When I read the story of the healing of the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12) I notice three things: what Jesus saw, what Jesus said, and what Jesus knew. Let me take them in turn.

Jesus is preaching the word to the people in his home. It was so crowded there was no room left for anyone to squeeze in, not even outside the door. Four men arrive, carrying a paralytic, but they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd. Did they give up and go home? No! Did they decide to wait until Jesus had finished preaching? No! Instead, they got up on the roof, made an opening in the thatch, and lowered the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying on, down to the floor in front of Jesus. Jesus saw their faith. Faith is generally thought of as trusting in that which you cannot see. But here faith is visible. It is seen in action. It is seen as the determination to reach their goal. They were not going to allow anything to stand between them and their objective. They pressed through hindrances, and were not turned aside by difficulties. They took the risk of being thought irresponsible, and aggressive. They put themselves on the line at the risk of being disappointed in their quest for help. They did for their friend what he could not do for himself. It was their collective faith that moved Jesus, that Jesus saw. It was their faith in action that made an impression on him. It was their commitment to supporting their friend that Jesus saw.

Richard Dawkins, the militant atheist, argues in The Selfish Gene,

that we, and all other animals, are machines created by our genes. Like successful Chicago gangsters, our genes have survived, in some cases for millions of years, in a highly competitive world. This entitles us to expect certain qualities in our genes. I shall argue that a predominant quality to be expected in a successful gene is ruthless selfishness…if you wish… to build a society in which individuals co-operate generously towards a common good, you can expect little help from biological nature.

If this is so, then the faith exhibited by these four men is extraordinary, it is spiritual not biological in nature, it is responding to the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ.. They did something, not for themselves, but for another. They put themselves out to seek help for their friend. They showed their faith through their unselfish caring. “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6) This is a miracle of the Spirit that takes selfish human nature and turns it inside out. Faith in Christ takes a person wrapped up in themselves, concerned only for their selfish advantage, and turns them into someone who will do whatever it takes to get another person the help they need. This is the miraculous nature of Christianity. It is the result of a new nature.

When Jesus saw that faith he said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” He saw through the physical condition to the spiritual problem of the paralytic. Healing involves more than the physical. It is not enough to try to treat symptoms. Our bodies are not just machines that need to be diagnosed, treated, serviced, adjusted, and operated upon. For a person to be thoroughly made whole it is necessary to take a medical history, to listen to what the patient is telling you about themselves, to see the connections between the presenting problem and the underlying condition of the sick person. This is not to suggest that all illness is due to sin or some moral failing in the patient. It is to recognize that we are psycho-somatic unities, and that our physical condition is affected by our spiritual, moral and emotional state. We need to search our minds and hearts, when we are ill, to see if there be any hidden faults in us that we need to confess and seek forgiveness for.

Because there is an organic connection between disease and sin and Jesus makes war on both, the healing of disease is a sign and token of the forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ healing miracles are sacraments of forgiveness. The miracle of the healing of this paralytic is the visible sign of the authority of Jesus to forgive sins. It is a sign that he can and does forgive sinners, and that true wholeness is dependent on being forgiven. The deep sickness of the soul that underlies all our maladies can only be healed by the medicine of divine forgiveness which Jesus dispenses.

            “Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts.”

The religious police, the experts in the moral law, the custodians of the sacred tradition, are observing what is going on. The wheels are turning in their minds. They are offended by what Jesus said about forgiveness. Jesus knows it. He knew what they were thinking in their hearts.

This is the miracle of divine discernment. “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him?” (1 Corinthians 2:11) We think our self-consciousness is hidden and private to us alone, but it is known to God in Christ. We cannot hide anything from God. Jesus is the one who knows hearts. “The LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts.” (1 Chronicles 28:9) “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:9,10)

No wonder we need forgiveness! “The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being.” (Proverbs 20:27) “For the word of God is living and active….it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12,13)

What difference would it make to our lives if we knew that our inmost thoughts were known to Jesus, to God? Would it drive us insane to know that we could not have a private thought? Would it drive us to our knees in penitence? Would it paralyze us? The miracle of divine discernment would bring the words of Psalm 139 to life.

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

you know it completely, O LORD…..

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

 Jesus sees our faith, he speaks the words of forgiveness, he knows our thoughts. He calls us to be healed of all that paralyzes us, all that prevents us from being whole.

Charlotte Elliott was born in Clapham, England in 1789. As a young person she lived a carefree life, gaining popularity as a portrait artist and writer of humorous verse. By the time she was thirty, however, her health began to fail rapidly, and soon she became a bed-ridden invalid for the remaining years of her life. With her failing health came great feelings of despondency. In 1822 a noted Swiss evangelist, Dr. Caesar Malan, visited the Elliott home in Brighton. His visit proved to be a turning point in Charlotte’s life. In counseling her about her spiritual and emotional problems, Dr. Malan impressed upon her this truth. “You must come as you are, a sinner, to the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” Though Charlotte lived to be eighty-two years of age, she never regained normal health, and she often endured seasons of great physical suffering. Of her own afflictions she once wrote, “He knows, and He alone, what it is, day after day, hour after hour, to fight against bodily feelings of almost overpowering weakness, languor and exhaustion, to resolve not to yield to slothfulness, depression and instability, such as the body causes me to long to indulge, but to rise every morning determined to take for my motto, ‘If a man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.’” It is she who wrote the words of the famous hymn, “Just as I am.”

Just as I am, tho’ tossed about

with many a conflict, many a doubt,

Fightings and fears within, without,

O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind –

Sight, riches, healing of the mind,

Yea, all I need in Thee to find –

O Lamb of God, I come! I come!