What Did He Say?

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:5)

Unable to get to Jesus, the paralyzed man’s friends are emboldened. The crowd is too thick to get close to Jesus by going in on the ground floor. They come up with an idea— making a hole in the roof. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Inside the house, Jesus is teaching, when suddenly a noise above him muffles his words. A shaft of light breaks through the ceiling. Someone has knocked a hole in the roof! Jesus stops, looks up, and smiles. Everyone else looks up, only to see four faces in the hole peering down at them. Slowly the four men lower a stretcher through the hole in the roof. On the stretcher a man lies silently. Even a casual glance tells you that he is suffering greatly.

A hush falls on the room.

Jesus doesn’t immediately say, “Son, your body is healed.” Instead, he declares, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). Don’t you find that statement a little odd? This man who is coming for healing is first given forgiveness. Too often we want healing for the physical paralysis rather than the spiritual. Why does Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven”? There is more than one kind of paralysis. There is the paralysis of the body caused by disease; there is also the paralysis of the soul caused by sin. This man was sicker than he knew. He was doubly paralyzed and didn’t even know it.

We need what Jesus gave this man. Our deepest need is to have our sins forgiven. Without forgiveness, healing doesn’t really matter. Healing touches the body, but it doesn’t touch the soul.

Where there is forgiveness, there is grace and mercy and a future as bright as the promises of God.

Prayer

Lord, help me to seek your forgiveness when . . .

Taken from NIV Once a Day Devotional for Men.