Who will carry me?
(Luke 5:17-26 NIV) One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. {18} Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. {19} When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. {20} When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." {21} The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" {22} Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? {23} Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? {24} But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . ." He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." {25} Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. {26} Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today."
Some time ago I was invited to a family reunion at my host family where I was an exchange student in 75/76. As always we had a great time. I sat with an older gentleman after a wonderful lunch under the shady trees and we talked about faith and God, and so on.
He finally made a remark to me which made me shiver. He glanced at my hands and he mentioned my skin disorder (which is a genetic disorder of the Epidermis cells) and he said: "If you truly would have enough faith you could be healed of it!"
I am not shocked by too many things, but this one sentence shocked me, because he said it with such sincerity and he quoted verses from the bible which continued to substantiate his statement.
I never commented on his statement and once he was finished with his "lecture" I moved to another location. I thought: "Would he tell this story to someone who had cancer or was otherwise terminally ill?"
Flashbacks of Benny Hinn Ministries came to my mind who pronounced the same theology. You must have faith to be healed.
Was I with out faith so much? Was I out of favor with God?
It is not uncommon among some denomination to believe that there is a direct relationship between the forgiveness of sin / faith and the healing of the physical body.
In fact when we read some of the stories especially in Mark of Luke we may see a direct relationship.
But when we read the stories of Jesus’ healings and His forgiveness of sins, some question arise:
(1) Why am I not being healed? Why is that person not being healed, even though I or they display such strong faith.
(2) What must I do that I may be healed from my physical ailment.
In the biblical text we see people bringing a paralytic man on a mat. This man need healing. He needed physical healing.
In fact they were so desperate that they lowered the mat with the man though Peter’s house right in front of Jesus. Desperation!
Expectations! Can you imagine what they talked about when they were carrying this paralytic man to Jesus? We don’t know where they came from, we don’t know what they gave up to come to this place, but we know they heard about Jesus’ incredible power:
"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan...." (4:1) "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit...." (4:14) "The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to...." (4:18) "With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out" (4:36) "The people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all." (6:19) "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me." (8:46) "He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases...." (9:1)
But the first thing Jesus is saying is: "You are forgiven"
OK! That is fine, but I need healing the man probably thought. "Why do I need to come here to be forgiven? I could have prayed to God and HE would have forgiven me"
The Pharisees reply is simple: "You can’t forgive. . only God can forgive"
And there is where Jesus becomes confrontational. The verb dialogizomai. He can read their body language, their facial expression that they dislike His actions and His statements
.And Jesus replies: "What is easier to say ‘you are forgiven’ or to say ‘Get up and walk’?
This sentence is key to the whole story. Think about it. It is very common to say these words: "I am forgiven" "You are forgiven", "We are forgiven". . .
But these words remain empty unless we hear these words from Jesus. Unless we understand the words. Unless we live out these words through Jesus.
And to prove His point he tells the paralytic man to get up and walk and the guy walks away and praises God.
Do you see that only Jesus can forgive us? Only he has the power? We can’t make the assumption that we are forgiven, we can’t hope that we are forgiven. . .only Jesus can forgive us. There are no empty words or lose commitments bound by rituals.
I recently read:
The lesson here is that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins AND heal the sick. Anyone can say, "Your sins are forgiven." Those are easy words to say, and who can tell whether or not the sins really HAVE been forgiven. But Jesus both pronounces forgiveness and then heals. Neither is humanly possible. Speaking healing words, too, is easy, but it's pretty easy to tell whether the person is healed or not, whether the words are authoritative or just wind. Therefore, Jesus reasons out loud, if God honors his declaration of healing that is an indication that God also honors Jesus' declaration of forgiveness, as well.
So, the question is will we only be healed if we have enough faith? Of course not. Jesus will heal you if you call upon Him and you will be healed in His time and you will understand. The example which is set here is that it is the power of God. A more important healing of the spirit then the body.
I want us to do a spiritual exercise:
1. Imagine a blank piece of 8 ½ x 11 " of paper. Imagine you hold it in landscape format.
2. Imagine you can place your sin or your disease right in the middle of that piece of paper. Imagine you are writing it out right in the middle of the paper.
3. Now I want you to write in each of the four corners four individuals who would have taken you to Jesus who can heal you. Now give the sin or disease to Jesus!
4. Finally I want you to think of on individual who you need to carry to Jesus on a mat.
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