One Of Our Many Blessings

 

  Mk 2:1-12

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man

2 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ² They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴ Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷ “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

⁸ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ¹² He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Jesus was not blaspheming when he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."  By curing the man's paralysis, he showed that he had power to do both spiritual and physical healing.  No wonder the crowd was amazed for indeed they had never seen anything like this.  We take confession and the forgiveness of our sins for granted because we are so used to them, but if we stop for a moment and give some thought to this process it really is astounding  as with so many other things in the practice of our faith, that we take for granted. May we stop, reflect on the mighty power of God and give thanks, for indeed it is extraordinary and we'd be at loss without it..

Bro. Rene

Dear God, you have blessed us with the gift of forgiveness of our sins. May we not take this and your many other gifts for granted. Amen.