Friday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 14, 2021

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.