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There may be obstacles when we try to come to Jesus for healing. It often feels as though he must be too busy with the crowd to respond to us. The temptation is to back down when we don't come close enough to elicit a response from Jesus. Often the implicit condemnation of Pharisees and teachers of the law make it harder for us to trust Jesus. They represent the authority figures who insist on worldly priorities and human wisdom. When we desire healing they find a reason why our desire is either impermissible, impossible, or both.
But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd,
they went up on the roof
and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles
into the middle in front of Jesus.
How many stories in the Gospels teach us a similar lesson? Those who are willing to do something extra, to act in a way that could only issue from faith, are the ones who are most often healed, and whose faith is praised. Consider the hemorrhaging woman who, after twelve years of suffering and mistreatment at the hands of doctors, did not let the crowds pressing in on Jesus prevent her from touching him. Consider Zacchaeus who climbed the tree in order that he might see Jesus in spite of the crowds.
The opposite case is found in the man Jesus healed in the pool at Bethesda.
“Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” (see John 5:6-7).
This man had all but given up. He had given into a routine of sitting and feeling sorry for himself about his hopeless situation. For him, Jesus first needed to address his broken spirit, which he did by the way he healed him.
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” (see John 5:8).
Jesus wants us to have a faith the pursues, persists, perseveres, in spite of setbacks, in order to receive his blessings. But even if we find ourselves more like this paralytic by the pool, Jesus has an antidote for us as well. He can get us standing, moving, acting, and using renewed wills to follow him. He can give us the strength to counter and conquer temptations of lethargy and passivity.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said,
“As for you, your sins are forgiven.”
We come to Jesus for various reasons. But the reasons of which we are aware are not usually the deepest. Jesus sees into our hearts. Deep calls upon deep. He gives us something better than what we want. He gives us that which is our deepest need. The more external things we tend to seek are often given as well. But they now function as signs of something that happened at a deeper level.
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–
he said to the one who was paralyzed,
“I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”
By addressing himself to the inner life of the soul first is Jesus dismissing the importance of the physical world? No, but he is nevertheless showing the priority of the spiritual. The physical is not neglected. But the heart must first be turned toward the source of physical goods before they can be put to good use.
Signs often follow when the deeper spiritual reality is healed. Imagine the glory, then, that will fill the world when this healing is fully fulfilled. Creation groans with labor pains now, waiting for that new reality to be manifested (see Romans 8:19-23).
The desert and the parched land will exult;
the steppe will rejoice and bloom.
They will bloom with abundant flowers,
and rejoice with joyful song.
We can get a glimpse of this renewal even now when we turn to God in faith. He casts out our fear and opens the eyes of our hearts.
Be strong, fear not!
Here is your God,
he comes with vindication;
With divine recompense
he comes to save you.
As we the redeemed walk on the holy way toward Zion we already begin to perceive the renewal of all things, of heaven breaking through into life on earth. We may think to ourselves that we have seen anything but this vision in the past year. If that is the case let us try to emulate the faith of the men who brought their friend to Jesus. Let us perceive all the blessings he has in his hand and therefore let nothing stand between us and his promise.
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