And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. 2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he rose and went home. 8 When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

If any one of us has a friend who does not know Christ, or who does not care for Christ, or who is even hostile to Christ, it is our Christian duty not to let that friend go. We must bring our friends into Christ’s presence.

In Palestine, it was a universal belief that all sickness was the result of sin, and that no sickness could ever be cured until sin was forgiven.

It is most probable that he had indeed been a sinner, and that he was convinced that his illness was the result of his sin, as it may very well have been; and without the assurance of forgiveness, healing could never have come to him.

In point of fact, modern medicine would agree wholeheartedly that the mind can and does influence the physical condition of the body, and that people cannot have healthy bodies when their minds are not in a healthy state.

Paul Tournier in A Doctor’s Case Book quotes an actual example of that: ‘There was, for example, the girl whom one of my friends had been treating for several months for anaemia, without much success. As a last resort my colleague decided to send her to the medical officer of the district in which she worked in order to get his permission to send her into a mountain sanatorium. A week later the patient brought word back from the medical officer. He proved to be a good fellow and he had granted the permit, but he added, “On analysing the blood, however, I do not arrive at anything like the figures you quote.” My friend, somewhat put out, at once took a fresh sample of the blood, and rushed to his laboratory. Sure enough the blood count had suddenly changed. “If I had not been the kind of person who keeps carefully to laboratory routine,” my friend’s story goes on, “and if I had not previously checked my figures at each of my patient’s visits, I might have thought that I had made a mistake.” He returned to the patient and asked her, “Has anything out of the ordinary happened in your life since your last visit?” “Yes, something has happened,” she replied. “I have suddenly been able to forgive someone against whom I bore a nasty grudge; and all at once I felt I could at last say, yes, to life!” ’ Her mental attitude was changed, and the very state of her blood was changed along with it. Her mind was cured, and her body was well on the way to being cured.