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. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 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. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

Why did Jesus tell this man his sins had been forgiven? What types of sin is he referring to? I find that part of the interesting thing with this parable is this man is paralyzed. Many of the sins that the Jews would be thinking of would have been outward in scope and appearance. They had their laws, the things they weren’t supposed to do. But here we have a paralyzed man who really can’t do very many of these bad things. He cannot commit adultery, he cannot steal, he cannot murder, etc. He is paralyzed. And we don’t know if this man was paralyzed from birth or not, but if he was — there is even more meaning here. Some Jews believe that disability and illness from birth indicated sin in the hearts of the parents. See this question from his disciples: “His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” ‭‭(John‬ ‭9‬:‭2‬) So Jesus could also be refuting this heresy, as well. In essence, he is saying: “Any disability is not due to sin, but every man sins on their own and is entrapped in their sin and needs the forgiveness I provide.” So what sins is Jesus really forgiving? Are they not the sins of the heart? Anger, bitterness, jealousy, resentment, pride, etc.

And it was these very sins that the Pharisees and teachers of the law wrestled with in their hard hearts. This man probably simply wanted to be physically healed. What he didn’t know was the healer he went to … he was primarily interested in healing his soul and heart. Physical healing was a sign of the spiritual connection with God. The truth is, God wants to heal my heart more. He wants me to spend eternity with him in heaven. In order to do this, I must become perfected by his spirit. And this means I must pursue righteousness. We will examine the contrast between healing the body and healing the heart a little bit more tomorrow. I wanted to start off this parable with the thought: What was Jesus really healing in this paralyzed man?

Lord, help me to realize that you’re more interested in my spiritual health than my physical well-being. Yes, you care about my hurts and my challenges and my pains in this world. But you care more about where I am for eternity. About my salvation. Thank you that you forgave this man’s sins first to show us what matters most.