Jesus loves people who act in faith: people who need grace. Listen to Jesus, “I’ve not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance!” What’s He saying? Only people with desperate need have a desperate faith! The four friends who blew through a roof to get their friend to Jesus, the man with leprosy whom Jesus also forgave, the man possessed by an evil spirit—and this man with a withered hand—what do they all have in common? They all came to Jesus knowing only He could make them well.
If you follow the story in (Mark 3:1-6) you will notice that it is the fifth of its kind where Jesus does something powerful on the Sabbath that is done to show that faith is born of a need! So, until we have a need, we live by sight: what we have or can control. When we have lost all control, faith finds its opening and that’s the condition Jesus seeks in all His people in their every-day loving of Him. People seeking Jesus should recognize their need if they only seek Him in faith. The Pharisees, on the other hand, neither needed Jesus nor did they want Him. This week, we must all ask ourselves, “Do we live life in a posture of need before Jesus? Do we live by faith?"
There are in this passage two kinds of people: those who believe Jesus and those who oppose Him. If we do not believe and trust Jesus, then we oppose Him. Can you think of a place in your life where you’re resisting Jesus?
Trusting in Jesus with you,
Pastor Briant