of the paralyzed man needed more than motivation, passion and sound doctrine to get the fellow up on the roof and down to Jesus.
How can we bring all these elements of faith together? I found that you can spot them in almost every miracle and historical narrative in the Bible. Ewen McVarish, a colporteur leader in Ontario, told the New Testament story about Paul’s life being saved after a storm at sea on his trip to Rome. McVarish addressed to the student colporteurs before sending us out to canvass neighborhoods and sell religious and health books:
After a shipwreck near the shore of Malta, Paul sometimes hung on in quiet desperation to a board from the boat he had latched onto and kicked like mad all through the night. When he was washed ashore, he knelt down on the beach and gave a prayer of thanks to God for saving him.
The three elements are there (I will give them in reverse order): Paul had faith in himself by holding on no matter what. He had faith in God’s promise to give him strength in his weakness (his thorn in the flesh prayer comes to mind–acknowleging that his weakness shows that he needs to depend on the Lord). Thirdly, when he got to the beach the first thing he did was kneel down and acknowledge that it was faith in God alone that saved him. Luke doesn’t record in Acts that Paul ever preached to everyone about how he worked and prayed his way to success that night.. When we as individuals, families and the church head into 2026, let us believe in God’s promises, Believe in God Himself, and Believe in Ourselves as His church, that God works through mysterious ways, even through us, His wonders to perform.