PART I: Healing

This past week in church, my pastor preached on Luke 5: 17-26. The story is of Jesus healing a paralytic. By nature, I over course have been drawn to this story before. Yet, this week I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this story and trying to bring meaning from it. I continue to be drawn to the healing, hope, and faith that this story brings.

PART 1: Healing:

I am often taken back by the way Jesus responds to different situations. In this passage particularly I am reminded of how Jesus knows my heart so much better than I do. This paralytic is lowered through a roof because he is need of being healed physically. That’s why his friends go out of their way to bring him to Jesus. And yet, the first thing Jesus says when he sees this man is “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Your sins???? I bet at that moment, the paralytic’s eyebrows rose. I bet he was confused at that statement. What I love about Jesus response is that it shows who God is. It shows that first and for most God is a God who wants to heal us spiritually first. It shows that Jesus is all about healing hearts so that we can walk with him. How ironic is that….or maybe not. I needed to hear this message this week. For the past two weeks, I feel like my heart has been hurt. Current disappointments in my job and relationships have caused me to feel bitterness, sadness, prideful, and have caused me to withdraw from people. When I hurt, I tend to retreat to my own independent ways and isolate myself from people…..thinking that it’s better to live life alone and not get hurt than to depend on someone/thing and in the end get hurt. Looking at this story this week, I am so thankful for God’s grace. I’ve been where this paralytic is. I know how deep his desire is to be completely physically healed. The Lord does grant that. But when the Lord looks at this man, he first sees that he is paralyzed spiritually. The Lord sees that he is unable to feel. When I look at my own life, I know that being paralyzed by fear is far worse than being paralyzed physically. I also know what a far greater gift spiritual healing is than the physical healing that the Lord can provide in one’s life. So this week, I am specifically praying that the Lord would begin to heal me spiritually. That he would take the parts of my heart that hurt and that he too would say to me “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” What I love even more about this story, is that the when the Lord heals him this is his reaction”

“Immediately, he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said “We have seen remarkable things today.” Luke 5:25

Immediately after being healed spiritually and physically, you can see the joy in the man. Spiritually he has been healed and joy has ultimately been returned to his heart. The world sees it. That’s my prayer. That the Lord will continue to heal me and when he does that I will live my healed life in public, in a way in which others will see a life that has been made whole and want to live that life too. It may not happen overnight, but life is a journey…..a journey that is only just beginning.