But that's not what I wanted

Young children have the ability to speak the truth when an adult might choose to be more tactful. On unwrapping a Christmas present a child might openly look disappointed and say something like, 'Oh, that's not what I wanted - I wanted a ...'. As an adult I might think that way but would probably voice my disappointment in a different way: 'thank you - that's really kind of you'. What do we say when God doesn't give us quite what we want?

Last week we were thinking a little about prayer, from Mark 1: see here and here if you missed those posts.

When we move into Mark 2 we come across a story that is popular in Sunday School - the story of the paralysed man who was let down through the roof so that Jesus could heal him.

Word has spread that Jesus was healing people and so it is a safe assumption to believe that these men brought the paralysed man to be healed - physically. The story tells us that they made a hole in the roof and lowered the man down to Jesus, and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the man, "your sins are forgiven".

It's not until Jesus' authority to forgive sins is questioned (because only God can do that) that he tells the man to get up and walk - as a sign to those asking the questions that Jesus is who he claims to be and that he does have the authority to forgive sins.

One of the things that you find when you read the Bible is that there are so many gaps in the story - things we're simply not told. This is one of those stories. 

I wonder what the man and his friends thought when Jesus said, 'your sins are forgiven'? Did they think - 'that's nice but what about his legs?'...'we didn't carry him all this way only to have to carry him all the way home again!'

If the teachers of the law hadn't questioned Jesus' authority would Jesus have healed the man physically?

Why did Jesus choose to forgive this man? There is no record of him saying 'your sins are forgiven' to anyone else he'd healed over the past few days.

We can speculate, and sometimes it is good to put ourselves into the story and allow God to speak to us that way, but we can't be sure on our answers to these questions.

I think that what this story does help us to see is that Jesus can forgive sins and that this is more important than many of the things that we might see as priorities. We may come to God with our requests - but the most important thing is forgiveness - and God has promised that when we confess our sin he forgives us (1 John 1:9). Do I believe that God knows best, or when God answers my prayers in unexpected ways do I say 'but that's not what I wanted'?