Comfort foods for the soul (1): Sins Forgiven
I came for healing.
Well actually I didn’t come.
Friends took me on stretchers.
You see, I couldn’t walk.
Been that way for how long even I had forgotten.
I’ve long pondered this classic and common question: Is it my sins or the sins of my parents?
But I have given up finding the answer.
Like the world, I gave up dwelling on the cause and effect game, even though deep down, and been taught for generations, I felt it ought to be there.
Sure, I might have a deeper need to address sins.
Not denying that.
There might be a cause and effect too.
Not denying that.
But after so long, I just had sufficient energy left only to focus on my immediate need.
One at a time.
Let deeper needs remain buried.
I just wanted to get up and walk!
So my friends took me there to see this man known for working wonders with the power of God.
I went with hope, like every time.
Healing the paralytic at Capernaum by Belisario Corenzio, Complesso Santi Severino e Sossio, Napoli (Mattia Luigi Nappi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
That man saw us and went right to my deeper need.
“Your sins are forgiven.”
How insightful!
How would he know?
I should have responded gratefully right there and then.
But on that day, my concern lied elsewhere.
I knew I ultimately would need that but didn’t want that got in the way.
Just deal with my immediate need: get up and walk!
I got no answer.
He didn’t speak to me.
Rather he turned to the crowd surrounding us.
Which is easier: to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up and walk”?
At first glance, this question seems to have an easy answer.
Why not?
Of course it should be to say “your sins are forgiven”.
No one can disprove.
Neither prove.
That should be safe.
I suspected him then too.
Kind of like a palm reader prophesies about a customer becoming world’s richest, one day.
Yes, one day.
Not now.
Neither proof nor disproof.
Doesn’t it sound easy?
Sure! But what comfort will it bring to a paralysed person, to hear “your sins are forgiven”?
Our world is full of sinners, much hideous sinners than me, who have the deeper needs to have sins forgiven.
I bet they too have many more immediate needs manifested in their lives, like me.
Perhaps loneliness, depression, fear of enemies, panic attack, or even schizophrenia!
They would care less about dealing with sins.
Like me on that day.
Much preferred must be “Get up and walk.”
That precisely was what the situation evolved into when he uttered it:
“Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?” (Luke 5:23 NIV).
Before getting a reply to the question, the man proceeded to say,
“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralyzed man—“I tell you, stand up, take your stretcher and go home.” (Luke 5:24 NET)
That’s exactly what I did!
Got up, picked up my stretcher, and walked!
I couldn’t even bother to question.
Would a tougher proof be supported by an easier one?
Would sins forgiven be proved by making the lame walk?
Surely no one would have increased faith in a physician to cure cancer just because the physician has demonstrated he can cure common cold.
Or would one believe one’s mechanic to send a rocket to Mars simply because that same mechanic has fixed one’s car?
But I didn’t doubt.
Deep down I knew.
He healed my paralysis.
And I believed instantaneously that he had dealt with my deeper need.
He forgave my sins.
I can’t prove it.
I only knew that man cared.
He knew my deeper need.
So he gave me the words of comfort first: your sins are forgiven.
You know the depth to which my heart was touched?
No doubt I was impossibly grateful when I could get up and walked.
At the same time I realised the burden of sins was lifted off my conscience.
Not just immediate need.
My deeper need was attended to.
The story doesn’t focus on me anymore.
It says nothing about my life afterward.
But is it necessary?
The immediate need and deeper need are both addressed.
What kind of life would I lead?
Immediately he stood up before them, picked up the stretcher he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. (Lk 5:25 NET)