Healing

Right now I am sitting on the porch overlooking the bay on a nice sunny morning in York Beach, Me.  My in-laws have a nice cottage bay side.  The air is dry and just the right temperature in the shade.   It has been a real blessing spending the time here the past few days over the 4th of July weekend with family visiting on Saturday.   Also managed to swing down to Newburyport on Sunday to visit my brother and nephews.  

I really missed my church family yesterday.  Last week we were at His Mansion ministry in New Hampshire.  This weekend vacation in York Beach.  Next weekend riding with the Calvary Cruisers up to a church in Albion, ME to encourage the folks at Albion Bible Church.  I don't think I have ever gone 3 Sunday's without being with my home church family.  I hope if some of you are reading this that you know how much you mean to Cheryl and I.

We plan on heading out soon to get back home and do some chores with the remainder of the day.  If the weather back home is nice enough I hope to take a spin with my motorcycle.  I am hoping my hand is healed enough to be able to make the trip with my motorcycle up to Albion (about 2 1/2 hours away).

When I think of the whole idea of healing, I have been amazed at the miracle of how God designed the human body.  The bone that goes from my wrist to the base of my thumb was basically shattered.  The surgery that I had was to insert screws and plate to hold the pieces together while they healed on their own.   We can say that our bodies heal themselves, but in reality they heal themselves because our creator made them to heal themselves.  What a miracle.

But what about the man in our story? 
Luke 5:24But 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, get up, take your mat and go home." 25Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today."

The man was paralyzed.  Obviously beyond the natural healing that is built into the way our bodies are created.  In this passage there appears to be a relationship between the man's need to be healed, sin in his life and Jesus authority to forgive and heal. 

We live in a fallen world because of sin.   There is sickness, disease and violence that cause our bodies not to be all that God would desire for us.   Also specifically we may be sick due to our unrepentant hearts and rejection of God's grace.   We may find healing through

• Medicinal care
• Natural healing of our bodies
• Prayer and repentance
  
• Or the miraculous power of Jesus

In this story the man first of all received forgiveness from Jesus.   Then Jesus makes the point that to demonstrate that He has the authority to forgive sins, He also miraculously heals the man.  What is the result? The man went home praising God.  Those who saw were filled with awe and proclaimed to each other "We have seen remarkable things today".

The healing that takes place in this story is a demonstration of who Jesus is.  He is the Son of God.  He is God.   Those religious groups that use the Bible as the cornerstone of their faith, yet deny the divine nature of Jesus would have real trouble with this passage.  The proposition here is Jesus performed a miracle to prove that He had authority on earth to forgive sins.  The Pharisees in a sense were correct that only God can forgive sins on behalf of God.

So what have we learned about our savior from this story?

• He is in opposition to the established religious order as represented by the Pharisees
• He has compassion on those seeking healing
• He has the authority to forgive sins
• He has the Power and Authority to heal
• He is God
• He commends the faith of those who trust in Him
• He is concerned about our heart attitude

From this passage we have learned alot about the Savior we are searching to know.  Next time we will look at Luke 5:27 - 32.