Matthew 9:1-8
1 Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed
over the sea and came to His own city. 2 And
they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said
to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 And
some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” 4 And
Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your
hearts? 5 “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your
sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? 6 “But
so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive
sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go
home.” 7 And he got up and went home. 8 But
when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified
God, who had given such authority to men.
There is an authority crisis in the world today. There are two reasons for this crisis. First, most people don’t recognize the
authority of God or anyone for that matter.
The only authority they are willing to recognize is their own. Everyone lives as if they have the right to
do whatever they want because they mistakenly think they are in charge of their
own lives. Second, those who have been
entrusted with positions of authority do not lead with integrity and
grace. Instead they abuse their power
and don’t even live according to the standards they require of others. Jesus was not that type of leader. As He returns to His home town, we see that
Jesus had to deal with an authority crisis as well.
JESUS DISCUSSES HIS AUTHORITY TO FORGIVE SINS: As Jesus came
into His hometown of Nazareth, some men bring a paralytic to Him on a bed in
hopes that Jesus would heal him. Jesus
responds to their faith and decides to heal the man by telling him that his
sins are forgiven. This brought about
accusations of blasphemy from the scribes in their thoughts. Jesus can also see their thoughts so He
confronts them by discussing the fact that He had the authority to forgive
sin. Forgiveness was the entire reason
Jesus had come to earth. He came so that
men could have forgiveness of sin, so the scribes questioning His authority to
forgive was a denial of the reason Jesus had come to earth in the first
place. He makes it clear that the reason
He emphasized forgiveness was so that all who were present would know He had
this authority. The paralytic man had
two problems, the inability to walk and His sinful heart. Between the two problems, sin was the most
serious and Jesus graciously met that need.
We tend to be must more concerned with our physical needs than our
spiritual ones. We demonstrate this in
the fact that our prayers usually center on our health, jobs and relationships
instead of our sinfulness.
JESUS DEMONSTRATES HIS ABILITY TO HEAL THE SICK: Jesus also
heals the paralytic man and tells him to take his bed and go home. He found spiritual reconciliation with God
through forgiveness and He found physical restoration from God through this
healing. Just because our spiritual
needs are more important in light of eternity, does not mean that Jesus does
not care for our physical needs. He cares
for us and all of the consequences of sin that inflict our bodies. As the man walked away, the people were
amazed and gave glory to God because He had given the authority to heal to a
man. They did not realize that Jesus was
not just a man but was also God. These
people had grown up with Jesus to it was very difficult for them to imagine
that Jesus could me the Messiah. He had
given all the evidence and told them plainly who He was but they were still
very slow to recognize this truth.
APPLICATION: Recognize the authority Jesus has over our lives
and obey Him. Remember our spiritual
needs are greater than our physical ones and strive to reflect that truth in
our prayers. Rest in the fact that Jesus
is able to take care of all our needs, both spiritual and physical.
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