JC - Chapter 14

Mark records on one occasion -

"...in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."  (New Testament | Mark 1:35)

This short verse reveals great insight on the relationship between the Savior and His Father.  It also provides a great example for all men to follow.  It becomes clear to me that the Savior, even the Messiah, still sought guidance, support, and to follow the will of the Father.  To me this is quite instructive.

Something else caught my attention this morning as Elder Talmage was the story of the man with palsy that was forgiven of sins as well as healed.  Elder Talmage made this observation -

"The incident demands our further study. According to one of the accounts, the Lord’s first words to the afflicted one were: “Son, be of good cheer”; followed directly by the comforting and authoritative assurance: “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” The man was probably in a state of fear; he may have known that his ailment was the result of wicked indulgences; nevertheless, though he may have considered the possibility of hearing only condemnation for his transgression, he had faith to be brought. In this man’s condition there was plainly a close connection between his past sins and his present affliction; and in this particular his case is not unique, for we read that Christ admonished another, whom He healed, to sin no more lest a worse thing befall him.m We are not warranted, however, in assuming that all bodily ills are the result of culpable sin; and against such a conception stands the Lord’s combined instruction and rebuke to those who, in the case of a man born blind, asked who had sinned, the man or his parents to bring so grievous an affliction upon him, to which inquiry our Lord replied that the man’s blindness was due neither to his own sin nor to that of his parents. 

In many instances, however, disease is the direct result of individual sin. Whatever may have been the measure of past offense on the part of the man suffering from palsy, Christ recognized his repentance together with the faith that accompanied it, and it was the Lord’s rightful prerogative to decide upon the man’s fitness to receive remission of his sins and relief from his bodily affliction. The interrogative response of Jesus to the unuttered criticism of the scribes, Pharisees, and doctors, has been interpreted in many ways. He inquired which was easier, to say, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” or to say, “Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk.” Is it not a rational explanation that, when spoken authoritatively by Him, the two expressions were of allied meaning? The circumstance should have been a sufficient demonstration to all who heard, that He, the Son of Man, claimed and possessed the right and the power to remit both physical and spiritual penalties, to heal the body of visible disease, and to purge the spirit of the no less real malady of sin. In the presence of people of all classes Jesus thus openly asserted His divinity, and affirmed the same by a miraculous manifestation of power."

What I derived herein was that sin can cause illness and disease, but illness and disease is not necessarily the consequence of sin or unfaithfulness in this or the previous life as Elder Talmage reminded of this teaching of the Savior -

"...as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."    (New Testament | John 9:1 - 3)