Firstly I want us to look at Luke 5:17-26. It is a passage that is one of my favourites. We tend to know it as the story of the man borne of four and recall it’s rather dramatic story.

There are indeed some powerful images conveyed here but also some vital lessons for us that will really help our faith walk.

Verse 17 has always caught my eye especially the words “And the power of the Lord was present to heal them”
How did the writer know that? There were no neon signs outside. The disciples did not go round with megaphones and banners proclaiming that the power of God was present that day. No one tweeted or went on Facebook. I guess the easy answer is that Jesus was present so of course the power was. Yet this is the only time in scripture that this connection was made so I feel something deeper took place.

I sense, even though it does not say, that there was such an atmosphere generated in that place everyone knew something was different and power was around. The nearest we would recognise in natural terms would be the highly charged atmosphere close to electrical generators where the air seems charged with electricity.

It seems to me that this atmosphere caused people to go running out to get sick people there and so it is no surprise that in verse 18 these men come, together with a paralysed man to lay before Jesus. That was their point of faith. They all agreed including the paralysed man that if they could lay him before Jesus he would get healed.

However they faced an obstacle in the shape of the crowd which by that time had grown so big that there was no way they could get the man into the house.

The crowd are always interested in Jesus. Wherever He is there they are. Every one of them had an opportunity to connect with Jesus but only these 5 men are recorded as having done so.

They could not get in but their faith would not be denied. Some may have gone home and decided ”Well I guess it was not to be” but that was not in the thinking of these men. Instead they had what I call roof mentality. They were determined and so they headed for the roof, punched a hole through and lowered the paralysed man to Jesus.
They decided
Today is the day
We are not going home
We are not waiting to see if they will make room
We are going to punch a hole in the roof and get to Jesus.

Some commentators even speculate that this may have been Jesus’ own house or that of one of his closest disciples. Imagine being in the room and seeing large chunks of tile falling in or disappearing until there was a huge hole that a man could be dropped through. It caused a major commotion and probably not a few angry voices. How could they disturb Jesus when he was in the middle of preaching?

Jesus was not at all bothered and in verse 20 we see that He  did not see the hole or the broken tiles around. No, He saw their faith.
In that moment those men made a faith connection with Jesus the healer.

Let us consider what gave rise to that connection

1 These men were agreed on their objective

2 They believed together that if they got to Jesus he would heal the man

3 Their determination would not be dissuaded by obstacles in the way. They remained firm and their actions demonstrated the faith that was within them

4 As a result they connected with Jesus and their faith was converted into answers. In verse 25 we see that the paralysed man stood up healed in response to the command of Jesus.

These men by their actions made a faith connection. it was not because they were so spiritual Jesus acted. It was because they realised that only Jesus was the answer to their problem and they would do whatever it took to get to Him.
They needed something from Jesus that they could not get any other way.

Let us be like those men, determined in our faith with the same roof mentality. Push through and make that faith connection.

Next month we will build on this and see faith in action through another incident in Jesus’ ministry.

Have a great month and put your faith into action.