Honest Scales, Part 1… Rodna Epley
Using “honest scales” as Jesus always did will bring an end to any suffering and transform it into light, meaning the good thing that is desired will manifest.
Just before Jesus healed the paralytic man, He told him, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Everyone knew the intent for letting down the paralyzed man through the roof to where Jesus was preaching. It was for physical healing, so that the paralyzed man could walk. Yet the first thing Jesus said to the man after He saw their faith was that the man’s sins were forgiven.
The scribes who were sitting near Jesus began reasoning amongst themselves saying, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Jesus knew that what He said would provoke the scribes. In fact, He was setting everyone up to receive the revelation of who He is and what He could do for them. Those who did not have “ears to hear” would by consequence be further blinded. When light enters a room, it exposes everything. That which is exposed will become light unless it chooses to run into the shadows with the darkness. Jesus was about to prove the Father was working through Him and gave Him the authority on earth to forgive sins.
So Jesus pulls out the “honest scales”. When we weigh something, we know its value. If we place oranges on the scale at the grocery store we can estimate its value by its weight and then we can purchase it if we have enough money. The same is true for spiritual things. If we don’t know what something weighs, then we place it on God’s honest scales and we know if we have enough faith to purchase it, so to speak. This is what Jesus did during the scene with the paralyzed man and the scribes.
Jesus said to the paralytic, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’?” (vs 9). The obvious answer is that it’s easier to say “Your sins are forgiven you” because you don’t have to prove that. In fact, you can’t prove that unless you can weigh it somehow.
Forgiveness is invisible and can’t be physically proven except to the person who is forgiven. He has a peace radiating within him and all around him instantly upon being forgiven. The weight of unforgiveness, which can be felt, is lifted off of him. There is also proof of forgiveness in the way that life begins to transform, but physically proving someone has been forgiven is perhaps impossible. Unless forgiveness can be measured.
Jesus does measure it by answering His own question. It’s easier to say “Your sins are forgiven” since it can’t be easily proven. So Jesus says what is more difficult to say, which must be proven, “Rise up, take up your bed and walk.”
Since only God can make someone rise up and walk when they are paralyzed, when the man rose up and walked in front of all who were in the room, the revelation that Jesus could also forgive sins dropped into the minds of those who chose to remain in the light, those who had ears to hear God. For those who were hard-pressed against Jesus from the start, they remained blind and the revelation did not drop in.
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