Can only God forgive sin? Sunday Readings B 7 (Y-not question the Sunday Readings)

by Sue, Sydney, Saturday, February 18, 2012, 12:34 (458 days ago) @ Ynot

Tony,

I really like the way you approach this miracle story, and especially your observation,

First thing I notice is that in this episode Jesus raises his mission to a new level. Instead of just curing the man, he opens up the subject of sin and forgiveness: Your sins are forgiven. I can think of three reasons that may have moved Jesus to say this: (a) because he saw that the man's soul/spirit was in fact paralysed by sin; (b) to teach that his real mission, why he had come, was not to heal physical ills but to heal disease of the spirit; (c) to show that the bodily ills he was curing - blindness, deafness, leprosy, paralysis, frenzy - were all symbols of the spiritual ills that humankind needed liberation from.

It is interesting how this is developing.  Last week, it was just the miracle story and Jesus' seeming reluctance to be seen as a miracle worker.

This week, there is the miracle, but then, as you say, the conversation moves to a different level, the whole question of sin and forgiveness.

Thinking about modern miracles, and the quest for miracles in canonizing of saints, and about the interest in miracles as some sort of indicator of the reality of a spiritual dimension, I remembered a modern dispenser of miracles and went exploring the stories around Sai Baba, an Indian guru who died recently, but who attracted thousands, many of whom regarded him as an incarnation of God.

This article comes from an ex- devotee who was close to Sai Baba.  Some of it is quite thought-provoking when compared to the story of Jesus.

http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/2/Healing_Cures_Faith_-_Sai_Baba.htm

Sue