Forgiven and Healed

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

FORGIVEN AND HEALED

Matt 9:1-8

9:1 Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."  3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!" 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . ." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home."  7 And the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.

NIV

This is the narrative in which Matthew leaves out the fact that this fellow’s four friends let him down through the roof of the house to get him in front of Jesus. However, Matthew does indicate this paralytic was brought to Jesus by some men. What is interesting is that Jesus does not simply heal him but forgives his sins. We cannot be sure why Jesus chooses this time to demonstrate his authority to forgive sin for this seems to be the first time he tells a man with an ailment his sins are forgiven, rather than just heal him, like He has so many times. There are some thoughts that it was because this man might have thought that his illness or infirmity was brought on because of his grievous amount of sin. Surely there are sins such as gluttony, excessive drunkenness, or some other lifestyle. Paul talks about that in relationship to eating from the Lord’s table being unworthy, and that is a reason so there were so many among them that were weak and sick and even some died because of their sin. But we also cannot say that because we might have an illness or infirmity that it is because of sin. If that were so, then we could say that because we are healthy, have no disease, no illness, or anything infirmity at all, that we have no sin. That would be false thinking. What we have to believe is because of who was there in this courtyard room of this house watching Jesus, that he took the occasion to prove his authority to forgive sin. This is big news, because our sins can be forgiven, and because they are forgiven because we have not only come before Jesus but asked him to come and dwell among us, to be our Lord and Savior. We know that Jesus sets us free and because Jesus sets of free from the burden of sin, we are free indeed. Does not mean we are sinless, but it does mean that we do not have to carry this burden of sin, that is we do not need to feel dirty, ashamed, guilty because we cannot walk a perfect life, that we make mistakes or that if we get sick or have some physical problem is it a result of our sin, that God is punishing us with an infirmity. Jesus heals and forgives sin, it is one and the same as he demonstrates in this situation. We are so glad that we know Jesus, that someone brought us to Jesus, that someone carried us into the presence of Jesus. Surely, we would not have discovered Jesus on our own for we were living in the darkness. But because someone brought us to Jesus, our sins are forgiven and we have been healed from the sickness of sin, as well as many ailments.