“Your Sins Are Forgiven!”

“Your Sins Are Forgiven!”(Mk.2:1-12).
The setting is a room back home in Capernaum. The room is so overcrowded with an overflow, such that it was impossible to wade through the crowd to reach Jesus where he was preaching to the crowd.
Four men carry a paralytic on a mat and since they couldn’t find their way through the crowd, they went on the roof, made an opening and lowered the paralytic down.
Jesus was touched by their faith so he told the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
This did not go down well with “some teachers of the law who were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?'”
An important lesson of life which I’ve learnt over the years is not to be deceived by the crowd or to be carried away by their flattery.
It appears there was never a crowd gathering around Jesus without some teachers of the law being present. But they were more or less, “monitoring spirits,” always looking for loopholes in Jesus’ words or actions.
In all of Jesus’preaching about the kingdom and in all his demonstration of his authority through miracles, they were always considered as blasphemy by those monitoring spirits.
On this occasion they raised an important question. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” “Nobody!”
If Jesus calls you son/daughter and pronounces forgiveness of your sins, then he is who he says he is! He is the Son of God and God the Son who has authority on earth to forgive sins and to tell a paralytic, “…get up, take your mat and go home” and it happens.
This week our focus has been on the LORD’S readiness to show his love, mercy and compassion to those who come to him in penitence and faith.
“No man is an island.” Some times in our physically broken and paralyzed conditions we cannot on our own make it to Jesus. We need family members, friends and relatives whose faith induces them to look for any means possible to bring us to the Lord where our sins will be forgiven and our health restored or where the inconsistencies of our lives will be rectified!
And don’t forget too that sometimes you and I should be that determined family, friend or relative who should take somebody to the Lord for his/her sins to be forgiven and to be restored to wholeness.
Yes, somebody near you needs maybe just the blessed assuring words from you that “Jesus Cares!” Go and tell that person that “Jesus Cares!”
Weekend prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, we come to you paralyzed from sin. Forgive us and grant us our heart’s desires. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Prayer point: Pray for loving family members, friends and relatives to stand the gap for those who need their help.
Rev Babila Fochang.