Yet, he came. And what was he like? He came not as one who judges but as one who was full of kindness, warmth, love, and mercy. Nobody needed to fear him. Everybody was allowed to come, everybody was allowed to have hope – the wretched, even sinners and tax collectors. They could all come. And all who came were healed and satisfied. Everybody could rejoice that God’s ambassador in person had visited them.
Because the Lord was so kind and good to everyone who drew near him, it proved that he really came from God. Who could be greater? Can there be anything more wonderful than knowing that this man from Nazareth came from God? Can anyone else satisfy our deepest need? Can we imagine anyone coming from heaven greater, more majestic, or more glorious than he? Truly, he is the One. “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Jesus is still the same Savior today. So there is hope for everyone – nobody needs to despair or doubt his patience and love. No matter who you are, you can come. But you have to come! Come in longing for grace and mercy. Then you will receive his goodness in abundance. Even in these troubled times you can know his mercy and that when the time is right, God will “wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4). Praise to him for such immeasurable hope!
Johann Christoph Blumhardt
Come as You Are
Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over, and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”
Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat, and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man. –Matthew 9:1–8
The story of the paralyzed man should remind us of our own situation, because we are all broken people. Even if we are not physically crippled, our whole being is broken by sin. Corrupt powers of decay gnaw at our souls and bit by bit at our bodies, either openly or in secret, whether we are aware of it or not. Our spirits are dragged down into the captivity of fleshly pursuits. Many of us can barely keep our heads above water. We have either wasted our lives or become dull to anything of a higher nature. Divine things elude us, and things of eternal value escape us.
It would behoove us not to wait until the power of death and corruption strikes us down, as it did with this paralyzed man. Jesus came to make it possible for each of us to recognize our wretched condition, and in this recognition we can be healed. But we must not hide the fact that we are hurting in some way or another. That we are all in misery is evident by the fact that we come running when genuine help arrives, or even imaginary help, or when any kind of help seems to be on the way. Everywhere, as soon as a facility is built for the sick and disabled, people come flocking. But all this human help pales in comparison to the power Jesus had. When he touched people, life-giving powers poured forth.
And now, you dear ones, let Jesus work. Let him use your affliction to drive you into the light. Don’t hide what afflicts you. Indeed, through Jesus we may look even deeper and ask ourselves what really afflicts us in our innermost being. Through Christ, we can turn to the light as poor, weak, and wretched human beings, crippled many times over, both inwardly and outwardly.
Don’t try to hide your need and cheerfully ignore it. Even if this is heroic, it does not bring help, nor does it bring praise to God. We should rather be like the paralyzed man and show ourselves as we really are. Let us not pretend to be strong, but instead recognize our misery and bring it out into the open before God. The Savior wants to reveal everything wrong in us so that we can be healed. Only then can those around us, like those around the paralyzed man, be filled with awe and praise for God.
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The paralyzed man came into Christ’s presence. We can do the same, whether we do this on our own feet, dragging ourselves to him and approaching him ourselves, or whether others do us this service of love and bring us to him, perhaps without our really wanting it. Hundreds of powers are at work when the Savior shows up. What is wrong comes into the open and is revealed to the eye of God.
What a blessing it is to come under the eye of Christ, even the eye of his judgment. That is how the paralyzed man was before the Lord. He trembled and shook, but his trembling and shaking was more genuine than if he had stayed lying proudly in bed, letting himself be cared for and fooling all his friends with his sickness, as if he were only to be pitied and there was nothing to be set right.
When Jesus comes on the scene, the truth must come out. We must not demand human sympathy the whole time. Besides, in the end, we can hide nothing; the eye of Christ sees right through us and discerns our innermost being – all that is still dark and sinful.
Jesus is never soft on sin. No, the very opposite. He speaks a sharp word and sweeps his threshing floor. He separates the wheat from the chaff, judging the feelings and thoughts of the heart. His grace shatters our fleshly nature, where no cloak under which to hide our shame is permitted. God reveals his love but only when we come under the melting fire of the Savior. We need not fear this, for God’s justice is a justice that makes everything right.
Even if we feel we are poor and miserable, all is not lost. If we are honest, there is nothing any of us can cling to. Even if this or that was right and good, let us admit that it was still not pure. What we need most is to start completely afresh and come, broken and needy, before the judging presence of Jesus. We have nothing to boast of until he can live in us completely. Only then can we be healed.
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
He Carries Our Burdens
When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” –Matthew 8:16–17
The amount of need and suffering in the world, both in Jesus’ day and our own, can hardly be overstated. The Savior not only healed all kinds of diseases, but also the demon-possessed. People came to him who were out of control and who caused their relatives an incredible amount of pain, since an alien spirit within them made them furious, raging, screaming, or unmanageable.
If this was the case then, just think how many so-called mentally ill and insane there are today. Yet hardly anyone dares to call them possessed. Still, one cannot help thinking of Jesus’ time, when many possessed came to him. There are thousands of people among us today who are sick in the same way.
Yet we read how Jesus ruled over the spirits that oppressed people. He drove them out by his word. All this, Matthew quotes from Isaiah, was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
The passage in Isaiah says literally: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering” (Isa. 53:4). Isaiah speaks more of a freeing from sin, rather than from sickness and disease; yet it is significant that Matthew speaks also of disease, that the Lord’s Servant wants to bear all our griefs. Jesus took away disease and sickness and in this way bore our infirmities. It is as if Jesus had made the diseases of the sick his own, representing the sick before his Father, who had given him the power to heal.
Something similar happens