Faith Synchronizes Belief and Actions (Mark 2:1-12)

Faith means that you are sure about what you hope for and confident about what you don’t see. If you are sure and confident about something it effects your actions. Habakkuk 3:19 says, "The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights.” Why is a deer so sure-footed and able to climb steadily toward mountain peaks? It is because deer have an amazing ability of ensuring that its back feet will alight on the exact spot where its front feet were positioned. This is how I see faith. It starts as a gift from God. Then what you believe is like the front feet of a deer. Acting on what you believe is like the hind feet of a deer. It takes all of this to reach the heights God calls us to.

In Mark 2 we find Jesus speaking a message in His home in Capernaum. I’m sure since Jesus was the one preaching this message it was important! However, as it often happens in Mark, there is no record of what was said. Remember, Mark’s source for his gospel is Peter. Jesus’ home was probably Peter’s house, and it’s here in Mark that you get the strong expression of the damage done to the roof. The message of this story is understood by actions rather than by words.

Just use your imagination. The room is packed. There are so many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway. The important people like the scribes, however, had found a seat inside. It must have been a solemn assembly as they sat there listening to the Son of God, when suddenly dirt started to fall on everyone’s head!

Four men had found a way to climb the roof while keeping their paralyzed friend from falling off the stretcher they were carrying him on. Next, with a boldness produced by the belief that it was the only way they could get their friend to the one who could heal him, they began to remove the roof. Not just a small hole in the roof, but a hole big enough to let the a man down through it. What havoc their faith must have caused to those on whom the dirt fell!

Jesus saw their faith. How can you see someone’s faith? You can see someone’s faith when you look at their actions. Just like hind feet of a deer are synchronized with its front feet, so too is a man’s faith synchronized with his actions.