which is more important - to forgive sins or heal?

In today's readings from the One Year Bible, which you can listen to HERE and HERE, we read of Jesus forgiving sins and healing people.

One story in particular is interesting, and different from our usual concepts about faith, sin, and healing. Jesus is teaching in a house, and the place is so packed that no one can get anywhere near Him. Some people were desperate to get their friend to Jesus so he could be healed, so they dug a hole in the ceiling and lowered the paralyzed man through it. This was probably terrifying for the man, who couldn't catch himself if they dropped him, and he wasn't entirely sure what Jesus would do when His sermon was interrupted.

Jesus sees the faith, not of the man who needed healing, but of the man's friends. And He responds to that faith. Isn't that a great picture of what intercessory prayer does? When I'm concerned about my friend, even if he doesn't have the faith himself to pray and ask for help, God responds to MY faith and helps that person anyway. If we tried to count the number of people who end up in heaven because of the prayers of their mothers or grandmothers, we'd probably lose count. St Augustine is probably the most famous example.

Then Jesus, instead of doing what everyone in the room was expecting, doesn't heal the man at first. Instead, He forgives his sins. Notice, nowhere in the story does anyone ask Jesus to forgive the man's sins. But Jesus cuts through to the biggest problem in the man's life. Not that the sin caused his paralysis. We don't know - maybe it did. Maybe the man was doing some dastardly sin and got hurt in the process and ended up crippled. Or maybe he was born that way. But what we DO know is that he needed his sins forgiven. We know that because he was a human being, and all of us humans need our sins forgiven. If He had just healed his body, the man would have walked away whole in body but still broken in mind and spirit. So Jesus healed him where he needed it most - he forgave his sins.

When we come to Jesus, we should keep that in mind. Yes, He wants to hear our requests. He wants us to share our concerns and our fears and our worries and our needs with Him. But we should always keep in mind that the most important thing He can do for us each day is to forgive our sins. Then we'll be pointed in the right direction, and the rest of what we need will make more sense.

God, thank You for reminding us what's most important.