Devotion - Tuesday, October 27

Matthew 9 contains another of the many healing stories. I was reading verses 1-8 this morning. Here, a paralytic is brought to Jesus. When he sees their faith, Jesus says to the man lying on the bed, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

There follows a dispute between Jesus and the scribes. They ask upon what authority does Jesus forgives sins.

These healing stories are somewhat puzzling to me. These healing stories seem to be addressing something other than healing.

First, the puzzling part. While there are expressions of the Christian Church which continue to practice faith healings, most of us have moved away from such services. We pray for the sick and we will ask for God’s healing, but we seldom lay it on the line. I have yet to attend a mainline worship service in which there is a clear insistence that God is about to take away the sickness of someone.

If there are all these healings in the Bible, why are we so reluctant to engage in similar practices today? That is what puzzles me.

I begin to get my answer when I read more verses. In this short section of Mathew 9 there is a healing, but the overarching theme is the dispute this creates with the scribes. The issue, in Matthew 9 is not so much the healing as it is the faith of those who are following Jesus. They have faith in him; the scribes are only interested in upholding the ritual laws and practices.

In Jesus’ day, faith healing was embraced without question. The link between sinfulness and death was also accepted belief. How else could you explain the sudden onset of an illness and death of someone in a matter of hours? We might think meningitis; they had no knowledge of microbiology.

Even so, the healings were not as simple as “Ask faithfully enough and God will do this for you.” Jesus’ concern was with the life and the faith of those who came to him. He would heal disease as a way of healing the broken relationship with God.
Remember that in the first exchange with the paralytic, Jesus addresses his sin. It is only later in the story that he speaks directly to the man’s disorder.

I have been at many, many, many mainline worship services at which the brokenness of an individual’s life has been addressed. We will never shy away from Jesus’ example in addressing and removing the brokenness in our relationship with God.