Today's Gospel

Caught Off Guard

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant where we are exploring the genius of the Gospel, the genius of Jesus's life and teachings, and looking for a word or a phrase or an idea each day to anchor our day in the Gospel through that word, phrase, or idea. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 9:1-8. 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 so 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 crowd saw this, they were afraid and they glorified God who had given such authority to men.

What jumps out at you? Hypocrisy of the Pharisees? Hypocrisy of the scribes? Their lack of concern for this human being in this suffering. What jumps out at me again is these closing phrases. When the crowd saw it, they were afraid and they glorified God who had given such authority to men. So what's interesting, right, is they're afraid but they're glorifying God. So what does this indicate? It indicates that they are disoriented by the greatness of God, by the presence of God. They're disoriented. On the one hand, they're afraid. On the other hand, they're glorifying God. And then we really see their confusion in this phrase, "And they glorified God who had given so much authority to men." So it's still relatively early in the ministry of Jesus, but the people are still very much seeing Him as a man. They have not captured the idea or processed the idea or integrated the idea that he is not just a man.

What jumps out at you today? Maybe you need healing. Maybe you need encouragement. The first thing Jesus says to the paralytic is take heart. Maybe you need to take heart. Maybe you need encouragement today. What's your word? What's your phrase? What's your idea? Choose it and anchor your day to the Gospel through that word, phrase, or idea. Have an amazing day and remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself. All that God created you to be.