Thursday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 22, 2026

Mark 3, 7-12

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples. A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea. Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him. He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him. And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God.” He warned them sternly not to make him known.

According to St. Mark, after the tumult with the Pharisees, to whom he revealed himself as the Forgiver of sins, the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Reviver of Israel, Jesus led his disciples back to the Sea of Galilee, perhaps near Capernaum.  It is worth noting that, according to the Gospels, most of his preaching and miracles took place in the string of towns that hugged the sea.  Using a map of the area as it was in Roman times, we can trace his movements on the sea’s western edge.  He did work in Judea too, but apparently only on the occasions when the Jews went up to Jerusalem for the holy days.  He also made a couple of excursions across the Jordan in the east and into Syrian territory to the north and west.  But by and large, at least according to the Gospels, he stuck to a small corner of Galilee.  This might seem odd for one who showed himself to be the Son of Man.  We might expect him to spend a great deal of time in Jerusalem.  Even his own Apostles wondered about this.  As St. Jude asked, during the Last Supper: “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (John 14, 22).  The Lord’s answer was one the Apostles would only understand after the Holy Spirit came to them: “If any one love me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make our abode with him” (John 14, 23).  That is, the believer Carrie’s Christ within him wherever he goes and so the Lord “goes” to people he could not have reached during his brief lifetime on earth.  It is also true for us poor children of Eve that we are more easily converted by the disciple than by the Master because while the Master overwhelms us, we perceive the disciple to be more like us.  Also, the greatest miracle the Master performs is that of conversion.  The devoted love of the converted disciple for the Master moves us and makes more sense to most of us than the love of the Master, which is beyond our understanding.  The infinite love of our God for such as we leaves us gaping, but the seeing return of this love by one who experiences it leaves us craving to have this too.

“Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.”  The Lord, by staying in the hinterland, draws all people to himself, and that is a sign for the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem to consider.  In a way, this also answers Jude’s question: the Lord does reveal himself to the world, but he does not need to go out to it since it is very willing to go out to him.  Many came to him, motivated by the desire to regain their health.  These suffered from chronic ailments and crippling conditions, and they endured great difficulties in finding him and traveling to him.  But they went, knowing him to be their only hope.  This gives us food for thought.  To go to him now requires overcoming our inertia, our daily routines, and our pride, but he is to be found easily by us in the Holy Scriptures and in the tabernacles of our churches.  The sick yearned to touch him, even slightly, to be healed.  We are touched by him in the reading of the Scriptures and in prayer before the Sacrament.  It is the same One with the same love and the same power and eagerness to heal.

“And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God.’  He warned them sternly not to make him known.”  The unclean spirits themselves wonder at his power, though they did not yet how true it was that he was the Son of God.  This too, provides food for thought.  Even the demons acclaimed his power while the Pharisees denied it.

Wednesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 21, 2026

Mark 3, 1-6

Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

It seems in this reading that Mark is continuing a narrative he began with his telling how Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath.  It would help to explain the end of the reading in which the Pharisees are so antagonized that they are willing to league themselves with the Herodians in order to destroy Jesus.  Just prior to today’s reading, the Pharisees, who had accused the Lord’s disciples of breaking the Sabbath, were reduced to silence by the Lord insisting that he was the Master of the Law rather than subject to it.  The Pharisees were aware of the miracles he had performed and could not argue against this, though they boiled within themselves.  Now, in today’s reading, the Lord and his disciples have crossed the grain field and entered a town, the name of which we are not told, though undoubtedly it was situated in Galilee.  Since it was the Sabbath, the Lord followed his custom of going to the synagogue in order to teach, commenting on the Law and the Prophets.  

