And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.  Luke 5:17, NKJV

The crisis is real.  Mental health struggles are more common than we realize or admit.  According to the World Health Organization, 1 in every 8 people around the world suffer with mental illness (most commonly anxiety and depression).  And that was the statistic back in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The numbers are even more staggering in North America, estimating that 1 in every 5 Americans and Canadians struggle with their mental health.  The crisis is real, and it's concerning.  The good news?  Jesus is real, and His power to heal encompasses our mental health too.

PRESENT TO HEAL

Relatively early on in Jesus' earthly ministry, while Jesus was teaching in a certain home, a mixed crowd of interested hearers and skeptical Pharisees pressed in "so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door" (Mk. 2:2).  Beyond just the people gathered in the room, Luke is careful to record the presence of God's power: "the power of the Lord was present to heal them" (Lk. 5:17).  Of course, Jesus took the opportunity to teach and preach the word to that packed audience (Mk. 2:2), but more than informing their minds Jesus longed to heal their souls.  In fact, the word for "heal" in Luke 5:17 communicates a holistic restoration, a healing that is not limited to curing physical maladies but spiritual and emotional ones as well.  

POWER TO FORGIVE

Enter the miracle story.  When four friends brought a paralytic to Jesus that day and encountered the crowded house where Jesus, they did not turn away.  Instead, they audaciously lowered their crippled friend through the roof to give him direct access to Jesus.  

Where was the miracle?  Not where we might expect it at first.  Jesus' immediate response to the man now right in front of Him was to speak life-giving words that had no apparent connection to the man's physical condition.  With an understanding look, Jesus said, "Son, your sins are forgiven you" (Mk. 2:5).  This is our God.  He understands the story beneath the surface.  While others could only see the man's outward suffering, Jesus read his inward struggle -- his burden of guilt and shame, the stigma of feeling cursed of God, a mental script of unworthiness that he told himself over and over again.  And when Jesus saw that deeper need, He was quick to minister to it.

The miracle was in Jesus' power to forgive!  Yes, Jesus eventually commanded the paralytic to arise, and yes that man walked out freed from his paralysis.  But that physical healing was granted to underscore a larger reality:  "that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" (Mk. 2:10).  Do we know that Jesus has power on earth to forgive sins, to restore our peace, to calm the storms not just of winds and waves but of trauma and anxiety?  Do we know that the power of the Lord is present to heal in more ways than one?

If we do know, praise God.  Let's rejoice in the full scope of restoration God works day by day in our lives.  Like the psalmist, let's "bless the Lord...and forget not all His benefits:  who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases" (Ps. 103:2-3).  But more than that, let's be the kinds of friends who will bring others to the One whose power is present to heal.  

Starting next Thursday, April 25, we have an opportunity through our MindFit event to bless our friends (and soon-to-be friends from the community!) with a safe environment to explore mental health and steps toward wholeness.  Mental illness doesn't have to be the defining story for our world in crisis.  May God use us to bear others up -- letting them know they're not alone, listening to their stories of struggle, supporting them to find appropriate treatment and resources, and most of all carrying them to Jesus, our ultimate Healer.