Commentary on the Gospel of
Holding Faith for the Other
Did the paralyzed man believe in Jesus? Did he want to be healed? Did his friends forcefully carry him on the mat to Jesus, despite his unwillingness? We don’t know the answers. The gospel is silent on these matters. What we do know is that those men who carried him had faith, that Jesus saw the faith of those people and healed the paralytic. Sometimes it is enough that we hold the faith for the sake of some unwilling and unbelieving others around us—they could be members of our families, religious communities, or work places—to bring them to God and move God. The question is, do we have enough faith to carry them all the way through the roof to the feet of Jesus or do we give up too soon and drop them by the mat half-way?
