How Jesus forgives sins to heal the spirit and the body

 One of the most interesting moments in the bible is in Mark 2, 3-12.  Men bring a paralytic to Jesus to be cured.  They could not bring the man right to Jesus because of the crowd so they removed a roof above Jesus and lowered a stretcher on which the paralytic was lying.  "When Jesus say their faith, he said to the paralytic: 'Child, your sins are forgiven.'  Now some of the scribes were there, sitting and reasoning in their hearts: 'Why is this man talking this way? He is blaspheming.  Who can forgive sins except one, God?' But immediately Jesus discerned by his spirit that they were reasoning that way among themselves, so he said to them: 'Why are you reasoning these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven' or to say 'Get up and pick up your stretcher and walk?' But in order for you to know that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins on earth-' he said to the paralytic: 'I say to you, Get up, pick up your stretcher and go to your home.'  At that he got up and immediately picked up his stretcher and walked out in front of them all.  So they were all astonished, and they glorified God, saying: 'We have never seen anything like this.'   

I love the reasoning of Jesus in this moment, when he discerns by his spirit that the scribes were reasoning that way among themselves.  When he says "among themselves" I suppose he is saying or implying that to mean as a group of people who would try to make sense of something in the thoughts and reasons limited to that groups ability to think of something that they weren't accustomed to. Normally in a group of people, if it is a tightly knitted group where ideas are shared and talked about, it can be limiting to the ideas of that group.  So he challenges that and offers a better reasoning when he says "Why are you reasoning these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to a paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven' or to say 'Get up and pick up your stretcher and walk'?  I think what he's saying there is that is it easier for a body, mind and spirit to jump into movement after being a paralytic with the words 'get up and walk?' or might it be easier to address the spirit within a person, a spirit that must be affected by the paralysis because the mind is connected to the spirit, is connected to the body, and the spirit connected to the body, etc. There is never a disease that is only in the body, or the mind or the spirit. It usually starts with the spirit, and Jesus knew this, while the scribes did not.  So he forgave the sins of the paralytic, allowing his spirit to be lifted up, to be made right with God, to be healed and then told him to 'get up, pick up your stretcher and go to your home.'  His body was able to listen and be whole because his spirit was first made whole with that forgiveness.  I love this part in the bible because it relates to the practice of acupuncture.  I am reminded multiple times (and sometimes it takes a loud reminder) but I am still reminded, that to treat the body, you must treat the spirit.  I am practicing with needles so its obviously different, but I am aware that if a patient was right with God, there would be less to treat in the way of disease/illness. 

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