Tag: Mark

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Through the Faith of Another

And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. — Mark 2.4

Near the middle of the 13th century Thomas Aquinas assembled a remarkable commentary on the Scriptures entitled Catena Aurea. The Saint quotes the works of over 80 church fathers—curating a work that is not only remarkably diverse, but also revealing of Aquinas’ own perspective.

Aquinas begins his commentary of the paralytic, whose friends cut a hole in a roof to lower him before Christ, with the arresting observation, “The desire of hearing Him was stronger than the toil of approaching Him.”

We, in the western world, do not have to toil to reach much of anything. Toil is understood as inefficiency which ought be eliminated. When it comes to faith we are then faced with a myriad of realities: It’s not toilsome to press a few buttons on our phones to read a devotional, but what happens when living our faith becomes costly? How our hearts recoil when they need to suffer a bit for the sake of another.

Aquinas’ commentary continues to follow the young men as they carry their friend to Christ:

Finding the door blocked up by the crowd, they could not by any means enter that way. Those who carried him, however, hoping that he could merit the grace of being healed, raising the bed with their burden, and uncovering the roof, lay him with his bed before the face of the Savior.

There follows: “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”

He did not mean the faith of the sick man, but of his bearers; for it sometimes happens that a man is healed by the faith of another.

The mens’ action was remarkably toilsome. Aside from digging through the layers of an ancient roof, they likely faced the scorn of the homeowner, the cost (and possibly labor) of repair, not to mention the disdain of the religious leaders who were only there to begrudge Christ.

We are remarkably efficient at performing real time cost-benefit analysis. Yet we are also surrounded by people whose lives could be transformed by the toil of our faith. Like Aquinas, our voice can be shaped by the multitude of the faithful who walked before us—a cloud of witnesses encouraging us to toil on behalf of others.

Today’s Reading
Jeremiah 16 (Listen – 3:52)
Mark 2 (Listen – 3:55)

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A Plunge into the Unknown

[Jesus proclaimed,] “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” — Mark 1.15

How Jesus’ command to “repent and believe in the gospel” is interpreted significantly shapes what day-to-day faith looks like. For moralists, the command is a linear progression: repent of moral fault and then believe (e.g. pray a prayer of some sort). This understanding leads to a lifetime of confronting outsiders with a perspective on morality in order to trigger a moment of belief.

Legalists interpret Jesus’ words as an circular process. Repentance is limited to a list of modern actions, based upon interpretation of Scripture, that must be confessed each and every time there has been a transgression. Belief is an instrument of guilt for transgressors and an instrument of pride for those whose list of moral interpretations has not been violated.

Jesus words aren’t referring to a momentary decision nor an infinite loop of guilt and pride. When we read them together they describe the recursive act of faith.

“Repent and believe in the gospel.” In other words, you already believe in other things for your own goodness, worth, and freedom—turn your back on those things. Stop counting on your financial status for security and on your job for identity—repent and believe in the gospel. Stop looking to your own power and past success to thrive—repent and believe the gospel.

British philosopher Alan Watts explains the difference between belief and faith:

In general practice, belief has come to mean a state of mind which is almost the opposite of faith. Belief, as I use the word here, is the insistence that the truth is what one would “lief” or wish it to be. The believer will open his mind to the truth on the condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes.

Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be. Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plunge into the unknown. Belief clings, but faith lets go. In this sense of the word, faith is the essential virtue of science, and likewise of any religion that is not self-deception.

The opposite of believing the gospel isn’t disbelief, it’s unfaithfulness. You can fully “believe” the gospel and yet rest none of your faith inside of it. To repent and believe the gospel is to divest one’s faith from everything in the world except Christ.

Today’s Reading
Jeremiah 15 (Listen – 3:49)
Mark 1 (Listen – 5:05)

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Collateral Blessing

Genesis 46.29
Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.

Twenty-five years after he finished the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo returned to begin work on The Last Judgment. The painting covers the expansive, 1,700 square-foot, altar wall and depicts Christ’s return, the resurrection of the dead, heaven, and hell.

The work, which would be among Michelangelo’s last, was controversial even before it was completed. Detractors were disquieted by the amount of nudity in the painting. Papal Master of Ceremonies Biagio da Cesena joined others in critiquing Michelangelo, calling the master artist’s work, “a very disgraceful thing.”

To strike back at da Cesena, Michelangelo painted him into the corner of the wall. The critic’s head appears atop the body of Meno, the Greek god of the underworld, who greets the damned as they enter hell.

“Of the seven deadly sins, anger is the most fun,” writes Frederick Buechner. “To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor the last toothsome morsel of the pain you’re giving back to them, in many ways, is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down at this feast is yourself.”

Most people can imagine what forgiveness might cost. Where we struggle is imagining what the costs of un-forgiveness will run us and what benefits forgiveness might bear.

Michelangelo’s bitterness is enshrined in history. (There are even teams of artists dedicated to preserving it.) Un-forgiveness always works that way. Entire nations rage against one another for the grievances of prior lifetimes. 

