GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 2:5
Faith of Friends
There are some illnesses known to be the direct cause of behavior. For example, the evidence is strong that tobacco smoking can lead to various lung maladies. Excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to liver disease. Some thought processes can lead to physical responses. Fear of darkness can cause emotional trauma. Fear of close spaces, claustrophobia, can be paralyzing. 2000 years ago in Palestine, Jesus’ Palestine, the thought was pervasive that physical illness was the result of sin, a long-held idea. A couple thousand years before Jesus, Eliphaz the Temanite asked Job, “Who, being innocent, has ever perished?” (Job 4:7)
br> When four men carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus, tore a hole through the roof to gain access to him, lowered the paralytic on a mat to the front of Jesus, “And seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘Child, your sins are forgiven.’” (Mark 2:5) Based on the faith of the four friends, the paralytic, and others in the audience, Jesus got right to the heart of the matter: “Your sins are forgiven.” No one knows whether the man’s trauma was, what is called today, psychosomatic, or not; however, it was a common belief. If this man felt condemned, sinful, or unworthy, it could have been paralyzing. Many in the audience had the idea that this man had done some terrible sin and was paying the physical cost, so Jesus cleared that concept: “Your sins are forgiven.”
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I must always remember that when I approach the Lord, He gets right to the core, the center, the cause. It is still widely believed, sometimes unconsciously, that physical illness is the result of sin. Jesus’ words still echo: “Your sins are forgiven.”
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