Having Jesus In Your Heart 19

“ Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, ‘Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.’

But some of the teachers of religious law said to themselves, ‘That’s blasphemy! Does he think he’s God?’

Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, ‘Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? Is it easier to say “Your sins are forgiven,” or “Stand up and walk”? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.’ Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!’

And the man jumped up and went home! Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen. And they praised God for sending a man with such great authority.  Matthew 9:1-8

“There were three reasons why faith in [Jesus healed people]. The first was that they acknowledged His Divine Omnipotence, and that He was God. The second was that faith is acknowledgment, and intuition comes from acknowledgment, in this case, from the acknowledgment of the Lord's Omnipotence. And it was from this acknowledgment that they were first of all to have an intuition of the Lord, when a new church was to be established by Him. The third reason was that all the diseases that the Lord healed represented spiritual diseases, to which natural diseases correspond. Spiritual diseases cannot be healed except by the Lord, and indeed by looking to His Divine Omnipotence, and by repentance of life. Therefore also He sometimes said, ‘Your sins are forgiven you; go and sin no more.’ The faith through which the Lord heals spiritual diseases consists of truths from the Word, and by a life according to them.” Apocalypse Explained §815

Jesus has returned to Capernaum, and a crowd is always around Him. Struggling through the crowd are three men, two carrying their paralyzed friend. We don’t know how far they have come. We don’t know what effort it took. Luke adds a detail in his Gospel, describing how the men broke through the roof of the house to reach Jesus.

The effort, the demonstration of their faith, gave Jesus joy. Imagine His life at this time. He had no permanent place to live. He was repeatedly asked to leave by the people He was teaching and healing. Local and national political and religious leaders challenged him at every opportunity. So when He witnessed the great effort these men went to helping their friend, it certainly made His day!

Being paralyzed, maimed or handicapped in those days made life very difficult. If the person was rich, he or she could sit back and be served. If the person were a tradesman or laborer he would have to depend on his extended family and friends. A poor handicapped person, without dedicated family and friends, would be destitute. Nowadays we share our resources and provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. Also, there are many activities a handicapped person can do to make a contribution to the community. In the days of the New Testament a handicapped person would feel useless and completely reliant upon others for just staying alive. And on top of it all, it was commonly believed that such an illness was the result of sin. This further separated a person from the rest of society. It was a hard life, for sure. 

All this made it hard to accept that salvation was more important that physical wellbeing. That is the message Jesus gave when He said first, before healing the man, “your sins are forgiven you.” The leaders of the church then immediately–and properly–thought “He blasphemes!” For only God Himself could forgive sins. Knowing the story, we realize: Jesus had set them up.

Today, our physical needs are so easily cared for. Good health is common. Handicapped people are respected as people and given all the help possible to be independent. One result of these circumstances is that it is relatively easy for us to accept that salvation is more important that health, since good health is so common and illness can be overcome. Our physical health takes less of our time and energy, freeing us to consider our spiritual health. In all likelihood the paralyzed man that was taken to Jesus cared little or nothing about his salvation. He just wanted to be well. His friends wanted him to be well. And they all firmly believed that Jesus could do it.

So Jesus gave the man want he wanted. And everybody was amazed. I can imagine the disciples saying, “Is there nothing this man cannot do?” And Jesus gives the lesson, the truth of it all. “Since you think healing is so hard and amazing and yet salvation easily available to all of you from God, I’ll show you that I can heal so you will begin to understand that I can forgive sins because I am God on earth!” Indeed, Jesus came to redeem mankind, to forgive their sins and free them from slavery to evil spirits. It is very important to understand that Jesus did not heal everyone’s sickness and injury. However, by His life, death and resurrection He spiritually healed every person on the planet enough so that they could be free to love Him and their neighbor and not be possessed or sickened by evil spirits. And He continues to provide this healing to all of us.

How completely and consistently do we know that salvation is more important than physical health? What does that attitude look like? You might ask yourself these questions:

            • Who gets healed?

            • Who gets forgiven?

            • What personality trait or ability would you like to have that you don’t right now?

            • What is stopping you from getting it?

            • What do friends do for each other?

When Jesus is in our heart, we feel a spiritual health that feels like forgiveness. We feel strong in all the golden, valuable human traits that we have. We are in action because we bravely do what we have not done before. And we feel compassion for all our fellow humans. Surely this healing is far more important to us than our physical health. Indeed, having Jesus in our heart this way gives us the wherewithal and the attitude to carry on in life without feeling held back physically. Your sins are forgiven. You can do whatever good your heart desires!