18 January 2019 - rest and the rest

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him,
"Child, your sins are forgiven."

One wonders what his friends were thinking at that point. Did they go through all the trouble of carrying him and lowering him through the roof just to hear these words? It definitely wasn't the reason they were there.

What happens when we come to Jesus seeking one thing and then receive another thing instead? How do we handle it? Do we protest, or do we continue trust in the one in whom we trusted at least enough to come in the first place? Do we, as the reading yesterday said, "hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end"?

The "promise of entering into his rest remains" and it is this promise which draws us to Jesus. To pursue it we must be willing to surrender our ideas about what it would mean. We need to let Jesus define and draw us into the rest that only forgiven hearts living a life of selfless love can know.

Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest,
so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.

God works in history to assure us that we can trust him all the way to the promised land. We see this in the story of Israel's deliverance and in the paralytic himself.

That they too may rise and declare to their sons
that they should put their hope in God,
And not forget the deeds of God
but keep his commands.

When our priorities are straight enough it is safe for God to give us the thing which originally drew us to him. When we seek the Kingdom first we do receive all else besides.

But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"
–he said to the paralytic,
"I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home."

Jesus wouldn't surrender the deeper healing of this man's soul to the superficial satisfaction he initially sought. Yet the heart of Jesus could not leave him in his afflicted condition. Jesus, who is himself God and man, never treats people as mere spirit or mere body, but as the whole which we were created to be.

They were all astounded
and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."

The promise of his rest remains! Let us pursue it without turning aside when things don't go just as we planned. Something better is waiting for us than we dared to ask or hope.