Totally Awesome Dude

01.05.13

Luke 5.26 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.” NIV

A friend of mine has made the decision to refrain from using the words, awe or awesome except in instances where they can be only ascribed to God: that is an awesome sunset; that she asked for forgiveness was awesome. Awe is a word that ought only to be reserved for God and what He decides to do. Awe is man’s reaction to the presence of God, not the presence of man. Man may be creative or clever or colorful but he is never awesome. To be filled with awe is to be moved by the presence of the Almighty.

Jesus’ point, in this passage, is that He has the authority to forgive sins. And not just to say, one’s sins would not be held against him, but that one’s sins were removed, erased, blotted out. To the folks in that day, that was a big, big deal. We’re not so much affected by sin these days – our own or anyone else’s; we tend to just deal with sin as that’s just the way people are.

But sin is a big, big deal. Sin taints everything we experience in life. Our problem may be that we are so used to sin that we’ve simply lost all sensitivity to it. Nowadays anything that may be considered wrong has to have some disorder attached to it so we can have empathy for the person with the disorder. And then treat it with medication or therapy. I don’t know if there’s much medication or therapy that can cure being a butt-head. To cure a butt-head takes an act of God and therefore is awesome because someone went from being a total ass to being someone whose heart has been touched by the Almighty. Admit it; we’re all impressed with a cured butt-head.

We must admit as well that the malady of mankind is not a disorder but a nature. A sin-nature. And everyone born on earth has one. And the cure for sins, is to have our sins removed. And to have our sins removed is to have a heart change; and a heart change is only something God can do because sin is so vast, and deep, and pervasive. So when Jesus showed up and proclaimed one’s sins were forgiven, the religious folk had to know how a man had the authority to do such a thing; nobody could do that but God.

So Jesus proved His authority by causing a paralyzed man to get up and walk. Which is easier: to tell someone that their sins are forgiven or to tell them to get up and walk? You figure it out…

In our day, we get to witness things like the total heart-transformation of a butt-head. When someone who is so obnoxious, selfish, and hard to live with becomes loving and gentle and compassionate, it is truly awesome and we all get to benefit from it and maybe do something about our own butt-headed shortcomings. Only God can change a butt-head into a beauty. Only God can make a lame person whole. Only God can transform a heart so that we all reflect in awe of His power and presence.

Seen anything awesome lately?