Matthew 9:1-8
Do you ever ponder on how your act of faith may affect the
heart and hand of God in someone else’s life?
Defining faith is somewhat easy because Hebrews 11 gives us clear
examples of faith, and verse one explains faith: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not seen.”
My dear friend Carroll Ray Jr., who now understands clearly
about faith because he is with the Father, often said, “Faith is acting like
Jesus tells the truth.”
So what does faith look like that grabs the heart and hand
of God? Verses 1-2 give a great picture
of that faith, “And getting into a
boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought
to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he
said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”
In
the verses above, we have action by some people of faith who believed that
Jesus had the authority to heal this paralytic, but there are others in the crowd
who are keepers of the law, keepers of tradition, very religious men, who take
issue with Jesus saying, “Take heart, my son;
your sins are forgiven.” Now
before you judge them, examine your heart, because you are in one of the two
groups, that is, unless you believe only in self. And let’s be clear, to this writer’s
knowledge, no one up to this time without the sacrifice of blood declared
anyone forgiven of sin, until John the Baptist came baptizing and it was a
baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. But Jesus said, “Take
heart, my son; your sins are forgiven,” and that caused a big
problem with the scribes, (the lawyers) in the crowd, and Matthew records what
they said in verse three. “And behold, some
of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.”
“But Jesus, knowing their thoughts,
said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?
“Why do you think evil in your hearts? Now that is worth all of us
giving much thought as to why we are so quick to judge, when we hear a report
of the casting out of demons, the blind seeing, and the paralytic being
restored. Could it be because we do not
have the faith like the people Matthew refers to as “some people.”
Often,
I’ve misunderstood the heart of Jesus, I’ve often said, Lord, you sure put them
in their place, but though that may be true, the heart of God is to seek and to
save all that are lost. The heart of
Jesus is that these scribes would by seeing believe, and some did. This is the rest of the story: “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to
say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the
Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go
home.”
And he rose and
went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God,
who had given such authority to men.”
From
the Back Porch,
Bob
Rice
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