You Are Healed (Matthew 8:1-9:34) Part 6

A PARALYZED MAN

Matthew 9:1-8: Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”
Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

Infirmity: Paralysis
Patient: A man
Initiation: Some friends brought him to Jesus
Response: 1) When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven” (v.2). 2) Teachers complained, accusing Jesus of blasphemy. Jesus then healed the man.
Directive: Verse 6, “But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Get up, take your mat and go home.’”

Some items of note here: We have friends bringing a friend to Jesus. Jesus responds, Verse 2, not to the man or because of the man brought to Him but Jesus responds to and because of the faithfulness of his friends who brought the man to Him. This is similar to the case of the Roman Centurion’s servant. One thing that is quite interesting here is that instead of healing the man immediately Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven.” I don’t imagine that this is necessarily why this man’s friends brought him to Jesus and I could almost expect a response of “Gee, thanks…” if the teachers of the law didn’t provoke Jesus through commenting amongst themselves. The religious leaders are quite upset. They know that only God can forgive sins in this way. They know that Jesus is claiming to be God and it is in response to this that Jesus says, Verse 6, “But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” The man is healed. There is a certain irony here. Jesus forgives the sins of the man because of the faithfulness of the friends who bring him to Jesus for healing and he heals the man in response to the teachers’ lack of faith in Jesus’ ability to forgive sins.

More blogs at

https://salvogesis.blogspot.ca/

and

www.sheepspeak.com

---

Comments

Hosanna! The Triumphal Entry into Holy Week (Matthew 21:1-11)

Today is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is when we commemorate the Sunday before Jesus’ death. Jerusalem was occupied then, like it is now; now it is occupied by the Israelis, then it was occupied by the Romans. The Judeans in the first century didn’t like being occupied then any more than the Palestinians like it today. The Romans were harsh, not nearly as brutal as modern Israel, but harsh enough that the first century had their version of … (Remember the suicide bombers of the ‘70s and ‘80s?) …suicide bombers: the Sicarii (zealots), Judean terrorists / revolutionaries would walk into crowds with daggers looking for Romans to kill –. One of Jesus’ followers, Simon, was arguably a Sicarii or zealot. Passover is the commemoration of ancient Israel’s birth as a nation. The Angel of Death passed over Egypt and the nations of Isreal and Judah were created through the Exodus. Passover, in the Roman period, was a time when many people of Judean descent descended upon Jerusalem. I ...

Lanterns (Matthew 25:1-13, Psalm 146)

The topics I chose from our Lenten list for today are “God has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness”; “He has Freed Us from the Power of Sin”; the Kingdom of God is at hand. Do we believe that? Do we live that? In theology we use the term ‘prolepsis’ to refer to the time when the Kingdom of God begins, which is now, the time between the resurrection of Christ and His return at the eschaton. This is the time in which we are living and as Christians it is our responsibility to be willing instruments of God to display what it means that He has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has Freed Us from the Power of Sin, that the Kingdom of God is at hand. But do we even actually believe that He has already done this? And if He has why does it not seem that the Sin and Darkness still reign? We know the parable of the bridesmaids (holy ones) in the Bible who needed to keep their lanterns lit – because lit lanterns were to be there when the Bridegroom Jesus returns...

Bah Ram You Shaggy Goat (Daniel 8)

This book is written in a couple of different languages as we have it tod ay. Ch apter 7 that Susan looked at with us is the last Aramaic chapter - if that is on purpose then chapter 7 probably concludes the first section of Daniel rather than beginning the next section but Ch apter 8 that we are looking at today (and everything flowing from it) is obviously connected to Chapter 7 as Da n iel refers to the first dream when relaying the second one. Chronologically speaking, Chapter 8 and Chapter 7 take place before C hapters 5 and 6. In Chapter 5, Babylon falls, Belshazzar is killed and the Persians take over. None of that has happened in Chapter 8 which we are about to read . Verses 1-4 8 In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. 2 In my ...

Salvogesis

Search This Blog