Carla’s down in the garden, smoking – or rather burning.  Lots of pollen mixed with the smoke – I am finding inside things to do.

She is trying to get ready for Josh to till everything under so she can start planting, not sure if he can come this weekend or next.

Mathew 9:1-8 And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.

² 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.

³ And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

⁴ And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

⁵ For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

⁶ 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.

⁷ And he arose, and departed to his house.

⁸ But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

I was reading a devotional that stated that some theologians teach that the reason Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic was because it was the cause of his affliction.

Then left it at that without comment.

I respectfully disagree.  When you look at the chronological order of the story, I believe the following makes more sense.

Jesus emphasis was on the man’s spiritual condition.  We know that all men have sinned, this man was no different. 

The most important thing for us to remember is no matter our physical limitations or abilities we must yield our life to God, our spirit – and God - demands that, without a right relationship with God nothing else matters.

Jesus also knew that by declaring the man’s sins forgiven it would stir up the scribes, they would be angry that Jesus said He could forgive sins – which is only the purview of God.

The drama came when Jesus asked them which was easier to forgive or to heal – of course to forgive would be the answer since no one could prove it one way or another.

By forgiving and being challenged He knew that once healed the answer would be more visible, the fact that He can heal the man proved He could also forgive him. 

Had He done it the other way around the impact would not have been as great – Jesus knows the benefit of creating drama to show who He is and where He is in the God Head.

The result was that by healing the paralytic, He validated the fact He had the authority to forgive sin – and by then the people were listening to the comments more closely.

Had He healed him first the nature of Jesus divinity would have been lost in the excitement of the miracle.

Is my assessment of Jesus’ works better than trained theologians?  I don’t know, I do know that it doesn’t matter all that much – whichever reason Jesus used He accomplished the fact that He could forgive sins AND He could heal.

The end result was a man who was now able to walk and was forgiven of His sins AND those that had observed all of this praised God.

But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

It was not yet clear to them who Jesus is, but they understood that He was blessed of God.  What He did encouraged them to listen to what He had to say.

There are times I wonder why God has done the things in my life and why in the order that He did them.  All the assessment I can muster doesn’t really matter all that much.

God knows what He is doing, how He is going to do it and why He chose to do it the way He did.  Rather than analyzing how He did it, it is more important to understand why – and the end result of that is to make me a better servant of God.

AW Tozer wrote:  “When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christ like, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.”

Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

⁶ In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

If we can just learn to accept that, our life would be much easier.

Later, Art :-)