The Healing of the Man With the Palsy
There
is no truer statement anywhere, I guess, than the statement which I suspect
many of you have heard: "We become like what we look at."
We are inclined to adopt the habit patterns and thought patterns of the people
that we associate with. It is of paramount importance therefore that we
be selective in the things that we give our attention to. That we be
selective in the books that we read, the movies we see, TV programs we look at,
etc., be selective of our whole environment, for the things that we give attention
to react on us, affecting the disposition of our characters, the conditions of
our hearts, our morals, the welfare of our souls.
These things being true, we
in the Christian faith are reminded that we are to look to, and to follow and
to let our characters and souls be molded by the One who is of supreme
importance to all mankind, to every human being, and that One, of course, is
Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. He is the very image of god, who came
to earth to dwell among us, to show us God, to show us God's truth, to give us
hope of immortality in God, and to remake us fallen creatures into the image of
Himself, by His Grace, through the power of the Spirit of God and of His
Spirit, working in us and through us, through our Faith. THEREFORE, it
behooves us and should be of infinite concern to us to look to Jesus to seek
to follow Him, to seek to become like Him, to let God remake us by the power of
His Spirit dwelling within us, into the Image of our blessed Saviour, that
men seeing us may see something of God himself; and that in so doing we may
become the effective instruments, by God's Grace, for His saving of the Lost,
and that we, in doing so, may be saved ourselves. Christ is our Saviour;
Christ is our Lord and Master and God; He is the image by which we all are
judged; by His Blood shed on the Cross for us, we are saved; and by way of Him
comes the Spiritual power from God which transforms us slowly, slowly, ever so
slowly, into the likeness of God Himself.
Therefore, it behooves us now
and always, ever to be looking to Him, seeking His Will, seeking to walk in His
ways, seeking to obey His Commandments, believing in Him, for in so doing we
find Eternal Life and are given His infinite Peace that passes all
understanding.
Acknowledging this, we ask,
where do we find Him? How can we look to Jesus? Where? We can
find him in the love of faithful Christian friends; we can find him in the
beauty of His crated world around us, His work is seen in the sunset, the lily,
and the rose. He is experienced as we engage in faithful Christian
worship and service, in visiting the sick, in visiting the lonely, in visiting
shut-ins, visiting our older members, in helping to provide for the needy, and
in serving Him in His Church, cleaning the Church, cutting the grass, serving
at the altar, in the women's guild, singing His praise, giving Him thanks.
But, before our Saviour can be deeply experienced in these ways, it has been
the witness of 2000 years of Christian experience that He must first be deeply
experienced in Faith now as to the God-Man who walked the earth 2000 years ago
manifesting God to me, showing them what God was like, healing the sick,
raising the dead, forgiving the sinful, and showing to mankind God's love and
mercy and pity, as well as his demands for righteousness, and telling of
God's judgment on sin. We should look for our Saviour in the
Scriptures. We should study our Bibles, and especially we should read our
Saviour's life in the Four Gospels of the New Testament, for here we find our
Saviour's life revealed. Here the Gospels of St. Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John we can look at the Son of God, and here we should be looking. Here
we should fasten our mind's eyes, our devotion, for here we find the stories
about Him who came to save our race. Here we see Him. Here we
should be looking, in the Scriptures. And by God's Grace, and through the
strengthening power that comes from above, as we look at Him, we come to be
made more like Him, we come to put our trust in Him, we are given eternal life,
we sense the experiencing of receiving eternal life; and when the time comes to
die, we are ready confidently to entrust our souls, and the souls of our loved
ones, into His keeping.
In the 9th Chapter of the
Gospel according to St. Matthew, [which we read as the Gospel for
the day,] we find one of the many, many stories from the life of our Lord that
gives us an opportunity to look at Him as He dwelt among us. I will read
this story [again] for you to refresh our memories, and I would like for us to
think about it for a little while together.
And Jesus entered into a ship,
and passed over, and came into his own city. And behold, they brought to him a
man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto
the sick of the palsy: Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes
said within themselves, this man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Wherefore think
ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven
thee: or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath
power on earth to forgive sins (then saith he to the sick of the palsy) Arise,
take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his
house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which
had given such power unto men. (St. Matthew 9:
l-8)
So often we hear these
stories, or we read these stories, but we so often fail to get out of them what
is in them because we fail to give them enough of our attention and our
concentrated study. Let us give our attention for a few minutes to this
story from our Lord's life and see what we can see in it behind the historical
facts that are given us. What do we see here of eternal value and
supernatural meaning?
