What We Really Need

Luke 5:18-24

Have you ever been to a restaurant with some friends, you know you’re hungry, but you just don’t know what quite to order? Suddenly, you hear what one of your friends is gonna order and you think “man, that’s exactly what I want too.” You recognize that someone else saw what you really needed.

A man, a paralytic had some friends who thought they knew what he needed: to be able to walk. They brought him to Jesus, even going the extra mile of pulling back the tiles on the roof and letting him down on a mat in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw that man, he looked down at him he said:

“Man, your sins have been forgiven.” — Luke 5:20b

It was pretty obvious to Jesus what that man wanted: Jesus to say ‘arise and walk,’ but Jesus looked at him and saw his greatest need. He saw what he really wanted. The forgiveness of sins.

Now some there questioned Jesus power and authority to be able to forgive sins. ‘Surely only God can forgive sins,’ they thought and they’re right. So Jesus asked them the question: “What’s easier to say, ‘your sins are forgiven’ or to say ‘get up and walk?'” Then jesus said, “to prove that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins, I say to you get up and walk.”

Jesus performed that miracle for that man, not to give him the ability to walk, but to prove that he has the power to forgive sins. That is our greatest need. That’s why he came to this earth, to deal with sins. He is the savior and he has come to take your sins away. So Jesus looks at you in all of your needs, you may misunderstand them, but in love he says “your sins are forgiven.” Amen.

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