What’s Your Major Malfunction?

If you were to list out the top three or five problems that you face today, what would they be? Maybe you are experiencing money problems and can’t figure out how to make ends meet. Perhaps there is a person you know who is going out of his or her way to make life hard for you. Perhaps you are feeling lonely, tired, depressed, or anxious. Maybe your body isn’t working the way it should; you are sick, or in pain, or both. The truth is, we all have some sort of malfunction in our lives. Most of us know that when we see a malfunction the best plan of action is to take it to Jesus and let Him fix it.

That’s certainly the plan that a few friends had in this morning’s passage. They all had a friend who was paralyzed. No one could fix him. They didn’t have the knowledge or the technology to make it any better for him. But these friends figured something out: if anyone could help the paralyzed man, Jesus could. They brought the man to Jesus fully expecting Him to heal his body. But as is so often the case, Jesus didn’t do what they expected:

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The man and his friends all were convinced his biggest problem was that he was paralyzed. But Jesus didn’t see it that way. He knew that no matter how healthy his body was the man’s greatest challenge was the sin in his life.

It’s no different for us. Our greatest challenge is our sin–that’s our major malfunction. Just like the paralyzed man, it’s hard to see our own sin through the lens of our perceived problems. We have to allow Jesus to point them out–and He will. But then we have to LISTEN to Him and respond. If we don’t listen we don’t see our need for forgiveness, and we miss out on the greatest gift God has ever given.

So, what’s your major malfunction?