When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
Mark 2:5

There’s a story about Jesus of a time when a paralytic was brought to Him by his four friends who were unable to reach Him because of the multitudes, so they made a hole in the roof of the house and lowered him down. Jesus saw their faith, and told the man that his sins were forgiven, then heals the man of his paralysis shortly after.

What is the most remarkable part of this story? The fact that four of this man’s friends were so determined to reach Jesus that they broke a hole in the roof to lower their friend down? The man being healed of paralysis? The commonly overlooked portion of this story is that Jesus, rather than immediately healing the man, gives him what he needs most: forgiveness of sin. Jesus sees this man’s faith and that of his friends, and rather than speaking a word of healing, He says “Son, your sins are forgiven you”. The man came for healing but received something far greater, but the people that day likely only remembered that the lame had walked.

Many of us today are like the people in that crowd, we don’t see our desperate need for forgiveness of sin and come to Jesus looking for lesser things instead. People look to God for all manner of things, and it’s not wrong to do so, but if you haven’t been forgiven then what use is it? What use is the miraculous healing, that new job, that deliverance from the terrible circumstances if you are still living unforgiven of your sin?

Jesus healed many that never came back, many were cured of disease and had demons cast out that still died in their sins because they desired the temporal more than the eternal. Many today have been healed, cured, or blessed by God and never came back to the church, just as many never returned to Christ, but these things are meant to draw us closer, not fulfill a temporary need. Are you so blind you cannot see?

#CalledtoBattle