Message by Larry Thacker Jr. for July 22: Do You See What God Sees?
When you look at others, do you see what God sees? This is an important question, especially in a church like ours. You may have seen the commercials on TV for the drug to treat psoriasis. They echo the poignant cry of so many with conditions that cause people to treat them differently. The people say, “See me!”
Even those of us who deal with disability can fall into the same tendency to see others who we think are worse off than we as objects of pity. We don’t look past the obvious. But Jesus did. He healed many people, but even among those He healed, he recognized that healing was not their greatest need.
We look at one of these accounts from Luke 5:17-26. It’s the same story we find in Mark 2:1-12. Jesus has become known for His power to heal, and he’s preaching to a packed house, literally! When four very determined friends of a paralyzed man could not get anywhere near Jesus, they took extraordinary measures. They got up on the roof and broke through to let the man down in front of Jesus.
Of all the responses Jesus might have made to this brash action, they probably were not expecting the one they got at first. He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” There’s a lot going on here and we try to explore all of it, but what I want you to notice here is that Jesus first addressed the more serious problem. Only then did he heal the man’s condition.