Luke as did the other gospel writers recorded the episode where four men brought a paralytic to Jesus, but could not enter into the house because of the crowd around him. Not to be deterred, they went upon the roof and lowered the paralytic before Jesus. Seeing the men’s faith, Jesus declared to the paralytic that his sins were forgiven. The scribes and Pharisees heard what Jesus said and immediately concluded that what Jesus said was blasphemy, because only God can forgive sins and Jesus was obviously a man. Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked them why they had concluded such a thing. He asked them which was easier, to declare a man’s sins forgiven or tell the man to pick up his stretcher and walk. Jesus then, speaking to those who had accused him of blasphemy, told them that in order for them to know that he had authority on earth to forgive sins, he told the paralytic to pick up his stretcher and go to his home. The man immediately did so and went home praising God.
I find it interesting to consider the religious experts in this account. Rather than believe what Jesus said to them and demonstrated by powerfully healing the paralytic with a command, they chose to follow their own interpretation of God. It occurs to me how easy it is for us to call something heretical because it doesn’t align with our own interpretation of God or Jesus, rather than digging deeper and re-examining our own understanding that may not be wrong, but could very well be inadequate. No matter where we are in our journey with Jesus there is always more of God’s revelation to grasp. I have found that the Holy Spirit often teaches me through those with whom I initially disagree, because their words can stretch me and help me understand aspects about God that I had never considered before. I am learning to carefully consider ideas that I may not agree with to discover that I may have something to learn from them, rather than immediately rejecting the idea as heretical.
David Freitag 