There's Hope With the HealerSample

I believe Jesus always heals for a purpose, and I believe the story of the paralytic—which we’re going to read again today, by the way—demonstrates that.

Let’s take a closer look at the end of the story when Jesus heals the man and then tells him something important:

“Take up your mat and go home.”

When Jesus commanded this man to get up, take his mat, and go for a walk, He was giving him a purpose.

Jesus didn’t have to say “Take your mat.” He could’ve just told him to get up and walk. But Jesus looks down at the man, newly healed, and says, “Get up. Take your mat. And Go home.”

Why does the mat matter?

Let’s think about what this mat must’ve looked like. This man had probably been lying on it for YEARS, so imagine how nasty and dirty it must’ve been. That thing needed to get tossed into the trash or into the incinerator, but instead, Jesus told him to take it with him!

I believe that mat represents everything Jesus healed this man from. It represents his past, his shame, his infirmity. It was probably stained and scarred with tears, smeared with blood and who knows what else, misshapen from the years it carried this man.

It was a clear picture of that man’s past, and he took it so it could be a testimony of who he once was and who Jesus had now made him to be.

When you’ve been healed, your life will point back to the Healer!

Jesus will use the nasty, dirty, stained parts of your past and turn them into a trophy of His Goodness and Grace in your life!

I’m living proof.

Jesus sees you as you are and wants to heal you. But He wants to go beyond—He wants to use that thing that brought you shame, embarrassment, hurt, or even anger to become your testimony of healing.

When He does that, He can get more Glory and you can have a story to tell so that more people can meet the Healer.

You just have to take your mat with you.