Perspective: What We Need to Believe

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What We Need to Believe

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21 (NRSV)

Believing what I can't see

Has never come naturally to me

And I've got questions

But I am certain of a love

Strong enough to hold me when I'm doubting

You'll never let go of my hand

From "Can Anybody Hear Me?" by Meredith Andrews

One day, while Jesus was traveling throughout the region, teaching the crowds, healing the sick, and calling people to be His disciples, He was teaching a crowd that had gathered in someone's house.  That day, a group of friends who had heard that Jesus was in their town went to the house, carrying on a stretcher a friend of theirs who was paralyzed, hoping that the mysterious traveling teacher and healer might be able to help him.  When they arrived and saw the crowd that had gathered at the house, they realized that they would not be able to get their friend anywhere near Jesus.  One of the friends looked at the roof of the house and had an idea.

The group friends of climbed to the roof of the house with their friend, tore a hole in the roof, and lowered the man on the stretcher through the ceiling right in front of Jesus.  Jesus was clearly impressed with the faith of the group who would go to such extreme measures to help their friend.  He said to the paralyzed man, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."

In the room with Jesus was a group of scholars and other religious leaders from throughout the region who had come to town to size up this up and coming prophet.  When they heard Jesus say that the man's sins were forgiven, they said among themselves, "Who is this who insults God?  Only God can forgive sins!"

Jesus said to them, "Why do you fill your minds with these questions?  Which is easier - to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?"  He then turned back to the man on the stretcher and said, "I say to you, get up, take your cot, and go home."

At that moment, the once-paralyzed man did exactly what Jesus told him to do, to the amazement of everyone present.¹

Biblical scholar William Barclay points out that there are some very interesting dynamics at work in this story.  First, it is important to note that, in Jesus' day, it was commonly believed that suffering was caused by sin.  For example, in one account of Jesus' ministry, we read that Jesus and his disciples once happened upon a man who was born blind, prompting the disciples to ask, "Rabbi, who sinned so that he was born blind, this man or his parents?"²  According to the conventional wisdom of the day, the paralyzed man was in his current state because of his own wrongdoings.³  Jesus knew that such an understanding of the world was wrong, but it was ingrained into people's minds nonetheless.

Something I use very often as a computer programmer is an if-then statement.  An if-then statement is a logical construct that states that, if certain conditions are met, then certain actions may occur.  At work in this story are a number of if-then constructs that Jesus had to navigate in a particular way.

According to Barclay, because of the way Jesus' audience had been programmed to think, certain conditions had to be met so that they could believe what they needed to believe at that moment.  The paralyzed man lived under the assumption that his condition was punishment for his sins.  He first needed to hear from Jesus that his sins were forgiven so that he could believe that healing was possible for him.  In one version of the story, Jesus also told the man to take heart when He told him that he was forgiven.⁴  For the scribes and Pharisees in the room, the converse was true: they first needed to see the man healed of his paralysis so that they could believe that his sins were indeed forgiven as Jesus said.⁵

Basically, Jesus gave people present exactly what they needed so that they could believe what they needed to believe.

Later on, after the mountaintop experience to end all mountaintop experiences, Jesus and three of His disciples hiked down a mountain to find the other disciples in the middle of a kerfuffle.  A desperate father was hoping that the disciples might be able to heal his son, who was tormented by epilepsy-like symptoms attributed to a demon.  Unfortunately, they could do nothing to help.  Frustrated, Jesus yelled at His disciples, "You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you?"  Jesus then proceeded to deal with the problem himself.

The boy had another seizure, and the father told Jesus how much his son had suffered because of his symptoms.  Sometimes the seizures even put his life in jeopardy, causing him to fall into fire or water.  He then said to Jesus, "If you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us."

Jesus replied, "All things can be done for the one who believes."

The man then cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!"⁶

What the desperate father said to Jesus is probably one of my favorite statements in the Bible.  The man proclaimed his belief and then, in his very next breath, confessed his inability to believe.  It is both a contradictory statement and, at the same time, a very human thing to say.  Perhaps this man had tried countless times to find help for his son and was disappointed over and over again.  Perhaps the disciples' failure to help his son was just one more confirmation of what he already feared to be true, that his son could not be helped.  It is as if he said to Jesus, "I want to believe with all my heart, but I just don't know if I can!"  The man was not disappointed again, for Jesus was able to heal his son.

Perhaps there are things that we desperately need to believe but, for various reasons, find ourselves unable to believe.  Maybe what we've been taught about the way the world works keeps us from believing, as in the case of the paralyzed man, or maybe disappointments from the past keep us from believing, as in the case of the desperate father.  Perhaps there is something we need to believe, but perhaps there is also something we need so that we can believe what we need to believe.  Sometimes old assumptions must be dismantled so that new possibilities may be realized.  I believe that Jesus is sensitive to this reality, as evidenced by His gracious words to the paralyzed man.

I leave you, the reader, with two questions:

• What do you need to believe right now?
• What do you need so that you can believe?

I urge you to look within yourself and offer all these things to God.  May we believe what we need to believe, and may God help our unbelief.


Notes:

1. Luke 5:17-26 (CEB)
2. John 9:1-2 (CEB)
3. William Barclay.  The Gospel of Luke, Revised Edition.  1975, Westminster Press.  p. 62
4. Matthew 9:2 (NRSV)
5. Barclay, p. 62
6. Mark 9:14-29 (NRSV)

Le paralytique descendu du toit was painted by James Tissot in the late 1800s.