First of all,
in this story, we see running through it all, evidence of the Presence of God
with His power. This is the most important thing of all. God is
present with these people, through His Son. His Spirit is sustaining them
in their will to call on the Son of God for help. God is there is the
sustaining power of His Almighty being, by whom the heaven and earth were
created and are sustained through all time and eternity. God was
present then, as He is present here in His Church now. God was, and is,
at hand. God is here.
The second thing that we encounter in this story is the
existence of human need. Human need for God is universal; all men
need God everywhere all the time. We need Him for the strengthening of
our souls, for the feeding of our spirits, for the strengthening of our Faith
for sustaining our moral character. But particular human need is seen
here in this story by this poor sick man, broken by the palsy, stricken to
the point that he was unable to walk, stricken to the point where he had to be
carried to Jesus by his friends, this man whom the laws of nature had decreed
to live a helpless and a broken existence.
In a real and profound sense, the fate of this poor
man stricken with the palsy is the fate of all humanity! For we all
need the cleansing and strengthening power of the Son of God to cleanse our
hearts and souls from all our sins and malice and pride and uncharitableness,
jealousy, selfishness, greed, and all that fills our lives that keeps Jesus
from filling us. Some of us need God's healing powers for sick and
broken bodies; we all need God's healing power for the regeneration of
our souls, to make us anew in the likeness of His Son, to recreate us into
that state of holiness and righteousness that is becoming to those who call
themselves God's own. All men need His Divine Grace and the healing
influence of His Presence.
We all need Him who said:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised."
Man's need for God is
universal, we all need him. We all need Him more than we know, and here
we see this need pointed out as we observe these faithful friends bringing this
poor man sick of the palsy to our Blessed Lord for healing and for strength.
A third element in this story of the
healing of this man is the element of profound Faith. these men had
Faith, Faith in Jesus. The friends of this sick man go to the trouble of
going and getting him and carrying him through the press and confusion of the
crowd that always surrounded Jesus when He was publicly ministering, seeking
help from the Spring of Heaven for healing. They come to Him in Faith,
nothing wavering, believing; they come bringing this their friend to Him in
whom they have profoundest confidence, and who is able to help. They come
to Jesus as all men should come, every one of us. The Bible tells us over
and over again, to cry to Him, to pray to Him, who is able to help us.
The Scriptures tell us,
The eyes of the Lord are
over the righteous,
and his ears are open unto
their cry.
God tells us in the Bible to look for Him
faithfully,
If with all y our hearts ye
truly seek me,
ye shall surely find
me."
Our Lord tells us:
"Ask and ye shall
have, seek and ye shall find,
knock and it shall be
opened unto you."
He gives us blessed
assurance in His Holy Word:
"Then shalt thou call,
and the Lord shall answer;
thou shalt cry, and he
shall say, Here I am."
And those who cry to God come to know finally
what the hymn writer knew when he wrote:
"I sought the Lord,
and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek
Him, seeking me;
It was not I that found, O
Saviour true;
No, I was found of
thee."
We should cry in faith
believing utterly, or we might as well not cry at all. It is
necessary that we have faith when we look to God for help. We must
believe truly. "O trust in the Lord; wait patiently for Him, and He
shall give thee the desires of thine heart!! Believe! Trust!
We need not expect help from God if we pray with little faith, half believing, filled
with doubts and uncertainties. We recall that in His own home town of
Nazareth, Jesus Himself was not able to do any great works "because of
their unbelief."
These men who brought the man with the palsy had faith, we
may be sure; and when we pray to God, we must have faith, or our prayers are
idle words, and we can expect no answer.
We come now to the most important element in this story,
of the healing of the man with the palsy, and that is, as we know, the
person of Jesus Himself. He is the focal point of this story, as he
is the focal point of all history. These men cry to God for healing and
it is through the only true Mediator that they call, through Jesus. They
call for help from God through Christ. And here again they set the
example for us all. It is through Christ that God hears us and answers
our prayers. We have an abundance of exhortation to us in the New
Testament to do this. In the Gospel of St. John, Jesus tells His
disciples:
"And whatsoever ye
shall ask in my name
that will I do, that the
father may be
glorified in the Son.
If ye shall ask any thing
in my name, I
will do it."
