WEEK 6 | FORGIVENESS
Mark 2:12 (ESV): 12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
If you missed church yesterday, you missed something amazing! A paralyzed man was brought to be healed and we witnessed him being healed by Jesus. he stood up and started walking! It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen!
Ok, maybe it wasn’t as literal to you as it was to me. I preached from Mark 2:1-12 and found myself so immersed in the story that I felt I was actually there. I could visualize every nuance and turn of events. I could feel the tension of the religious leaders in the home of Jesus with their pressing questioning in their minds. I could see their disdain for Jesus’ actions simply by their body language and rolling of their eyes. I could see the hope and desperation of this paralyzed man that I called “Buddy” on the faces of his four childhood friends peering in from a hole they just cut into Jesus’ roof. I could see their amazement when the man did what he was commanded to do by Jesus; “Pick up your mat and walk!” And, you guessed it, he walked!
It was epic!
But, there was another more amazing moment. When Jesus witnessed the love, determination, and creative problem-solving skills simply by these four friends’ FAITH, Jesus forgave the sins of the paralyzed man.
If you were there in the room and you were telling someone the next day what happened in church, would you tell the story that the sins of the man being forgiven or the healing that led him to walk again?
I can imagine you telling the story to your co-worker on a Zoom call, “Hey Bob you wouldn’t believe what happened yesterday at our church. This guy came in on a stretcher and Jesus forgave him of his sins! It was sweet dude! I wish you could have seen it.” I think you know how anticlimactic that conversation would have felt to your co-worker. A long awkward pause would have issued while he would be waiting for a bigger revelation and conclusion to the story. “Nice, thanks for not inviting me.”
We are all drawn more by what we can see rather than what we can have faith to believe. The Scriptures tells us that “ . . . faith is the assurance (evidence) of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1, ESV). What healed this man of his inability to walk was the conviction that Jesus was powerful enough to heal. But that isn’t the true power of faith here. What healed this man fully of physical and spiritual needs was their faith that Jesus not only could heal but that He was the Son of Man, Savior, Messiah, God with us, and could heal and save souls!
Something to note: Jesus did not tell the man to get up and walk first. He told him his sins were healed by the faith of his friends. Once he was feeling this deep sense of gratitude for his soul being saved by the faith of his own friends, Jesus heals his legs for the mission that would be ahead of him; walking and telling everyone what Jesus had done for his life!
It’s almost as if Jesus said, “You believe I can heal your physical life, but I want you to believe I can heal your spiritual deficiencies too.” Is it possible that if we believe Jesus can heal our past, our sins, our brokenness, and our shame, the bonus healing might be physical and the result will be a life of telling others about Jesus with our gratitude?
As I closed yesterday, I shared that when we know we are truly forgiven our life changes. Forgiveness will change your life and lead you to be more loving, committed, sacrificial, and worshipful.
Forgiveness is our greatest healing!