Be of Good Cheer

“And, behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.”  Matthew 9:2

Matthew’s account of this event does not mention how this crippled man was brought to Jesus, but both Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:17-26 record that he was brought by friends who could not get into the house where Jesus was so they cut a hole in the roof and let him down on a stretcher.  As they say, “Where there is a will, there is a way”.  Jesus noted the faith of these men and, looking at the palsied man, said unto him, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.”

As was usually the case, there were several Pharisees who were there watching this event.  They hated Jesus with a passion, and one of them thought to himself that Jesus was a blasphemer because He claimed to forgive sins.  Jesus, of course, could read his thoughts and asked, “Why do you think evil in your heart?  Is it easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘arise and walk’?”  Jesus stated it the way that He did so that they would know that He had the power to forgive sins.  Jesus then told the palsied man to take up his bed and go home.

I think what Jesus was conveying to these doubters was that if He was going to expend His powers, wouldn’t it be better to heal a man of his sin sickness so that he could experience forgiveness and be made right with God, than to just heal him physically leaving him in his sin and apart from God for all eternity.  Jesus then went on to explain that in order for them to believe that He had the power to forgive the man’s sins, He also healed the man of his infirmity.  In other words, if Jesus had the power to heal physically, He certainly had the power to heal spiritually and vice versa.

An ill person who believes in Christ will be healed, if not during his or her lifetime, for certain in eternity.  However, an ill person who is not a believer may or may not be healed during his or her lifetime, but will face an eternity in the worst kind of infirmity in a place apart from God where there is no chance of healing.  Jesus suffered and died on the cross to give men and women the opportunity to have their sins forgiven and have eternal life.  To not take advantage of God’s offer of salvation is the worst kind of sickness.