Jesus rejects no-one

 JESUS REJECTS NO ONE

 

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven… Get up, take up your mat and go home.”

MATTHEW 9.2b, 6b

 

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

JAMES 2.13

 

Based on LUKE 5.17–26

 

Throughout the Gospels, we see all kinds of people coming to Jesus, some with great faith and some, like today’s paralytic man, with great fear.

What is he afraid of? Does he think Jesus will reject him? Interestingly, the gospel writers all note that Jesus saw the friends’ faith, not the paralytic man’s faith. Unlike others who approached Jesus, this man doesn’t even have the courage to believe — he’s overcome by fear, knowing the many sins that mar him, possibly believing that his illness was a punishment for some heinous hidden sins.

But his friends insist that this new teacher in town can help him. They love him. They believe even when he doesn’t. And when they can’t squeeze into the packed house, they carry him to the roof and start hacking at the packed mud and branches to make an opening. With heart pounding, the man sees himself lowered into the crowded room until he’s sprawled out right in front of Jesus.

Imagine what you would you feel in his place. Not only are you ruining a neighbour’s roof, but your friends interrupt a respected teacher’s sermon with your own personal needs. “Umm, excuse us, we know You’re important and You’re busy, but could You put everything on hold to heal our friend?”

It’s audacious. And it’s telling, again, that it’s not this man’s faith but his friends’ that Jesus commends.

This courageous cohort was hoping for a miraculous healing, but Jesus doesn’t offer them what they’re looking for, at least not initially. Jesus will not be obligated or manipulated, even by ingenious efforts. As a hush falls over the crowd, Jesus looks at the man on the mat, glances up at the friends peering through the hole in the ceiling and back down at the man, who is likely trembling with fear.

“Take heart, son,” He says (Mt 9.2). Take heart. Be of good cheer. It’s the same phrase Jesus used to calm His disciples on the stormy sea, when He walked toward them and they thought He was a ghost. Jesus cares about the man’s fears, and He lovingly starts by addressing those fears. Jesus rejects no one who comes to Him sincerely, though they be fearful.

So Jesus looks at him, recognises his fear, encourages him, and then pronounces what no one expected,  “Your sins are forgiven.” That’s not what his friends expected, and it’s certainly not what the gathered teachers of the law wanted to hear. After all, priests may pronounce God’s forgiveness after atonement through a sacrifice, but Jesus was not a Levitical priest, no sacrifice was offered here, and no man assumed the authority to forgive. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” they fumed in their hearts.

And herein lies Jesus’ great love, not just for the paralysed man on the mat or his friends on the roof above, but for every person standing in that jam-packed room.

So often we want Jesus to manage the effects of sin without actually addressing the root issue. But Jesus loves us too much to offer only a superficial solution. He knows the hidden sins of our hearts, and He lovingly insists on dealing with those first.

So He offers this man forgiveness and offers the crowd a special insight, Jesus is much more than just a miracle-worker, He is God with us.

But some still didn’t believe. Words are cheap, they reasoned. Anyone foolish enough to be accused of blasphemy could say what Jesus said. But to demonstrate His spiritual authority to forgive sins, Jesus pronounces healing, and the man gets up, rolls up his mat, and walks out the door as the crowds who wouldn’t let him in part to let him out.

The man walks away with a lightness in his step and praise on his lips, for in one encounter with Jesus, he receives both the healing he wanted but didn’t dare hope for and the forgiveness he desperately needed but didn’t know to ask for. Jesus altered the course of his life, and he walked home no longer a slave to fear but loudly praising God.

 

Prayer 

 

Dear Jesus, I confess that sometimes I feel fear when I come to You. I know You love me, but my own heinous sins seem too much, too dark, too evil to bring before You. But You welcome me with open arms and offer forgiveness of all my sins through Your precious blood shed on the cross. Thank You, Jesus, for never rejecting me. Replace my fear with faith, and help me be the kind of friend who helps others encounter You too. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen.

 

If you want to read more 

 

Psa 34.17–20, 94.14, Isa 53.3, Mt 9.1–8, Mk 2.1–12, Lk 5.17–26, Jn 1.11, Jam 2.13