God Alone

“Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Luke 5:21

The Pharisees liked to find something to criticize about Jesus, and they found much. It was a pity because Jesus will not work in our life, will not work miracles, if we do not have faith.  In the 5th chapter of Luke, we find Jesus teaching and healing inside a house that was already full of people.  Then a commotion. Tiles from the roof were being removed, until there was a hole big enough for a stretcher to go through. Men with big, strong arms lowered the stretcher, and lying on it was a paralyzed man. The first thing Jesus noticed was the faith of the men who brought the paralytic. 

Often, we want to help others. We may have great ideas on how to help a friend with their financial problem. We might have thought of a way out of an officemate’s dilemma. Many times, people are sick, and we do not lay hands on them and pray for them. It may be that we are too busy, too lazy, but many times, it is because we have too little faith to make the effort.  The men in this bible story had so much faith, they did more than enough for their friend to get Jesus’ attention. And Jesus, impressed by their faith, said, “Your sins are forgiven.” This tells us that to Jesus, forgiveness of sins is more important than healing any physical ailment. 

We do not want to be like the critical Pharisees. Let us be careful not to find fault continually and lose our chance to get close to Jesus and have our sins forgiven. Instead let us be ever on the look out for ways to help others, love our neighbor, and grow our faith, so miracles may happen in our midst.