Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”- Mathew 9:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 7, 2017): Matthew 9

Martin Luther King Jr. noted that “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” The words, now more than fifty years old, still hold incredible meaning for the world in which I live. Too often, we try to get rid of hate by responding with bitterness. It is the heart of my problem with social media. Angry words are never going to effect the change that we really need. It may get us a response, people may retweet us or press the like button – or more likely laugh at us - but nothing will change. Because hate is incapable of driving out hate. And because fear is so closely related to hate, fear becomes impotent as well. Only love, responding in love to every circumstance, has the ability to change us where we need to experience that change. And at the root of this world changing love is forgiveness. It is this idea of putting behind us all of the hurt we have suffered, never to be brought up again, and moving with love into the future. This we need.

As the men brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus, they came with a very specific purpose. Their friend needed to be healed, and by healed they meant that they wanted him to be made well enough to walk again. So they carried their friend to Jesus, the miracle worker of Galilee. And Jesus looked at the man now lying in front of him and responded to the faith of the man and his friends who had brought him with “Your sins are forgiven.” I am pretty sure that the first thought to cross the minds of the friends was “we didn’t struggle to bring our friend to you so that you could just forgive him of his sins.” Of course, that was never Jesus’s intent. He was not just going forgive the man, but of all that would happen, forgiveness was the man’s most important need. Without forgiveness, nothing else would matter.

We still need forgiveness to be the light that drives out the darkness, and to lead to the love that will drive out the hate. But we need to understand that forgiveness is the beginning point. Nothing that is worthwhile doing in the future can be done if we are not willing to forgive. Period. Forgiveness is our need and our starting point. And it has to start with us. Our future is dependent on our willingness and ability to forgive.

And it is up to us. So start now!

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 10