The Healing Power of Forgiveness!
2 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
In Jesus' day Jewish people believed that if someone was sick it could be a result of their sin. So it is ironic when Jesus sees the faith of the paralytic's friends he says, "your sins are forgiven". Jesus starts with the man's greatest need which was forgiveness. His sick soul needed to be healed. And then he healed his body racked by paralysis. Jesus healed him physically and spiritually, but it was the first healing that the Jewish leaders objected to. Why? Because Jesus, a mere man, pronounced the forgiveness of the man's sins. Only God could do that.
It was the first inkling Jesus gave the people and the Jewish leaders of his identity. Generally Jesus wanted to conceal who He was as the only Son of God, but here he gives us a foreshadowing of what is to come. This scene connects back to what we talked about yesterday when Jesus said his mission was to announce that God's kingdom was at hand. Literally God's rule and reign had rent the heavens asunder. and come to earth. Jesus not only announced the coming of the kingdom but enacted it. First through his healing of diseases and sickness and today the authority to forgive sin.
Jesus says, "But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”
Jesus connects his power to conduct miracles with his power to forgive sin. Ultimately those who were physically healed would die. But those who were sick from sin would be fully healed one day when they entered heaven. And the key to that healing was forgiveness.
Have you ever looked at forgiveness as healing? Forgiveness heals your relationship with God and others. As you are forgiven by God you can forgive others. Since forgiveness is a gift how can you withhold it from someone else who you deem undeserving. Who do you need to forgive today?
We pray in the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us!"
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