And in St. Paul's letter to St. Timothy, we
read: "....there is one God, and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus." Not the Virgin Mary, Not the saints, but
Jesus. Not Mohammed, not Buddha, but Jesus. We make our prayers to
God through Christ, as did these men, and God hears and answers faithful
prayers made in the Name of -- and in the Spirit of His dear Son.
These men brought this man to Jesus to be healed of
his physical infirmity, to be healed of the palsy and what was the first
thing that Jesus did? We remember the story. When Jesus saw
him, He sensed immediately that more was wrong with this person than was
apparent on the surface, that is, the palsy. Something was wrong with him
spiritually; he was carrying his sins and a burden of guilt; and so our Lord,
putting first things first, sought to life his spirit and to help him
spiritually, and so he did what he considered to be the most important thing
first. He freed him from the burden of guilt that weighed on his
conscience when he came into the presence of His Holiness. We hear those
blessed words:
"Son, be of good
cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."
What happens here is what always happens when
someone sincerely seeks to come into the presence of our Saviour. When we
come, He always gives us more than we expect. More even than we
"can desire or pray for;" for of the inestimable riches of His
Grace, of the Kingdom of God, God gives good gifts to us of those things
-- spiritual blessings -- of which we know not (don't even know about) and
therefore cannot ask. He gives us His spiritual blessings of forgiveness,
of spiritual peace, of spiritual strength, of new life, of perfect trust, of
happiness in God. He is always more ready to hear than we are to pray,
and Jesus gave on this occasion to this man, because he had come to Him in
faith, that for which he did not even know to ask, the forgiveness of his
sins. This is what we all should seek and ask for first when we enter
into His Presence. His Holiness compels it.
Some of our Lord's critics
were standing by on that day. We always have our critics
standing by, whether we are doing good or doing evil. Having critics is
nothing new. Any faithful minister of the Gospel knows this, and all of
you do, I suspect. And Jesus had his critics. And they challenged
Jesus when He pronounced the absolution over this man, proclaiming that his
sins were forgiven.
"This man blasphemeth,"
they said. "Who are you to forgive sins.
Only God can forgive
sins."
"And Jesus knowing
their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil
in your hearts?"
For whether is easier to say, thy sins be
forgiven thee; or to say,
arise walk?
But that ye may know that
the Son of man hath power on earth
to forgive sins, (then
saith he to the sick of the palsy,)
Arise, take up thy bed, and
go unto thine house."
And he got up, and took up
his bed and went.
Jesus, in showing the Pharisees, his critics,
that he could heal this man of the palsy, demonstrated to them that He walked
in the Power of God that empowered Him also to forgive the sins of men. Jesus
revealed thus to them the Divine power with which, and in which, He had come
among them.
This man, this God-Man, Jesus the Christ, who
walked the earth 2000 years ago, is not dead. He lives, and He is with
His children still; He is with us still; and His faithful children know He
is. We know He is. He is with us, in us. St. John in
his first Epistle assures us,
"Whosoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God,
God dwelleth in him and he
in God."
and again,
"Ye are of God, little
children,
and greater is he that is
in you than he that is in the world."
Jesus still works miracles
today for those who pray to Him in Spirit and in Truth and in accordance with
His will. His promise, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end
of the world," is no empty promise. He is with His children, and
they know it, and He will continue to be, as He promised. And He will be
with any man who will let Him -- Who will open his heart to
Him. -- Who will be faithful to Him.
"Behold, I stand at
the door, and knock;" he says.
"If any man hear my
voice, and open the door, I
will come in to him, and
will sup with him, and
he with me."
and He says --
"to him that
overcometh will I grant to sit with
me in my throne, even as I
also overcame, and am
set down with my Father in
his throne. He that
hath an ear, let him
hear...."
Jesus is with his children still, and He still
works miracles in our times. I have seen them. And I suspect that
some of you have too.
We thank God for these
Bible stories of our saviour. We thank God infinitely for the gift of His
son, Jesus, and that we can look at Him, can look to Him, and be drawn to
Him, can be drawn by Him, that by His Grace, as we look to Him, we
can be remade by Him to become more like Him, that by His Grace, we may
be made fit to enter into the Kingdom of God in its fullness, clothed with his
righteousness, clothed with his holiness, when we meet God face to face on the
Judgment Day, which awaits us all, which will be a great day and a happy
day, a glorious day, a day of victory, of triumph, for God's children.
