Dealing With The Root!

As I was waking this morning I was thinking about the Lord, and was reminded of the following story from Luke 5:17-26 NIV:

[17] "One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. [18] Some men came carrying a paralyzed man 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 I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So 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.”

I have always been  intrigued by this story, because it is the one time I can think of where Jesus did something besides healing the person first.  There are plenty of stories of Jesus meeting the person, healing them and then addressing them afterwards, but this story was different, and all three of the synoptic authors (Matthew, Mark and Luke) recorded this story.

So this morning I was pondering, as usual, why Jesus forgave the man's sins as the first thing He did, after seeing the faith of the others.  The thought came to my mind that this was because the young man believed it was his sin that caused his paralysis.  This was the common thought at that time that sin caused sickness.  We see  this idea related in the story of the man born blind, as recorded by John, in his ninth chapter.  Here is the verse - "His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2NIV)

Notice that there is no question about whether sin was the cause, that was assumed.  That was the normative thinking of the day, and is often still the thinking of many of us today.  The disciples assumed that it was either the man or his parents that had sinned to cause him to be born blind, in their mind there was no other explanation.  I believe that the situation was the same in the young paralyzed man's life, there was no question in his mind that it was his sin that had caused his paralysis.  If this was the cause, at least in the mind of the young man, then Jesus dealt with the cause first.

Think about this, assuming the man truly believed his sins were forgiven, the results would have been the same whether Jesus then went on to tell him to pick up his mat or not, for he had already been forgiven of the cause of his paralysis!  If it was his sins that caused the sickness and the sins were forgiven, there was now no reason for the sickness and he could now get well!

I had always previously thought that the reason Jesus had forgiven his sins first, was because it was a teachable moment for all the people, especially the pharisees and teachers of the law that were looking on.  I thought that Jesus was effectively setting a question in their mind, and then correcting their thinking, and that might be the case as well.  However, today I realized that Jesus was really addressing the most important thing for the young man, for he was convinced that His sin was the cause of his paralysis.

It might not seem like that big of a deal, but for me this revelation was really significant.  I saw how well Jesus knows us, and how gently he heals us!  I saw Him correctly addressing the root cause, which allowed the young man to move on in his healing.  What an incredible gift of mercy!

I am so thankful Jesus, that You know us so intimately that You don't just bandage the wound, but You heal the cause, the very root.  Thank You Lord for Your mercy and grace, Your compassion and love!

Amen!