Improbably Impossible

Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

But some of the scribes were sitting there, thinking to themselves: "Why does He speak like this? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Right away Jesus understood in His spirit that they were reasoning like this within themselves and said to them, "Why are you reasoning these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven', or to say, 'Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk'? But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sin," He told the paralytic, "I tell you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go home." — Mark 2:5-11

A few weeks ago I was thinking about the first few verses in Mark 2 which describe the situation of Jesus being in a house and some men lowering a paralytic through the roof when they were unable to press through the crowd. We return at the point where this act of faith has been completed and the paralyzed man has been brought into the presence of the Lord. In response to the faith of those who brought the cripple, Jesus offers the man forgiveness for his sins.

Upon hearing His words, the church people are quite indignant at Jesus, and, in their hearts, accuse Him of blasphemy. Let's put aside for the moment the issue of Christ's divinity which makes "who can forgive sin but God alone" a moot point. Jesus asks those experts in religion, doctrine, and Scripture a simple question. Which is easier: to offer forgiveness for the soul or to provide healing for the body?

That Jesus had been healing the sick must have been an established and widely known fact based on the press of the crowd and the effort put forth by the bearers of the paralytic to reach Him. He was traveling around the country delivering many from the bondage of sickness, disease, and oppression. Apparently His ministry of healing caused the scribes no theological or doctrinal problems. They could accept Christ as a healer. This fit in somehow with their understanding of their covenant with God. They saw God as One who provided material blessing in this life as they did their part to keep His law. He would give them prosperity, peace, and good health if they lived as a holy people, which meant, to them, carefully obeying the myriad of rules that had grown up around the core moral law, as well as the many regulations of ceremony with regard to the temple and the sacrifices.

Such a view is not that far from the modern mind. Many of us have probably thought that if we do right, things, in the end, will be all right. We think that a person who consistently does wrong will, soon or later, run up against the consequences of his or her actions. There are many who teach that if we give money to God through certain ministries, we can count on getting back money and material blessings from God compounded at a very attractive rate. Even Jesus said, did He not, "Give and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom. For with the measure you use, it shall be measured back to you." Or, as one fellow used to put it, "Finances are the barometer of your Christian life." My good friends who are Word of Faith people paraphrase Third John 2, saying, that God means for us to "prosper and be in health, even as [our] soul prospers".

Sure, we may have to go through trials similar to those experienced by Job, but didn't he get double back for all he lost in the end? I guess I'm just sentimental, but if I lost one of my kids, getting two replacements would not be exactly my idea of restoration. I go more with what David said when the child of his and Bathsheba's adultery died: "He cannot come to me, but I will go to him." Solomon, who essentially "replaced" that unnamed child, was much beloved by David, and by God — who called him, Jedidiah, "beloved of the LORD". Still, it is obvious from his statement that David considered the child irreplaceable and that restoration awaited in the Resurrection.

Prosperity or poverty, health or sickness, justice or injustice, freedom or oppression, a great many of us spend our lives seeking one and seeking to avoid the other. We seem to believe that happiness lies at the positive pole in all things. God's job, we think, is to give us all the good stuff and protect us from the bad. When evil does occur in our lives or the lives of those closest to us, we agonize and question — as perhaps we must. Again and again God reveals to us — if we can receive it — that what we see in this life is but a glimpse of Reality, a shadow in a valley. Our traverse of this path is above all redemptive, for ourselves and for our fellow travelers in all their many forms. Though angels need no redemption except they be fallen, there is perhaps even some benefit to their destiny as they help us along here.

Which is easier? Both healing and forgiveness are impossible apart from God. But forgiveness is the vital need of humanity. A man may enter into Life from a stretcher, but he cannot enter until he receives God's forgiveness. A poor, sick, oppressed man can endure his trials knowing that he is liberated from the burden of his sins. Give a man every material blessing but withhold forgiveness, and he is dead while he lives. My Word of Faith friends are right — it is "soul prosperity" that is the issue. As Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom..." — that's the part that matters.

What Jesus is really bringing to us is forgiveness, reconciliation, and redemption. He brings the ultimate healing, makes our souls to prosper, and gives us everlasting life. Health and wealth may be "signs", in a sense, even as Christ's healing ministry was a sign of His authority, but they are merely signs and not the thing itself. The prodigal probably doesn't need many signs at all to find his way back home.