Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-january-16-2025
Mark 2:1-12
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . .” He said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
I’m always happy when I see this story come up in the lectionary – and especially Mark’s account, which is understood to be Peter’s eyewitness testimony. One of the reasons I like the story so well is that it flies in the face of our common assumptions about ‘religious’ behavior.
This is a story from the early chapters of Mark, which means it probably took place close to the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. He had been baptized by John the Baptist, and then had been tested in the wilderness. He had begun calling disciples, and had started casting out demons and performing the miraculous healings that would draw huge crowds of people. We’ve thought about some of these stories in our Reflections over the past couple of weeks.
By this point, Jesus seems to have moved from his boyhood home of Nazareth to the town of Capernaum. The Bible doesn’t tell us why, but some historians say the Romans were building a major administrative center nearby, and that it might have employed large numbers of building tradesmen. So as a carpenter, Jesus might have moved to Capernaum to work on that project.
In any case, the story we’re thinking about today says that “people heard that he had come home,” so apparently “home” at this point in his life was Capernaum. Jesus seems to have come home from one of his ministry trips through the region. And the text gives the impression that Jesus was at his own house – that he had become so well known that people from the town turned out to hear him teach and preach when they heard he had come home. And it was while he was teaching this crowd that a group of men came carrying a paralyzed friend on a mat.
The guys were determined to get their friend into the presence of Jesus so that he could be healed. In fact, they were so determined that they climbed up onto the roof and made a hole in it so they could lower the paralyzed man through. The wording of the passage suggests that the house might have had a kind of thatched roof, since the men are said to be “digging through it.”
It’s hard not to be struck by the determination the men showed. They refused to be stopped by the crowds of people hanging around Jesus’ house listening to him teach. And when you think about it, these guys were so determined they were willing to risk offending Jesus by tearing a hole in his roof!
But it seems that they had a pretty good sense of how Jesus would react, because the story gives us no indication that he objected to what they did. In fact, he seems to have approved; the text says that “when Jesus saw their faith,” he acted to help the paralyzed man.
That’s one of the aspects of the story that are different from our common religious ideas. We assume that it’s the faith of a suffering person that allows them to be healed. We’re used to reading that Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well,” or something like that. But here it’s the faith of his friends – including their willingness to tear a hole in Jesus’ roof – that leads Jesus to help the paralyzed man.
This suggests to me that there are times when our faith can cause God to act in the lives of our friends. Maybe this story is meant to teach us is that it’s really important for us to do whatever we can to get our friends into the presence of Jesus. Even if it means taking some risks to do it. Even if it means violating polite decorum – risking offending someone. These guys seem to have taken a risk, and their risk seems to have paid off in the end.
Most of us are pretty hesitant to share our faith with our friends. We’re afraid they’ll think we’re ‘religious nuts’ or something like that. But this story seems to say that miraculous things can happen when we’re willing to take a risk to get our friends into the presence of Jesus. And it doesn’t have to mean telling them they need to ‘get saved.’ It can mean letting them know about meaningful parts of our own lives of faith – things we’ve read or watched or service projects we’ve done in Jesus’ name.
The second thing about this passage that really catches my attention is the specific action Jesus took for this paralyzed man who literally “dropped in on him.” I think it’s safe to assume that the man’s friends expected Jesus to heal the man’s paralysis. But that’s not what Jesus did. (At least not at first.) Jesus looked at the man and declared that his sins were forgiven.
This story always suggests to me that when we think of the kind of sins Jesus would be most concerned about, they’re not the kind of sins we would usually picture a paralyzed person committing. Physical violence. Sexual immorality. Theft and greed. But this paralyzed man’s heart might have been full of anger and bitterness. Maybe envy and jealousy. Maybe even resentment of God over his physical condition. We don’t know what sins were crippling this man spiritually. But whatever they were, it seems that they took precedence in Jesus’ mind over the man’s paralysis.
I suspect that that most of us have something we’d like God to heal. But this passage suggests to me that in God’s mind, our sins are the highest and most urgent priority. Maybe it’s only when those sins are taken care of that God is interested in going on to the external things like physical health and well-being – the things that seem so important to us.
So I guess that’s why I think this story strikes me as outside the normal religious ways
of thinking – because there are a couple of twists in the story that are easy to miss, but that really have something to say to us about our relationship to our God in Jesus, and about what we should be hoping to get out of it.
Let’s pray. Lord, we pray that you will nurture in us a faith that makes us want to bring those we care about into your presence, and a determination that’s willing to take risks to do that. And remind us daily that you are more concerned about our spiritual health than our physical health – and that turning aside from our sins makes us ‘healthier’ in your eyes. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
Recent Comments