In his book King’s Cross Tim Keller unfolds Jesus encounter with a paralyzed man and demonstrates how Jesus deals with the man’s real need and not his current greatest desire.
Jesus says, “Jesus is saying, “by coming to me and asking only for your body to be healed, you’re not going deep enough. You have underestimated the depths of your longings, the longings of your heart.” Everyone who is paralyzed naturally wants with every fiber of his being to walk. Bur surely this man would have been resting all of his hopes in the possibility of walking again. In his heart he’s almost surely saying, “If only I could walk again, then I would be set for life. I’d never be unhappy, I would never complain. If only I could walk then everything would be right.” And Jesus is saying, “My son, you are mistaken.” That may sound harsh, but it’s profoundly true. Jesus says, “When I heal your body, if that’s what I do, you’ll feel you’ll never be unhappy again. But wait two months, four months – the euphoria won’t last. The roots of the discontent of the human heart go deep.”
King’s Cross, Timothy Keller, Hodder, 2011, pg 28.
From here Keller goes on to unfold a Saviour who listens to us identify what we believe are our deepest desires and wishes, but who will respond by taking us far deeper to our true need.
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