This is the message given in the Sunday night service at the Gettysburg United Methodist church Sunday, January 17, 2021. The Bible verses used are John 2:13-22.
When Jesus was on earth, he appeared to be
fully human. I mean, he looked like
everyone else. He sounded like everyone
else. As we found out on the cross, he
bled like everyone else, too.
But
the thing is, Jesus was not like everyone else.
He was the divine Son of God. And
that meant a few things. It meant that
Jesus had power that no one else had, and we can see examples of that in our
reading for today. But it also meant
that Jesus had a way of looking at things that no one else had, and we can see
examples of that in our reading for today, too.
Let’s
look at it. It starts out with a man
with leprosy coming to Jesus. He falls
on his knees in front of Jesus and begs Jesus to heal him. He says, “If you are willing, you can make me
clean.”
That’s
sounds perfectly reasonable and understandable, right? Leprosy was a very serious disease. It was also a very contagious disease with no
cure. There was nothing any doctor could
do about it.
But
Jesus could. Jesus had already healed a
lot of people. The stories of Jesus
healing power had spread. And this man
knew, or at least believed, that Jesus could do what no one esle could. Jesus could heal him and allow him to live a
normal life again. And so he begs Jesus
to do just that.
But
Jesus’ response is not what you’d have expected. At least, it’s not what I’d have
expected. This man comes to Jesus
humbly, on his knees. He does not demand. He is not disrespectful. He says to Jesus, “If you are willing, you
can make me clean.” And we’re told that,
when this man said this, “Jesus was indignant.”
Why
would that be? Why would Jesus be
indignant? That word, by the way, means
to show anger or annoyance. Why would
Jesus be angry at this? Why would he
even be annoyed by what it seems like is a perfectly reasonable request?
Well,
there are a couple of possibilities. One
could be that Jesus was upset that this man thought that he would be unwilling
to heal him. He could’ve been thinking,
hey, I’m Jesus. I love people. Of course I’ll be willing to heal you. Why would you doubt that?
That
could be what’s going on here, but it’s not what I think. I think there’s another reason for Jesus
being indignant.
We’ll
come back to that. After Jesus heals the
man, the scene shifts. Jesus is
preaching to a packed house. It’s
standing room only. No more people can
get in.
These
four guys are carrying a paralyzed man.
They want to get him to Jesus because, just like the man with leprosy,
they believe Jesus can heal him. Their
hearts must have sunk when they got there and saw there was no way to get
in. But they did not give up. One of them got the idea to go up on the
roof, cut a hold in the roof, and lower their friend down somehow, to get him
in front of Jesus. And they do.
Can
you imagine this scene? Jesus is
talking, preaching. All of a sudden,
people hear some noises coming from the roof.
Some debris starts to come down.
All of a sudden, there’s a hole in the roof. And the next thing they know, there’s this
man, lying on a mat, being slowly lowered down right in front of Jesus.
Jesus
sees all this too, of course. Jesus
waits until the guy is on the ground and the crowd has quieted down. Then, Jesus responds.
And
again, Jesus response is not what you’d expect.
At least, it’s not what I’d expect.
I doubt it was what the paralyzed man expected, either. The man does not say anything, or at least
nothing that’s recorded. But Jesus has
to know he wants to be healed. What else
could he possibly want? But Jesus does
not heal him, not right away, anyway. He
says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Everyone
had to be stunned. The man had to be
stunned because, hey, what do you mean ‘my sins are forgiven’? I did not come here to get my sins forgiven. I came here so I could be healed. I came here so I could walk again.
The
teachers of the law were stunned, too.
They’re thinking, what does he mean, his sins are forgiven. Only God can forgive sins. Who does this guy think he is, anyway? Does he think he’s God?
Well,
of course, Jesus did think he was God, because in fact he was God, God the
Son. And because he was God, he knew
what the teachers of the law were thinking.
And he says, “Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins
are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins.”
So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” And of course, the man did.
This
is what I meant when I said Jesus had a way of looking at things that no one
else had. For Jesus, healing this man
physically, allowing him to be able to walk, was pretty much an
afterthought. It was not the most
important thing. It was the thing that
impressed people, yes. It was the thing
that people remembered. But for Jesus,
healing this man was not the most important thing. The most important thing for Jesus was for
this man to know his sins were forgiven.
I
think that’s why Jesus was indignant with the man who had leprosy. Jesus was annoyed because this man did not
realize what was important. Jesus was
thinking, you’ve got the divine Son of God in front of you, and all you can
think about is being healed physically?
Yes, I can do that, and I am willing to do it. But I could do so much more for you. I could forgive your sins. I could give you salvation and eternal
life. And instead, all you can think of
is your physical life on earth.
As
human beings, we tend to think of our physical health as the most important
thing in our lives. The old saying is
that as long as you’ve got your health, you’ve got everything. We do everything we can to preserve our
physical health. And when we don’t have
good physical health, we do everything we can to get it back. And of course, we pray for physical healing
all the time. And I do it, too--I do it
pretty much every week in church, and I do it at other times, too.
Now, I’m not saying it’s wrong to pray for
physical healing. Jesus did not say it
was wrong, either. Our physical health
is important. God has things for us to
do while we’re on earth, and we may not be able to do some of them if we’re not
physically healthy. Now don’t take that
the wrong way, either. People who have
health problems are still able to serve God.
But as a general rule, the better our physical health is, the more
things we can do, and the more we’ll be able to serve God. And so we need to do what we can to be as
physically healthy as we can.
But Jesus wants us to know that there are
things that are more important than our physical health. Because no matter how healthy we keep
ourselves, we are not going to live forever.
At some point, no matter how much we exercise, no matter how hard we try
to eat right, no matter how many precautions we take, our physical health is going
to deteriorate. And at some point, we
are going to die. Each one of us. That’s just how it is.
And
so, as important as our physical health is, it’s not the most important
thing. And it’s not the most important
thing for us to pray for, either. The
most important thing is that we have faith in Jesus as the Savior. The most important thing is that we repent of
our sins. The most important thing is
that we ask for the Lord’s forgiveness for those sins. Because those are the things that are going to
give us salvation and eternal life. Our
lives on earth are going to end at some point, no matter what we do. But through Christ, we can have another life
in heaven, a life that is eternal.
God
can heal us on earth, if God is willing.
But God can do so much more for us.
God can give us forgiveness and salvation and eternal life.
Let’s
keep that in mind when we pray. Let’s
keep in mind who God is. When we go God
we are going to someone who is holy and righteous and perfect. We are going to someone who is all-knowing,
all-seeing, all-wise, all-powerful, and almighty. We are going to someone who also all-loving,
all-caring, all-compassionate, all-forgiving, and all-merciful. So when we go to God, let’s not limit
ourselves to praying about physical health.
And let’s not limit ourselves to praying about other things that affect
our earthly lives, either. Again, it’s
all right to pray for them. But let’s
pray for more than that. Let’s repent of
our sins. Let’s ask God for
forgiveness. Let’s ask God for salvation
and eternal life. And then, let’s ask
God to show us how we can spread God’s message, so that other can also have
salvation and eternal life.
God
offers us so much more than physical healing.
Let’s accept all that God offers.
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