daily java

Daily Java:

Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.” But some of the teachers of religious law said to themselves, “That’s blasphemy! Does he think he’s God?” Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” And the man jumped up and went home! Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen. And they praised God for sending a man with such great authority. (Matthew 9:1-7)

It didn’t take a miraculous gift for Jesus to know what they were saying. What it took was that innate knowledge pastors have when they see how what they say has been received.

Jesus said something that he knew full well would antagonize much of his audience. He knew it would when he did it. Those who were in leadership of the Jewish people were standing around waiting for him to make some kind of mistake and they would pounce on it.

Jesus made a fatal error, they thought. He gave himself the ability to forgive sins. That was God’s alone. They were ready to work themselves up into a spiritual frenzy when Jesus complicated the whole thing.

Okay, he said, only God can forgive sins. And anybody can say so. Whether or not it is true depends. But what is easier? Saying people are forgiven or saying people are well from their illnesses?

Obviously, any fool can say someone is forgiven. All you have to do is say it and it I shard to prove otherwise. But healing someone. That takes concrete evidence. You do not say someone is healed and then expect everybody to accept it unless something happens.

And something happened. Jesus spoke and the man jumped up and went home. It is a little hard to argue with that. That they could see.

Everybody around was afraid. The power of God had been seen in their midst and it scared them. But the crowd had sense enough to realize that here was the power of God at work. It didn’t matter that the important people didn’t like it, it happened anyway.

Their praise? For sending a man with such great authority. They had seen enough of the other stuff: self important men puffed up by their own sense of entitlement and authority. Here was real authority, straight from God.

Of course, it made those who followed Jesus around to try to trap him mad. I even see them engaging in some praise for those miracle even though they were mad. And I would bet their praise was louder than anyone else. But I would also bet their praise never mentioned Jesus or thanked God for Jesus. It was probably just general praise full of Psalms and stuff.

After all, no one could outdo these guys when it came to praise. The only thing was, their praise never made it to their hearts. Real stuff like miracles were a little beyond them.