Daily Office for 10/04/2010:  Gospel – Luke 5:12-26

Today’s Gospel reading presents us with many lessons…and a rich complexity of issues woven together throughout the story. Among the lessons offered in Luke 5:12-26, the power of faith seems to jump off the page. Jesus is in the midst of a busy crowd and has just healed a leaper and the crowds persist to surround Jesus. The crowds are so great that a paralyzed man cannot come close enough to Jesus to have his healing touch change the man’s life.

“Just then some men came, carrying a paralyzed 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.”” (Luke 5:18-20)  Illustration by Graham Kennedy

The Scripture tells us that Jesus saw “their” faith and healed the man. The power of faith has certainly healed the paralyzed man: faith in Christ’s ability to heal body, mind and spirit; and faith in his friends’ ability to get the man to Jesus regardless of the obstacles. The power of faith brings us closer to Christ and places us in the center of the community of believers – only through community are we known as the Body of Christ. Who has carried you to the feet of Christ and who relies on you to break down the barriers that separate them from the healing powers of Jesus?