“There was a man there who had a withered hand.”  Alternatives to “withered” include “parched” and “dried up”.  Evidently, he did not suffer from leprosy or he would not have been permitted inside.  The hand was useless though.  We see this verb used in Mark 11, 20: Jesus cursed the fig tree that had no figs though it was the season for them, and the tree is said to have “withered” as a result.  The direct style Mark employs here: “Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand” makes it seem that the Lord came purposefully to this synagogue on this day specifically to cure this man of this condition.  “He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come up here before us.’ ”  Jesus wastes no time but addresses the man, who has presumably stood in the back among the crowd.  The Greek tells us that Jesus actually said, “Stand up in the middle.”  And then the Lord addressed the Pharisees, probably sitting in places of honor in the front: “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”  This might be better translated, “to save a life or to kill it”.  Now, this is a curious question.  Jesus equates the healing of the hand, which he clearly intends to do, with the saving of a life.  Conversely, he equates taking no action with “killing” this life.  The Pharisees do not know what he is asking, or sees his words as a trap, and they do not respond.  

“Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart.”  The English does not do justice to what Jesus did.  The Greek says that Jesus looked around “with wrath” or “passion”.  This is the same wrath with which he will condemn the wicked at the end of the world.  His furious reaction to the hardened hearts of the Pharisees may seem a little overblown when we consider the bare facts, but something more is going on here.  The man’s withered hand signifies Israel while the rest of the man signifies the Gentiles.  It is “withered”, as the fig tree will be withered because it has become dead in sin and faithlessness.  This is also signified by the hearts of the Pharisees themselves, which are “hardened” — withered and useless.  The Lord would restore life to the hand — to Israel — but the Pharisees would prevent him.  We can see from this what the Lord means when he equates the healing of the hand with “saving a life”, whereas not acting allows it to remain dead — “kills” it through inaction.  And just as the Lord turned with anger from the unrepentant Israel in the days before he suffered, so here he turns with wrath from the teachers so many in Israel preferred to him.  But the Lord continues to feel compassion for the man and he heals his hand.  The Lord does not need the Pharisees in his plan to save the world.  Their hatred for him renders them useless for this purpose.

“The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.”  Ironically, the Pharisees answer the Lord’s question to them by going out to plan his Death even as he heals the man’s hand.  Their anger and envy have reached such a pitch that they become entirely irrational and they join with the detested Herodians in order to destroy him: they join with the forces that killed John the Baptist.  They would kill him themselves but they want political cover.  Of course, the miracle means nothing to them.  It often happens with us that we become so hardened in our opinions that any fact that contradicts them or does not support them becomes a personal attack that must be crushed.  People of that sort are very difficult to pray for, let alone to convert, and they may prove dangerous to believers.  But as the Lord died for them too, we pray and give good witness, striving to be our Lord’s faithful instruments in the redemption of the world.

Tuesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 20, 2026

Mark 2, 23-28

As Jesus wasy passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Curiously, neither Matthew nor Mark tell exactly why the Pharisees were able to accuse the disciples here.  It is the Gentile Luke who tells us that they were rubbing the heads of the grain in their hands (cf. Luke 6, 1).  The Mosaic Law declared that food should be gathered and cooked on the day before the Sabbath because this could not be done on the Sabbath itself.  The rubbing of the grain heads constituted a preparation of food for eating.  The basis of this law is found in Exodus 16, 23-24: “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay by to be kept till the morning.’ So they laid it by till the morning, as Moses bade them; and it did not become foul.”  The keeping of the Sabbath became one of the chief identifying marks of the Jew and consequently the breaking of the Sabbath in any way amounted to a very serious offense.  The Pharisees would seem to have a good reason to report the actions of his disciples to the Lord.

Jesus does not excuse his disciples or tell the Pharisees that they must have seen wrongly.  Instead, he uses the occasion to announce a new order in the world.  Just as he has shown that he has the power to forgive sin, so he has power over the Sabbath.  That is, he, the Son of Man written of in the Prophets, is not a mere mortal but comes from the Father and is endowed with the power of the Father.  He himself is not bound by the laws he makes, and can alter them at will.  No Pharisee would dare claim such power for himself, but no Pharisee was casting out demons, curing the sick, and forgiving sins.  

“Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?”  While his miracles backed up his claim to be the Forgiver of sins and the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord does refer back to the Scriptures for the benefit of the Pharisees.  In 1 Samuel 21, 1-6, King David is fleeing from his son Absalom, who has rebelled against him.  David and his followers come to Abimelech the Priest and ask for bread.  He has none but the loaves that are placed on the altar of God.  Since David and his men are ritually pure, Abimelech allows them to eat these loaves, as there are no others.  The priest alters the Law on his own account for David’s sake.  If Abimelech, who made no claims of divine authority and performed no miracles, could do this, then certainly Jesus could.  The Pharisees listen to him but do not reply.  Certainly they murmured among themselves, but they had no answer to offer, nothing with which to contest his words.  

Jesus declares, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  He teaches us that the purpose of the Law is the salvation of the human race.  Previously, kings had made laws in order to show their power.  As he would later remind his disciples, “You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and that they that are the greater, exercise power upon them” (Matthew 20, 25).  But God makes his Law to safeguard his people.  He makes a “narrow way” (cf. Matthew 7, 13) for us so that we might have the consolation of two walls or rails to feel as we go along to him.  

Monday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 19, 2026

Mark 2, 18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

“The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.”  The verb here is in the imperfect, and so the sentence means: “The disciples . . . were those who fasted.”  While the Law prescribed fasting at various times, members of such sects as the followers of John the Baptist and the Pharisees fasted regularly at other times as well.  In fact, fasting might be said to be their norm, with meals and feasting the exception.  This practice marked out the members of the sect from other Jews and also unified the members among themselves.  In some cases, the fasting was undertaken as penance and in others as a sign of preparedness for the coming of the Messiah and the “wedding feast” he would inaugurate: “He that has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice” (John 3, 39).  

“People came to Jesus and objected.”  The Greek text does not identify who it was who came to Jesus, here, although the inference is that it was a group of the disciples of the Pharisees and/or of John the Baptist.  It does not seem to be simply members of a curious crowd.  Also, the Greek text says nothing like “objected”.  The Greek verb means “they say”.  And so it seems that a group of those who were members of these sects were discussing their ways of life and someone brought up the followers of Jesus.  Did they not fast?  The question may seem trifling to us but actually had important ramifications.  Membership in a sect was tightly regulated.  We see this particularly among the Essenes, whose writings on the subject have come down to us.  A prospective member went through a probationary period of learning and conversion which might last years.  Being allowed to fast and eat within the sect was seen as a privilege.  But the disciples of Jesus did not fast — that is, above and beyond the fasting imposed by the Law.  It seemed, then, that there were no special requirements for a person to be his disciple.  What, then, did it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?  From the outside, it seemed very vague.

“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?”  The Lord identifies his disciples as “wedding guests”, that is, the friends of the bridegroom, thus making himself to be the bridegroom.  Since he uses terms John the Baptist used, this may indicate that Jesus was speaking primarily to John’s disciples here.  But the “bridegroom” of whom John spoke was the Messiah, and they all knew this well.  Jesus is telling them that his disciples did not fast because the sign was now fulfilled and fasting at this time was inappropriate because he, the Messiah, had arrived.  “As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.”  The words “when the bridegroom is taken away” would not have made sense to them because according to their understanding of the Prophets, the Messiah, when he came, would institute a new age for Israel.  There would be no “taking away”.  Of course, we understand that the Lord is speaking of his Passion and Death and, following his Ascension into heaven, the remainder of the age until he comes again to judge the living and the dead.  The Lord speaks in prophecy.  But the fact that he left these others in darkness regarding his meaning reminds them that they are not his followers, and that there is a limit to what they can understand about him as outsiders.  

This “limit” as to what outsiders can understand about him is key to what he says next: “No one pours new wine into old wineskins.”  All the Evangelists quote Jesus using this figure.  The Lord is simply saying that without grace, faith is impossible (and without faith, we cannot understand who the Lord is or what he did except on a very rudimentary level).  Faith cannot be imparted to a person who is not made a new creation in baptism.  Grace makes a person a “vessel” capable of being filled with the “new wine” of faith.  

