“Take Up Your Bed” | Rev. Jeffrey O. Smith

The Lord told a paralyzed man to take up his bed and go to his house. With this command, the Lord is also telling us to not let our outward circumstances and habits get in the way of our relationship with Him. What aspects of your life are getting in the way of eternal happiness?

Readings: Judges 1-2, Matthew 9:1-8, Divine Love and Wisdom 396, Secrets of Heaven 6188.2

Minister: Rev. Jeffrey O. Smith

Delivered May 24th, 2026 at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral in Bryn Athyn, PA.

The Bryn Athyn Church is a congregation of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, located in Bryn Athyn, PA. We are committed to helping each other draw closer to the Lord God Jesus Christ through lives of love and useful service, guided by the Old and New Testaments and the Heavenly Doctrine for the New Church (contained in the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg). Please join us for worship on Sunday mornings; services and times can be found at brynathynchurch.org.

Transcript

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Hear now the word of the Lord, first as it's written in Judges chapters one and two, portions of those chapters. Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethsheon and its villages. And it came to pass when Israel was strong that they put the Canaanites under tribute, but did not completely drive them out. Nor did Ephraim, nor did Zebulun, nor did Asher, nor did Naphtali. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them. So he delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were greatly distressed. Reading further from the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Then they brought to Jesus a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you. And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Arise and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Then he said to the paralytic, Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. And he arose and departed to his house. And reading further from New Church teachings, first from the work Divine Love and Wisdom, number 396. Love for ourselves and love for the world are of service to our spiritual loves, the way foundations are of service to houses. It is love for ourselves and love for the world that prompt us to take care of our bodies, to want nourishment, clothing, and housing, to take care of our homes, to look for jobs in order to be useful, to be granted respect due to the worth of our responsibility so that people heed us, and even to find delight and recreation in worldly pleasures. All of these activities, however, should be for the sake of usefulness. They bring us into a state of serving the Lord and the neighbor. In contrast, when there is no love for serving the Lord and the neighbor, when there is nothing but love for using the world to suit ourselves, then the love becomes hellish instead of heavenly. And finally, from the work Arcana Celestia, number 10,236. Strictly speaking, the level of the senses forming the last and lowest of the natural degree is called the flesh. And this perishes when a person dies. Thus, that which has enabled the person to function in the world, namely the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. It may be recognized that the senses exist on the ground level, so to speak, of a person's life. Also, an external aspect of the senses is the deposit in the human memory of impressions received from the world, consisting solely of worldly, bodily, and earthly images. Amen. Here end our readings. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Amen. There's a bit of difference between blindness and paralysis. When we are blind, we are bumping into things, or maybe we we trip and fall because we can't see. With paralysis, though, it's not about bumping or falling, it's a lack of movement. We can see just fine, but we are stuck. I can't help it. It's her fault. I inherited my temper from my father. In these simple one-liners, some of which I myself have used, there's an awareness of the problem, but there seems to be an inability or an unwillingness to do something about it. Often when we are aware of problems that we have, the reasons that they exist are quite valid. I can't help it. Well, we're technically powerless against the hells, right? And we can't change our own loves, so we can't help it. It's her fault. Well, people around us are doing things all the time that affect us adversely, so it very well might be her fault. I inherited my temper from my father. Well, spiritual inheritance from parents is a real thing. And if you knew my dad. Just kidding, Dad. At the end of our reading from Judges, we learned that the Israelites were greatly distressed because they were being attacked by the surrounding peoples. What are some of the things that make you greatly distressed, like those Israelites? What seems to upset you or make you sad? A difficult relationship? The unfairness of the world, a friend's ideology, maybe just people in general, taxes, bills. There are all sorts of things that seem to upset us in this world, causing us great distress. At the beginning of the reading from Judges, we learned about the enemies that the Israelites left in the land. Despite God telling them to drive them all out. Those enemies who either didn't seem so bad at first or just seemed like too much trouble to get rid of eventually start attacking them. And they intermarry with them, and the Israelites start worshiping their gods instead of Jehovah. Essentially, the children of Israel have created the situation of their own suffering. By disregarding the Lord's instructions, and then by abandoning the Lord, the people have effectively disposed of their roadmap to happiness and the very source of happiness himself. You may have heard something like this expression before. You lie in the bed you made. Through life choices, we create situations for ourselves that we then have to live with immediately andor years down the road. Sometimes the situations are external in nature. For example, the friends that we keep, how we treat the people around us, the place that we choose to live for a job or a better life, the types of qualities we look for or ignore in a spouse, the amount of time we spend with our kids, and how much of that time is spent on a phone. There are other choices that are more internal in nature. Like when we choose to make the world and material things more important than the neighbor, or when we allow false gods to influence our sense of right versus wrong and be our source of happiness. Also, when we choose to use spiritual concepts as tools of judgment instead of tools of self-improvement, all of these choices will impact the nature of our life. And