Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Matthew 9

This is quite a chapter on faith and the miracles that follow. I have to tell you, the thing that is challenging me is right at the beginning. Jesus forgives the sins of the man who is paralyzed based on the faith of his friends. Did I read that right? Can someone's sins be forgiven based on the faith of someone else? I will probably go to sleep tonight reconciling this in my head, but understanding the importance of my faithfulness as it relates to the possibility of another's salvation (even if it isn't like I've painted it above, but simply the standard sharing of faith that helps a person come to Christ) drives home the importance of Jesus call for workers willing to help with the harvest. True, Jesus is the only saver of souls, but as the body of Christ we have work to do. I wonder what I could be doing better...what would my performance review look like?
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1 comment:

  1. SusieApril 28, 2010 at 6:43 AM

    A few years back God challenged me to read the Bible from now on as if I were hearing it all for the first time, and just take it literally for what it says, rather than filtered through my preconceived notions of what someone has always SAID that it says. You bring up another one of those whammies that I never noticed before. Jesus saw THEIR faith, and said, "Your sins are forgiven." It seems to me that Matthew hits on our spiritual responsibility to our fellow man more than I have fully realized in the past. Gives me a lot to think about as well...

    The part that caught my attention ties right into that in the next few verses when Jesus is answering the teachers of the law and he asks them if they think it's any easier for him to forgive the man's sin as to just tell him to get up and walk. I think there's a big challenge here. It's so easy for us to understand and accept God's forgiveness, but have somebody looking for God's healing, which is no more difficult for him than forgiveness... different story. I'm not a huge "healing" person who thinks God just heals everything for everybody, but still, I think there's something here that we really lack faith in. Once again, hindsight is a wonderful thing. It's SO easy to praise God for his goodness AFTER someone gets healed, but to actually pray in faith before... I don't know... seems like we have issues with that concept

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