Baptized in Christ, we are new wineskins filled with his new wine, but we are not made so only in order to sit around and age in a cellar.  We are to go forth and to witness to the glory of our Vintner.

The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 18, 2026

John 1, 29–34

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’ I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.” John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

At the time the Lord Jesus walked the earth, John the Baptist alone fully understood that the Messiah promised by God through the Prophets would take away the sins of the world, dying a sacrificial death.  The Pharisees and the rabbis of the time did not understand this.  For them, the Messiah would free Jerusalem from the Romans and rule as the new King of Israel.  The Holy Spirit revealed this to John because John was fully open to the will of God.  The others had locked themselves in their fantasies.  When John declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, he was using a term not found in the Scriptures.  The term might have been understood as a lamb destined for sacrifice in the Temple, but to call it “the Lamb of God” would have sounded ridiculous.  It singles out a particular lamb for special notice while large numbers of sheep were sacrificed every day.  It made far less sense to speak of a man in this way.  The use of the phrase would certainly have caused people to stop what they were doing and listen to John to see what he meant by this novel combination of words.

First, John was designating a particular individual within his sight.  Second, he explained that it was of this man that he had spoken earlier: “A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.”  Now, we should keep in mind that Jesus was at that moment standing in the crowd or just on its fringe.  John proclaims, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him.”  John here gives us his own description of the Baptism of the Lord.  It is from his words that we learn for certain that he, and not Jesus alone, saw the Holy Spirit descend upon him.  John would have proclaimed this to the crowd after watching in wonder as Jesus climbed out of the river onto the shore and disappeared into the crowd of people also seeking baptism.  Marveling at what had happened — the appearance of the Lord, his words, and the descent of the Holy Spirit — left John struggling for words.  “I did not know him.”  The Greek gives the sense of, I did not know that this was him.  Thus is fulfilled Isaiah 53, 2: “He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, 

and no beauty that we should desire him.”  The Son of God makes himself so much like us that he has no distinguishing features.  He looks just like us.  This “lamb” looks like every other lamb.  Only the revelation by  “the one who sent me to baptize with water” identified him both as the One who was to come after him, and that he was the Lamb of God.  Further inspired by the Holy Spirit, John confesses, “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God through the gift of Faith given us by the Holy Spirit.  For so many people, he is no one, of no account.  In today’s society, he is hardly known at all.  He is just a meaningless face in the crowd, one lamb among thousands in a pasture.  Through the Holy Spirit, you and I are John the Baptist, pointing to him with our words and deeds.

Saturday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 17, 2026

Mark 2:13-17

Jesus went out along the sea. All the crowd came to him and he taught them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed Jesus. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him. Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard this and said to them, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When we read this question posed by the Pharisees, we are likely to put emphasis on “tax collectors and sinners”, as though it read: Why would he eat with them. But we can read the question another way, putting emphasis on “he”: Why does he, who performs miracles, eat with them? 

Throughout the first and second chapters of his Gospel, Mark reports that Jesus had performed many miracles in and around the city of Capernaum, including an exorcism within the synagogue. He had spent hours healing people who came from far and near, and had even proven that he possessed the power to forgive sins. Along with the sick, the blind, and the lame came the local Pharisees. They witnessed the healings, they heard the Lord preach, they asked questions about him and his origins. In the end they could not say who he was. He could not be the Messiah: “But we know this man, where he is from: but when the Christ comes, no man knows where he  comes from” (John 7, 27). Nor did he claim to be the Messiah — or anyone else. So they watched him carefully, this man of mystery and contradiction, this man of power.

Furthermore, he chose his disciples. But no teachers did that. A student who wanted to learn from a particular teacher would seek the man out and ask to learn from him. But here is Jesus picking his own students, and the least likely students: fishermen. And now he picks a tax collector. Just as astonishing, the tax collector agrees to be his student, giving up his lucrative tax collecting position.