then we will eventually live with the consequences of those choices. Eventually, we lie in the bed that we made. With that said, our life situation isn't as simple as just being made up of our own life choices. It's also made up of other people's choices that impact us. And sometimes the impact it has on us is paralysis. And with this in mind, we'll look at our story from Matthew. In our story from Matthew this morning, the man was paralyzed. So he couldn't move. Some people brought him to Jesus on some sort of bed. When we are spiritually paralyzed, there's something that keeps us from moving toward heaven and becoming an angel. It could be ideas or even life situations that are holding us back and paralyzing us. It can lead to life experiences that are similar to bodily paralysis. You feel like you aren't getting anywhere in your spiritual life. You feel helpless, like life is happening around you. You see other people making progress, but you aren't. You feel hopeless because there doesn't seem to be a cure for this paralysis. You may wonder what it might mean for the rest of your life stuck like this. Happiness seems out of reach. You may feel this way generally about your life, or you may feel this way about specific areas of your life, like your relationships, your marriage, your own self-respect, your relationship with God, etc., etc. In our story, the paralytic man is brought to Jesus. And the first thing Jesus does is he forgives his sins. Then at the end, Jesus tells him to take up his bed and go to his house. When it comes to our healing, the first order of business is internal. And it's something that the Lord does. And yet, despite it being the Lord's action, we still need to take part in it. Internally, on the inside, we have to want the Lord. And we have to recognize the need for him in our life. God is knocking, and you have to let him in. You have to want a better life and be willing to do something about it. This means no more excuses. You aren't blind to what you need. You're paralyzed by the lame reasonings that hold you back from attaining it. Now there's a difference between reasons and excuses. Reasons might explain why things are a certain way, but excuses, though, are fabrications for why we can't move forward to fix it. A reason for being angry could be that so-and-so did this thing to us. All right. We got angry because of that. It becomes an excuse when we fail to take responsibility for our anger and ask the Lord to help us change it. A reason that we don't pray or read the word daily is that we just have a lot going on and blah, blah, blah. But it becomes an excuse when we fail to put effort into amending our daily schedule to make time for more important things. In summary of this talk about excuses, don't let your reasons become excuses, because excuses are paralyzing. Continuing with the healing that Jesus performed on the paralytic, he said to the man, Arise, take up your bed and go to your house. Your bed is your external life, the situation you live in. And it also includes your senses and ideas that you hold in your memory. Essentially, it's everything about the way you interact with this external natural world. From where your body goes to what you learn with all of these things called senses. This bed of external experiences that we lie on is also where we can be asleep to more important things. And when we experience paralysis, it's where we stay without ever getting up to move around. Taking up our bed and walking means a change in that external situation that is keeping us trapped in that paralysis. If work keeps you from caring for your family, then change that situation. If your friends inspire you to drink more than you ought to, then change your friends. If staying up late means you're on the computer looking at things that heaven-bound people wouldn't watch, then stop staying up late or throw away your computer. If it's hard to keep yourself accountable, then find someone to help you stay accountable. Take up your bed. Many of these are valid reasons for why our life is a certain way, because they can feel very much outside of our control. Just a couple of examples of these paralyzing situations might be a marriage that ends without our consent. Or various types of abuses that nobody, and especially no kid in the world should have to suffer. But people do suffer, don't they? Jesus didn't hide that fact. In this world you will have suffering, he says. And the only thing that helps us through that is the fact that there is an all-loving God who wishes nothing more than to hold us to his bosom to comfort us on the other side of that suffering. The Lord has overcome the world. The Lord doesn't want our circumstances, whether they're self-created that cause our own suffering, or whether they're hellish things that happen to us, he doesn't want any of those circumstances to paralyze us for moving forward toward the peace and joy that He wants to give us. Start with that internal stuff. If you're allowing excuses to get in the way, then ask the Lord to get them out of the way and allow yourself to believe in a better life for which the Lord has not abandoned you. And then take up your bed and go to your house. Set yourself up for spiritual success in this natural world. Surround yourself with people who support a better version of you, not one that is stuck and paralyzed, saying, you're good enough as you are. Don't change a thing. Do you have friends and community around you like that that bring you to the Lord and don't inspire you to stay stuck? If not, then it's time to meet some. I don't mean that you need to drag your neighbor to church, but here are just some ways that might help someone experiencing paralysis. First, try being affirmative for them. You see, someone who's paralyzed has probably lost hope. And so you can hope for them. Remind them that it's never too late, as long as there's breath in their lungs, to go to the Lord and to make improvements in their life. Also, remind them they are not powerless because the Lord is their power. Yes, when we are apart from the Lord, we are and we can be powerless. But in the Lord is power. And also, it doesn't hurt to invite them to church, right? It could look like this: hey, want to grab some coffee on Sunday after church? I could either pick you up afterward or we could go to church together and then write out to coffee. And finally, a little listening and a lot of patience goes a long way. It probably took that person a long time to get where they are, and it's not going to take them just a few seconds to get out of it. Listen with love and be patient with their suffering. Jesus said, Be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you. Now arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. Amen.