1.19.24 - Mark 2:8-11
How is God’s comprehensive healing at work in your world today? How do you want to forge belief in it?
At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.”
The proof is in the pudding.
After healing a paralyzed person, whose friends did not take no for an answer before he was well and truly healed, Jesus challenges the critical thoughts of the religious leaders.
Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven or get up and walk?
The words do not matter as much as the healing, and the healing includes both the visible sick person’s physical ailments AND invisible forgiveness of their actions against God.
Jesus is confronting the religious leader’s disbelief of his authority. God’s healing is comprehensive and in this case, Jesus’ forgiveness of the sick person’s actions against God included their physical healing too.
It’s so much easier to heal a person’s physical ailments than it is to heal their inward bend away from God’s love. Jesus easily takes care of both.
God is working for your complete wellness: the visible stuff and the invisible stuff. How do you want to receive God’s comprehensive care today?
--Libby Tedder Hugus