Which is Easier

07.31.12

John 2.19-21 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. NASB

In the early days of Jesus’ ministry He was in Capernaum and some people brought a paralytic to Him. Jesus looked at the man and said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now when the Pharisees and teachers of the Law heard this they immediately jumped to a conclusion: “This fellow blasphemes!” They went there in their minds because Jesus did (or said) something that only God could do. And if Jesus did that, then in their thinking He was trying to take the place of God – and that is something they would not accept – to them, nobody but God, is God.

So Jesus responds, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” (Matthew 9.4b-6 NASB) Which is easier, to heal a paralytic or to forgive sins?

Jesus’ authority was always called into question because in their minds the Jews could not accept the fact that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. Which is easier: to claim to be God’s child or claim to be Abraham’s child? Which is easier, to put God safely on an unapproachable pedestal, or to walk according to God’s Law?

The Jews of that day did to God what we in our day do: we put God in such a place that He is unapproachable. And I think most people like Him in that distant place because they don’t want to deal with a God who will forgive their sins…they’d rather live in them then have to do with Someone who has the power to heal them.

Jesus pointed at Himself and said, “Destroy this Temple and in three day I will raise it again!” All they could see was Herod’s temple that took forty-six years to build. They couldn’t make the distinction in what Jesus was saying. But the question that is pressing is this: which is easier, to destroy Herod’s temple and rebuild it in three days, or to rise from the dead? To the Jews both were equally impossible – at least for them to accomplish. And all they saw Jesus as was one of them.

It’s slightly different today: we don’t want to see God as God, but as a man – like us. God is easier to accept if He is a fickle, frail, and faulty creature like ourselves. Jesus is a whole lot easier to accept when He’s potryed up on a crucifix where He’s nailed to the cross and we’re safe from His power. (I don’t need no Jesus messin’ with my stuff!) He can’t do too much hanging on that cross.

We want to be able to turn to the Man Upstairs when our times get tough, but we don’t want anything to do with a Man who came back from the dead all on His own. We don’t want anything to do with a Man who forgives our sins and then asks us to repent from them – for good. No, God is much more acceptable to us humans when He is made in our image: then we can mold Him into any shape we want for any situation we’re in. Which is easier: to run our own lives or to allow God to do it? The truth is, I need Jesus messin with my stuff because I have screwed it up beyond all recognition and I need Someone to put it all back together…