And now this Jesus goes to eat at the tax collector’s house. The Pharisees note to their confusion and horror: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Why does this man of wisdom and divine power, choose to eat with these people? What could he want with them? What did his preference for fellowship say about him?

The Lord tells them: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” This would have come to the Pharisees as incomprehensible babble. This man of power calls himself a physician and says that “he has come” to “call” the sick, the sinners. This was not the way justice worked, in their minds. A person who sinned must seek out help for himself, but here was Jesus who went to sinners in order to call them to repentance and who would forgive their sins. The Pharisees and the priests would walk by a sinner without a word, just as the Levite and the priest had walked by the robbed and wounded man whom the Good Samaritan healed.

We should be filled with awe that the Son of God has chosen us to follow him, to be joined to him through baptism, to receive him in Holy Communion. Who is he, indeed, who would do this for us?

Friday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 16, 2026

Mark 2, 1-12

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” – he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

“Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him.”  The initiative of the men carrying the paralytic on his mat is striking.  They persisted in their plan to bring him before the Lord even when they received no help or encouragement from those around them.  Not bothering to complain or make demands, they concentrated on what they wanted to do and accomplished it.  In this way, they acted as the man’s servants, whatever their actual relationship to him may have been.  The lazy servant stands around and makes excuses and complains at the slightest sign of difficulty.  He does not want to do his job and so looks for opportunities to give up and blame others for his failure.  But the industrious servant sees options and makes many attempts until his object is obtained.  This is the difference between the lost soul and the saint.  Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 25 when he gives the words of the damned at the time of their judgment: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and not feed you?”  The outlook of the saint is always, “Look at all the ways I can serve the Lord today!”

“When Jesus saw their faith.”  Now, you and I can see faith indirectly through the outward actions of a person, but even so we are making an assumption.  In this case, how would we know the men were not being paid a lot of money to help the paralytic in this case?  But the Lord Jesus “saw” or “recognized” their faith — that is, their belief that he could heal this man.  He looked into their hearts and saw what was truly there.  It seems very likely that they had come some distance because some days earlier, the Lord had healed all the sick in the town and its environs and then gone away to preach.  Word of his power traveled through the country meanwhile and over the course of days many who lived several miles away came across the country.  Thus, when Jesus “saw” the faith of the men who carried the paralytic, he saw them laboriously hauling him from a great distance for several days.  He saw their single-hearted devotion to this man.  He saw the suffering they had willingly endured for him.  It is as much for them as for the paralytic that the Lord did what he did next.

“Child, your sins are forgiven.” The paralytic was brought for the healing of his body, but the Lord grants the healing of his soul.  The paralytic asks for a crust of bread and the Lord provides him with a feast.  This reminds us of how the Lord fed the large crowds.  The people would have been more than satisfied with a little food, enough to strengthen them for their journey home.  And yet he offered them more than they could eat.  He shows his willingness to answer our prayers and even to go beyond them to answer those desires which we dare not voice even to ourselves.  In forgiving the man’s sins, the Lord also shows the higher nature of the soul than the body and how our care for our souls ought to greatly exceed that which we spend on our bodies.  The Lord’s restoration of the man’s ability to walk comes across in this account as almost incidental, and is accomplished mainly to provide the sign of the greater, inward, healing he has received. This marks the beginning of the Lord’s campaign to teach the meaning of sin, its affects on the soul, and our need of forgiveness — which can only come from him.  The scribes understood right away the point he was advancing and so they challenged him: “Who but God alone can forgive sins?”  While a good question, they should have thought a little deeper: Only God can heal a paralytic.  Is this God?  If this is God, then of course he can forgive sins.  But they looked at Jesus — not at his works — and decided he could not be God.

The people did not fully understand what had taken place, but they saw the work Jesus performed and wondered at it.  What did it mean?  What did this powerful deed say about the one who performed it? “They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’ ”  The crowd wondered, showing that they were ready for faith.

The man walked the long way home, carrying his mat.  He must have kept it with him the rest of his life so that he could remember his once helpless state and the One who had raised him from it.