Although it rarely feels grand, forgiveness has its own way of stretching beyond the moment. 

Because Joseph forgave, a family was preserved from starvation; from that family a nation was born.

More importantly to Joseph, he had a restored relationship with his father. Their joy-filled reunion was an effect of his forgiveness of his brothers. The meaningful things we long for are found only in the fruit of sacrifice.

Prayer
Father, we have wronged you above all others. In your gracious love you have forgiven us, restored us to your family, and welcomed us back with joy and tears. Help us to forgive others, absorbing their debts with the riches of your Kingdom.

Faith in Forgiveness
Part 5 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

Today’s Readings
Genesis 46 (Listen – 4:47)
Mark 16 (Listen – 2:34)

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This Weekend’s Readings

Saturday: Genesis 47 (Listen – 5:03); Luke 1.1-38 (Listen – 9:26)
Sunday: Genesis 48 (Listen – 3:43); Luke 1.39-80 (Listen – 9:26)

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TBT: Jesus and His Brothers

Genesis 45.4
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!”

Jesus and His Brothers | by C.H. Spurgeon (October 4, 1885)

Notice that, when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, he did not say more until he had put away all their offenses against him. They had been troubled because they knew that they had sold him into Egypt; but he said to them, “Now be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here.” That was a blessed way of saying, “I freely and fully forgive you.” 

So Jesus says to his loved ones, who have grieved him by their evil deeds, “Be not grieved, for, ‘I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins.’ Be not angry with yourselves, for I will receive you graciously, and love you freely. 

Be not angry with yourselves, for your sins, which are many, are all forgiven; go, and sin no more. For my name’s sake, will I defer mine anger; ‘Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ ” 

Many of you know the way our Savior talks; I pray that he may make every believer sure that there is not a sin against him in God’s Book of remembrance. 

May you, dear friends, be clear in your conscience from all dead works! May you have the peace of God, which passes all understanding, to keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, and in the clear white light of your Savior’s glorious presence, may you see the wounds he endured when suffering for your sins! 

Then will you sing with the disciple whom Jesus loved, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” [1]

Prayers from the Past
With one voice we offer you praise and thanksgiving… You bought us back with the pure and precious blood of your only Son, freed us from lies and error, from bitter enslavement, released us from the Devil’s clutches and gave us the glory of freedom. We were dead and you renewed the life of our bodies in the Spirit. We were soiled and you made us quite spotless again.

— From a prayer of thanksgiving c. 200-500 C.E.

Faith and Forgiveness
Part 4 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

Today’s Readings
Genesis 45 (Listen – 4:10)
Mark 15 (Listen – 5:16)

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Footnotes

[1] Spurgeon, C. H. (1897). The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 43, p. 224). London: Passmore & Alabaster. Language updated.

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Out of the Pit

Genesis 44.33
[Judah said,] “Please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of Benjamin, and let the boy return with his brothers.”

It was Judah who pulled his brother Joseph from the pit, decades earlier, rescuing him from the murderous determinations of his other brothers. Judah quickly negotiated a deal to sell Joseph to human traffickers. This was an act which spared Joseph’s life, but was far from gracious.

Joseph’s road of forgiveness would have been arduous. His commitment to the journey would have been steadfast — or he never would have had this opportunity for restoration.

In Genesis 44 Benjamin is the one on the block. His fate, in the moment, appears the same as Joseph’s was years before. It didn’t look like much could be done to keep Benjamin from losing his family and becoming a prisoner for the remainder of his life.

Judah again steps up to pull a brother from the pit. Only this time something radically different happens. Judah spares Benjamin’s life by sacrificing his own — he throws himself in the pit in his brother’s place. 

In this act Joseph saw something in Judah which un-forgiveness of him would have masked. We don’t fully know what Judah went through after abandoning Joseph, but it must have been a journey that deepened his commitment to justice. Judah was no longer self-protecting. Now he was self-sacrificing. 

It’s far easier to never give our offenders another chance — effectively locking our view of their character to their darkest hour. Joseph’s decision to release Judah not only restored their relationship, it reunited Joseph with his father again. This simple, but costly, choice saved Joseph’s family, grew an entire nation, and ultimately paved the way for the Messiah.

“Forgiveness founders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans even as I exclude myself from the community of sinners,” explains Miroslav Volf in Exclusion and Embrace.

It was Christ who, like Joseph, saw us in our darkest hour yet forgive us. 

It was Christ who, like Judah, rescued us from the pit by throwing himself in on our behalf. 

We come to God’s grace like Joseph’s family came to the grain in Egypt: famished from our search and saved by its nourishment. 

Prayer
Lord, your forgiveness — your grace — is our greatest joy. You saw us while we were yet sinners and choose to love and pursue us. You sacrificed your son on our behalf. We want to live as examples of your forgiveness. Help us to share with others the great joy of your salvation.

Faith in Forgiveness
Part 3 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

Today’s Readings
Genesis 44 (Listen – 4:38)
Mark 14 (Listen – 8:37)

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