Your Sins are Forgiven!

Mark is one of my favorite books of the Bible (full of action!)...I teach at a "Community Bible Study" once a week in DuBois, and we are going verse-by-verse through Mark. After 8 weeks, we are just starting chapter 2, and one of the stories I love about Jesus.

In chapter 2, so many people come to listen and to see Jesus at a house He is staying, that the place overflows. Four men want to place a paralytic at His feet, but can't get through the door so they lower him down through the roof to place Him at the feet of Jesus (quite a step of faith and courage considering Levitical law punished people even for accidental destruction of property!). But when Jesus sees the man at His feet, rather than physically healing the man, He makes the statement, "Son, your sins are forgiven" (vs. 5).

Now I know as you go through the chapter and the parallels in Matthew and Luke, there is a strong theme of Jesus' pronouncement of His divinity since only God (Psalm 103:3) could forgive sins (and very strong indeed...Jewish teachings did not believe the Messiah would have the ability to forgive sins so this would have been an earth-shattering proclamation!). But, I think, Jesus providing a spiritual touch before a physical one is also a pronouncement that spiritual need is the deepest human need and FAR outweighs our physical needs.

Which brings me to my point/conviction: Why when someone begins to suffer physically or emotionally (find out they have a disease, lose their job, lose a loved one, etc) our hearts break and we reach out with cards, gifts, acts of service, etc, etc, etc...but when we are surrounded by people who are suffering spiritually and who need Christ (the deepest spiritual need) why are we not broken? At least not in the same way. Jesus was driven to meet spiritual needs far more than physical/emotional. As Christians/Christ Followers, shouldn't my/our brokenness and convictions for those without Christ be stronger than those who are going through a hard time? Does my/our time and energy reflect that? Thoughts?