When Your Mind is Amazed

It might not happen every day, but when it does, we often don’t know what to do next. We hear something that just doesn’t make sense. It can’t be true we think. In that moment we have a choice. Either we refuse to believe it, or we are forced to change our minds.

This was the exact experience of the Pharisees and teachers when they heard Jesus ‘dare’ to forgive sins. “Who can forgive sins but God only?” Take a moment and read the Gospel lesson and I think you’ll understand where I’m coming from today.

At that time, as Jesus was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. And behold, men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they sought to bring him in and lay him before him; but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?” When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he said to the man who was paralyzed — “I say to you, rise, take up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose before them, and took up that on which he lay, and went home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen strange things today.” Luke 5.17-26

It wasn’t that the Pharisees were flat out refusing to accept Jesus in the moment. They were hearing something they had never heard before, something that they had always understood differently. They must have thought to themselves, “Either we are wrong or this is God.”

Their dilemma is our dilemma. When we hear the Scriptures, the Word of God, we are constantly faced with the choice to either change our beliefs or deny what we hear. The Pharisees eventually chose to deny what they heard, and they killed Jesus.

Our choice is different. We already know the past. We already know the Pharisees were proven wrong, and Jesus WAS (and still IS) God. However, our choice is no less traumatic. Either we change how we understand the world, or we deny the Scriptures, and therefore Christ.

Here’s my challenge for you today. Search out the Scriptures for yourself. You will not find a single example of “The Kingdom of Heaven,” from Christ in which He does not challenge the way we think about God as being more important than how we act on earth.

My favorite example is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It was the older son, the one who never disobeyed his father, the one who remained loyal at his father’s side, the one who not once sinned against his father, who was in hell. It was the repentant sinner who was in heaven.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son ties in well with today’s Gospel passage. We human beings never seem to embrace God’s willingness to forgive sin. It was true of the ‘older brother’. It was true of the Pharisees in today’s passage, and it remains true for us.

This is what I mean by our mind being amazed. We can either refuse to believe that God will forgive the sins of ‘those people’ or we must change the way we understand His love. The difference between heaven and hell isn’t what we do, it is how we understand His love.

The Pharisees refused to see His love and eventually killed Jesus. They chose to remain stuck in their original understanding rather than change their minds. How will we react when we see God on His judgment seat? That will be the real test.

We can say we love God all we want while we are alive, but if we can’t change our understanding of how He loves, then we risk being no better than the Pharisees and the older brother. It’s ok if your mind is amazed. It isn’t ok to remain stuck. It’s time to change your mind.