Luke 5:18-25 – Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.“ The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, `Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, `Get up and walk’? But 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.“ Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.(NIV)
This scripture has had huge impact on my life. Late 2008, early 2009, God was working on me to finally deal with my porn addiction. This scripture jumped out at me, stopped me in my tracks. Christ was showing me that I was the paralyzed man. I have this scripture on a 3×5 card written as follows:
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” He said to (Isaac) the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”
Christ knew that I needed to admit that I was paralyzed. I had to admit that I was absolutely stuck. I was unable to get over my addiction by my own efforts. I was unable to get a new way of living; I was unable to defeat all the root causes of my addiction and insecurity. The only way I was going to be able to get free was to let some people carry me to Jesus. He had to heal me, then it would be up to me to get up and walk out my healing.
Some of you are paralyzed and need to admit it. You might be paralyzed with an addiction like I was. You might be paralyzed by fear. You might be paralyzed by guilt, or worry, or insecurity, or any number of things.
Search your hearts, and let Christ stop you in your tracks like He did for me. Put your name into the verse the way I did and realize that you are paralyzed, but you don’t have to stay that way! Christ WANTS to heal you. Like with the paralyzed man in this story, He wants to let you know that you are forgiven, (Friend, your sins are forgiven) and he wants to set you free.
Good chance you might need friends like the paralyzed man did to bring you to Jesus. I found those friends in my close friends, some of you guys, and my Overcomer’s in Christ group at church.
Christ delights in us being fully complete, completely secure, and absolutely sure of who we are in Him. There is nothing noble or humble in living less than what we’re called to which is life to the full (John 10:10). So He rejoices when we stop the crazy train, and acknowledge our need and our paralysis, and let Him heal us. A few verses later Christ says another amazing thing which we can personalize:
Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (us) to repentance.” – Luke 5:31-32 (my parentheses)
When we are sick, Christ longs to restore us. But we have to let Him.
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