Do You Believe In Jesus And That He Has The Power To Save You?

Isaiah 35:1-10
Luke 5:17-26

Today’s gospel is quite interesting. We see some men carrying another man on a makeshift pallet through a standing-room-only crowd. It is causing quite a clamor. The Pharisees are having trouble hearing Jesus because of the ruckus. Some of them get visibly annoyed by the noise. They are trying to question Jesus. Professional sermon critics! Why would somebody be so rude as to disrupt the proceedings? These men carrying the pallet do not seem to even care that they are causing disturbance.

Mark in his account tells us that there was not any room near the door, and probably all the windows were too crowded also. But then the men carrying the pallet see stairs leading up to the rooftop. Jewish homes often had these stairs on the outside of their homes. The roofs were flat so that people could go and sleep up there on hot nights if they wanted to. And so this is where the men with the pallet headed for.

The men got their hole dug, and wonder of wonders, they lowered the pallet through the hole in the roof not minding the house owner who by now would wondering what was going on. But here is a man on the pallet who is paralyzed from the neck down, and several times, it looks like he is about to fall off the pallet, but he makes it safely to the floor of the room, right in front of Jesus.

Jesus knew what they had come for, but He knew what was more important. He knew that spiritual healing was more important than physical healing. A lot of people come to Jesus for things that they think are important. They want breakthroughs and help with their depression and their finances. They want God to give them a job. They want God to give them healing. They want God to help with their marriage. They want God to give them direction in life. There is nothing wrong with these things, but Jesus knows that there is something more important than any of these. Knowing Him as God and that Him alone has the power to forgive sin is more important and this comes by faith and faith alone.

So how does our faith draw forgiveness from God? The writer of Hebrews tells us that the only way we can have our sins forgiven is if God himself dies for the sake of mankind. (Heb. 10). And that is exactly what Jesus, the God-man, came to do and because He is God, we have the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13-14; Rom 7:25; Acts 10:43; Matt 26:28).

Thus, our salvation comes from the head of the Church Christ Himself, and to the rest of us His body. God gives eternal life to those who want it. Do you believe in Jesus and that he has the power to save you from sin? May the Lord come to save us. Amen.

Fr Joseph Osho