When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the paralytic— ‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’
REFLECT
This is a healing story. But it isn't the kind of healing story we think it is. Most of them aren't. Stories about healing in the bible are never just about a restored physical condition. Truth is, there's no such thing. our physical health is tied to our mental, emotional and spiritual health.
The context is important, too. We have a crowd listening to Jesus teach. The room is full and the door is blocked. No one else is getting access to Jesus. There are people on the inside who have access and there are people on the outside who don't. What's the difference? In that place, there was no handicapped access. Mark tells us this for a reason. No one else is getting in to see Jesus.
Except for four persistent people who carry a paralyzed man to the house and lower him through the roof to Jesus' feet. The clue that this healing is different is in Jesus' response to the presence of the paralyzed man. he says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." This is not about a spinal chord injury or cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy or ALS. These are terrible physiological diseases and injuries that can leave people paralyzed. I think Mark is talking about a different sort of paralysis here. A physical manifestation of a deeper, underlying condition at work in this man's life.
1. This is a story about the barriers and obstacles, the fear and doubt, that paralyze us and prevent us from living as Sons and Daughters of God. Whatever psychologically and physically bound this man and held him down, it was preventing him from seeing and believing that he was a son of God with the power and authority of God in his life. He could not stand on his own two feet. What knocks people down and keeps them down? What prevents people from accepting the truth about themselves, that they are broken children of a loving and healing and forgiving God? Forgiveness means to be set free from punishment. Often, we punish ourselves with shame and guilt and self-hatred and envy.
All of us feel paralyzed, stuck, trapped, sometimes. With no control, no power. We lie down. We give up. We doubt ourselves.
2. None of us gets anywhere alone. Friends, a community of caregivers, bear us up and go with us. They surround us and keep us moving. They fight for access and for healing on our behalf. When we are paralyzed, others have to lift us up and do our walking and working for us. And there are times when we are called on to lift and carry and walk and dig and go first in order to break down walls and move communities into compassion. Name four people in your life who support you and lift you up.
3. The life God intends for us is accessible, despite the barriers and challenges, and closed doors we might face. We persevere together. I believe that this is church. A people who are sometimes paralyzed and sometimes on the move together, seeking the life God intends for all of us, seeking to live into our truest, best selves. The church is an empowerment movement toward Jesus, the one who forgives us enough to become more and more like him--authentic Son of God.
4. Too often, church looks like the closed door gathering of religious types hanging around Jesus, hoarding attention and witholding mercy, while those who need access to God's mercy lie outside without acknowledgement or a sense of power. More and more people have been denied access to God through the church. Church has become barrier, instead of conduit. Some of us know what that means. We have experienced neither the forgiveness that sets us free and builds us up nor the empowerment that gets us moving toward God and the world at the same time. That is the movement for those who accept the teachings of Jesus. One moves closer to God and one moves deeper toward the world God made. Access to God is never denial of the world. We relearn what it means to live as human beings in and for the world God made and loves with such a costly and generous love.
Let's become the church that brings the paralyzed to Jesus. Let's be the church that provides full and complete access to God for those who seek it. Let's be the church that lifts up those who are paralyzed and bear them to Jesus, the source of all healing and freedom.
What do you need to let go of, forgive, be free from, in order to get up and be more fully and completely the person God intends for you to be? What prevents you from embracing your true identity as an empowered child of God with a mission in this life to bring about the Kingdom/peaceful and just rule of God in this present place and time? What would Jesus say to you, if you were on that mat?
PRAY
Jesus, forgive our sins and free us to follow you. Amen.
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