Divine action at a distance (the first Christians were a literal lot)

Jan Luyken, The Paralytic Lowered through the Roof,
etching, housed at Belgrave Hall, Leicester, England;
photo by Philip De Vere (Wikimedia Commons)

This continues to intrigue me:

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
See the entire account here >

Jesus didn't heal the man because of the man's own faith, but the faith of all of them (the paralytic and the men who lowered him through the roof).

Of course, we can always suppose that Jesus, being God, could do whatever he wanted, and that forgiveness-by-proxy doesn't work beyond divine exceptions like this.

But... there are many biblical references for this "divine action at a distance" (echo intended). Miracles are conducted through Jesus' hem, his spittle, the faith of the ill and the faith of those around them, baptism, the ability of the Apostles to forgive (or not), and of course, Jesus' death and resurrection, which is remembered in communion, and which some believe confers forgiveness.

We can say that all that ends at the end of the apostolic age, but there's really no justification for that aside from releasing a little pressure from inside our comfort zone.

The first Christians were a literal lot and believed you could receive forgiveness (aka grace, salvation) by doing something or having something done to you.

Like it or not, that is our heritage, the heritage of everyone that claims Christ, regardless of our denomination.

We can ignore these ideas (like a crazy uncle no one talks about), or we can try to understand how the earliest Christians understood Jesus.

(I'm not ignoring faith, that is the common thread that weaves all these things together.)

[2014-08-13]

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