Sin: The Most Violent Sickness of All

The Grandfather Effect is a gripping new storytelling podcast from Moody Radio’s Brian Dahlen. The podcast follows Dahlen’s family and their rocky road from relational brokenness to reconciliation. The seven-episode series takes you on an emotional journey into their secrets, faith, sins, and attempts at forgiveness. You can listen here.

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“And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
– Mark 2:17

“Withdrawal in relationship is just as violent as open hostility.”
-Nancy Kane, Act 4 of The Grandfather Effect podcast

Sickness and sin.

In Mark 2, Jesus uses the analogy of a doctor and a patient and compares it to how He, Himself, came to save sinners. In both scenarios, the emphasis is on the purpose of the healer. Why are physicians necessary? Because people are, and will always be, sick. Why did God come to earth in the form of a man and die? Because the world is, and will always be plagued by sin (at least until Jesus makes all things new). Sickness and sin go hand in hand in our everyday comings and goings, and remind us of the frailty of our flesh in both a literal and figurative ways. We are an unwell people. We are sick and in need of a doctor. We are a sinful people. We are depraved and in need of a Messiah.

This is why the physical and spiritual healings of Jesus appear hand in hand, why Jesus opening of the eyes of the blind and healing deaf ears feels familiar for anyone who has gone from death to life through Jesus.

This analogy helps us locate ourselves in the good news. We are the sick and the sinful who are in active recovery and in the process of intentional sanctification. We are the sick whom God heals. We are the sinful who God redeems. Praise God!

As you listen to the episode, reflect and pray over the following questions…

1. In what ways has God healed you? Both literally and/or figuratively.
2. What are ways in which God as “the divine physician” speaks to your everyday life?
3. What did you hear in this week’s episode that feels reminiscent of your own situation with your family? How can you continue to pray over these things? Describe in a word or a phrase.