Today’s passage: Matthew 9:1-8
Helpful thoughts:
- Jesus, in forgiving sin, shows us that forgiveness is a more urgent problem than any paralysis we may experience and that His authority goes deeper than physical health.
- The scribes knew that only God can forgive sins.
- Jesus healed the man to authenticate His claim to be “The Son of Man” (Daniel 7) and to show that He has authority to forgive sin. He was very clearly telling them that He was the Messiah!
Questions to consider:
- If Jesus knew to tell the paralytic to “Take heart”, do you think He knew what the man’s greater concern was? Did Jesus know what the paralytic believed and was concerned about?
- If the scribes knew that only God could grant forgiveness, what didn’t they believe about Jesus?
- Even though it says the people “glorified God,” did they really understand what they had just seen if they thought God had “given such authority to men”?
- How do faith-healing prosperity gospel ministries cheapen the true Gospel and Jesus Christ?
- How might the truths in this passage help us to think rightly during our own times of sickness?