Forgiveness Heals

The Paralysis Of Sin

And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, take up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Matthew 9:1-8

Can a man be paralyzed by sin?

Almost certainly the answer is “Yes”. Psychology has long known of the phenomenon of the “conversion disorder”, previously known as “hysterical paralysis” or “hysterical blindness.” That people can experience a variety of physical ailments and distress as a result of their actions and experiences is well established reality. It is a scientific fact that what we do impacts how we feel and how our bodies function.

If we look back into the Old Testament, we can see that this reality was understood even then, over two thousand years ago. Psalm 32 speaks of physical suffering arising from the guilt of unconfessed sin.

When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

It takes no great leap of faith, no great exercise of imagination, to envision a man hopelessly paralyzed as a consequence of what he has done—or what he perhaps has failed to do.

We do not know specifically why the paralytic at the start of Matthew chapter 9 was unable to walk; we merely know that he was paralyzed and unable to walk.

We do know that in all the healings mentioned in the previous chapter of Matthew, there is no mention of forgiving sins. Jesus merely cleansed the leper of his disease, merely willed the centurion’s servant to recover, merely cast out demons.

The Gospels make it quite clear that Jesus did not need to offer up forgiveness of sin to heal people.

Why then did Jesus approach the paralytic and say to him “your sins are forgiven”? Why would Jesus select that as the healing path for that particular individual?

The Bible does not say—and very likely the Bible cannot say. The science behind conversion disorders and hysterical paralysis was not known in Jesus’ day. People might have apprehended that trauma and extreme emotional experiences can be physically debillitating, but the role of memory, of neural pathways and circuits, and of the memories themselves is knowledge that belongs in the modern realm of scientific research, not in the ancient realm of faith.

Yet the Bible does say that, once healed, the paralytic man simply rose up, gathered his meager possessions, and began to walk. At the very least we must entertain the possibility that the paralytic knew how to walk, and had been walking at some point prior in his life. “Something” must have happened to render him unable to walk.

Was that “something” sin? That is a possibility; the Gospel account does not tell us. The Gospels do tell us that in other healings, Jesus did not feel compelled to mention forgiveness. When Jesus healed the blind, He did not mention forgiveness. When He cleansed the leper, He did not mention forgiveness. When he healed the centurion’s servant, He did not mention forgiveness.

Given the controversy that Jesus created by declaring to the paralytic that his sins were forgiven, it is difficult to envison Jesus’ chroniclers overlooking that rather essential detail. While it remains mere speculation, we cannot ignore the signs that Jesus healing the paralytic was, in some significant fashion, “different”.

If the paralytic was suffering from a conversion disorder, why would Jesus’ telling him his sins were forgiven allow him to get up and walk?

If we look back once more to Psalm 32, we can easily see why this would happen. When sin is confessed, acknowledged, and forgiven, guilt leaves, and the suffering ends.

I acknowledged my sin to thee,
    and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my trangressions to the Lord”;
    then thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin.

When Jesus told the paralytic his sins were forgiven, He took away the man’s guilt. If that guilt was the source of his paralysis, by forgiving the man’s sins Jesus took away the source of the man’s paralysis.

By forgiving the man of his sins, Jesus resolved the man’s conversion disorder—if that was indeed what was causing him to be paralyzed—and allowed him to walk again.

Thus the parable of the paralytic is more than merely a healing, and more even than a testament of Jesus’ capacity to forgive sin as the only begotten Son of God. The parable of the paralytic tells us of the tremendous healing power that lies in forgiveness.

Where there is forgiveness, there can be no guilt.

Where there is forgiveness, the mind and the soul cannot be weighed down with guilt.

Where there is forgiveness, the anxiety, the stress, the sadness, and all the other negative thoughts and feelings that arise from having guilt over anything disappear.

Where there is forgiveness, there is always healing.

Moreover, we do well to be mindful that forgiveness is not reserved for God alone. Forgiveness is a calling extended to every last one of us. Just as Jesus taught His followers when He taught them the Lord’s Prayer, in order for us to be able to receive the forgiveness offered by God, we must in turn be willing to offer forgiveness towards those who have acted wrongly towards ourselves.

If we are to be forgiven by God, we must also forgive our fellow human being.

If we are to be healed by God, we must also heal our fellow human being.

We all have the power to forgive. Therefore we all have the power to heal.

We all have the capacity to be forgiven. Therefore we all have the capacity to be healed.

We do not need to be deep Biblical scholars to know that the guilt which arises within us whenever we have done something wrong can be quite debilitating. Guilt over prior sins and mistakes saps our energy, and can send us into a spiral of depression. If guilt can trigger depression, anxiety, and all manner of mental health challenges, forgiveness, which has the power to remove guilt, can ease depression, anxiety, and all manner of mental health challenges.

We all have the power to forgive. Therefore we all have the power to heal.

We all have the capacity to be forgiven. Therefore we all have the capacity to be healed.

We have but to look around us to see that there are people everywhere who are grappling with depression, anxiety, and all manner of mental health challenges. People are hurting everywhere, it seems.

While mental health issues arise from a variety of causes, it takes no great leap of faith to presume that at least some portion of those who struggle with depression, anxiety, and various mental health challenges, do so out of a sense of guilt. At least some portion of those who struggle do so in part because they have strayed from the righteous path, and may feel some guilt and perhaps regret over their actions—over their sins.

We are but mortal men and women, and we cannot, in an eyeblink, resolve all the world’s challenges. Yet, even as we are mortal men and women, we can even in an eyeblink, resolve the mental health challenges which arise from guilt.

We can resolve such mental health challenges because we can remove the guilt. We can remove the guilt because we can offer forgiveness.

We all have the power to forgive. Therefore we all have the power to heal.

We can resolve many of our own mental and emotional health challenges by letting go of our own guilt over our own sins. We can let go of our own guilt by embracing the forgiveness offered by God—and hopefully offered by those around us as well (I know I need all the forgiveness I can get!).

We all have the capacity to be forgiven. Therefore we all have the capacity to be healed.

Will forgiveness heal the world of all its mental health challenges and emotional crises? No. Guilt brought on by sin and wrongdoing are not the only reasons people struggle with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental and emotional issues. People do not struggle with their mental and emotional health solely because of sin and wrongdoing.

Yet a signature feature of many mental and emotional health challenges is the dysfunctional response—the maladaptive and self-destructive response. More often than we want to admit, we tend to make mistakes when we are confronted by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Wherever there is a mistake, we may safely presume there is some manner of sin. Mistakes are wrongdoing by definition. Wherever there is a mistake, there is a need for forgiveness. Even if a person’s mental health state was not initially catalyzed by a mistake or a wrong action, it would be no great surprise to discover that a person’s mental health state was made perceptibly worse aftewards because of poorly chosen coping responses.

It is absolutely certain, therefore, that wherever people are grappling with challenges of mental and emotional health from whatever root cause, there is likely to be at least a dimension or two of how those issues have evolved over time that is grounded in mistakes, in wrong actions—in sin.

It is absolutely certain, therefore, that wherever people are grappling with challenges of mental and emotional health, from whatever root cause, forgiving them their mistakes, and reminding them that God has already forgiven them, offers up the chance to alleviate at least part of their issues.

It is absolutely certain that we can offer up forgiveness, and can remind everyone who hurts of God’s eternal forgiveness.

It is absolutely certain that we can offer up that much healing.

We all have the power to forgive. Therefore we all have the power to heal.

We all have the capacity to be forgiven. Therefore we all have the capacity to be healed.

Therefore, let us forgive and be forgiven. Let us heal, and be healed. Surely each of us can do at least that much, for ourselves and for all those around us.