"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" Mark 8:36
"Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." John 6:27
Many years ago I had a friend whose wife died very suddenly of a brain aneurysm. As he described it, she was fine one moment and gone the next. The sad thing about it was when they determined the cause of death, they realized the aneurysm could have been corrected if they had known it was there.
That is the condition of humanity. We are all condemned sinners who stand guilty before a Holy God, deserving of eternal death. And like my friend's wife, we have no idea of our condition. When Peter preached his first sermon on the Pentecost following the death, resurrection, and ascension, his message was one of warning, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." (Acts 2:40) That is our greatest need, to be saved from our sins.
Lessons from healing the paralytic
The three synoptic gospels all tell the story of Jesus healing the paralytic on the mat who was lowered down through the roof to Jesus. John does not tell this story but John says something interesting about the miracles that Jesus performed that is very relevant here. John doesn't call them miracles. He calls them, 'miraculous signs.' A sign is never about itself. A sign is always pointing to something else. In the same way, the miraculous signs were never about the miracles themselves but they always pointed toward the gospel of Jesus Christ. But in our fallen human nature our natural tendency is to focus on the miracles themselves. In the above reference in John 6 Jesus had called the people out on that very thing in the previous verses:
"When they found him on the other side of the lake they asked him, 'Rabbi, when did you get here?' Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw the miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.' " (John 6:25-27a)
The signs that the miracles pointed to was that Jesus Christ was and is the only one who hads the power to save us.
Now to the story of the paralytic: (Luke 5;17-26)
One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things 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, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 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 great things today."
Now picture the scene: The house is so crowded that the man's friends can't get him to Jesus by bringing him through the door so they open a hole in the roof and lower him down to Jesus. It is obvious that the man can't walk and has come to Jesus tp be healed. So it seems strange that the first thing Jesus tells him is that his sins are forgiven. On the surface one would see that this man's need was to be healed of his paralysis. But this man had a much greater need and so do we.
We need to have our sins forgiven.
"Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit." (Psalm 32:1-2)
When Jesus said this the teachers and Pharisees immediately considered it blasphemy because only God can forgive sins, so Jesus responded by asking the question, "Which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven or, Get up and walk?" The truth is it is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven' because how would anyone know. But if you say, 'Get up and walk' and nothing happens, you have a problem. So this is how Jesus used the healing as a miraculous sign.
By healing the man he demonstrated that he had the authority to forgive sins.
Now let's imagine that we could call this man back after he has been in the presence of his savior for nearly two thousand years. What would he say to us? Which was worth more, to be healed of paralysis or to have sins forgiven? We can be assured that he would tell us that if he had to spend a thousand lifetimes paralyzed on a mat, it would be more than worth it to have the blessing of having his sins forgiven and to be able to spend eternity with Jesus as one of the redeemed. As Paul said in Romans 8:18:
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."
This is not to say we shouldn't pray for healing and bring our needs to God. James 5 and Philippians 4:6 tell us we should do so. But we need to do so from the perspective of the eternal. I remember a pastor friend of mine saying the following:
"When someone is sick and we pray for healing and they are healed, we rejoice. But we must understand that healing in this life is only prolonging the inevitable. Even Lazarus went back into the tomb. And eventually we will go there as well. And when we do, as John Flavel said, it simply means we have completed our race and our crown is waiting for us."
The saddest healing in the Bible
In John 5 we have the narrative of the man who had been an invalid for 38 years, being healed. The man didn't even know who had healed him. Later when Jesus saw him at the temple Jesus told him to stop sinning or something worse might happen. Yes there are worse things than being an invalid on a mat. To stop sinning meant he needed to change his ways or "REPENT." The man's response was to go back to the Jews and tell them that it was Jesus who had healed him and the Jews started persecuting him. The man got his healing and all indications are that was as far as it went. His greatest need went unmet.
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" Mark 8:36
Again, if this man had never been healed but had had his sins forgiven he would be much better off than just receiving his physical healing and enjoying a better quality of life for whatever time he had left.
The problem was that this man saw his greatest need was to be healed of his physical infirmity. He wasn't aware that he had a much greater need--to have his sins forgiven. Sadly today a lot of preaching makes promises to people who are only interested in having their needs and wants met. But that is not what Jesus and his disciples focused on. Their focus was on saving people from their sins. And the miracles were primarily to display the power of God who not only could heal, calm storms and raise the dead, but could save us.
The gospel of Jesus Christ may not cure your illness or put more money in your bank account, but it does meet our greatest need.
Jesus saves us.
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