Mark 2:1-12
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 paralysed 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!’
***********************************************
We get so stuck in thinking in one way. What does it take to open up the roof? To recognize God at work?
***********************************************
We get so stuck in thinking in one way. What does it take to open up the roof? To recognize God at work?
There is something going on with the "forgiveness" vs "healing" -- as if there is one more piece of the story we aren't being told. Why does Jesus start with "your sins are forgiven"? Jesus doesn't, as far as we know, say that to every random person he meets on the street; it must be related to the paralyzed man and his friends bringing him for healing. Is it just an attention-getting opening? Did Jesus know he was dealing with a psychosomatic problem? Would Jesus have been content to forgive the man, without healing his physical condition?
ReplyDeleteMark is interested in such different details of this story than I am.
you and me both! And then there are times in the Jesus story where we're told that he asks "What do you want?" when we think it would be awfully obvious (the blind man coming for healing, who has to say - "I'd like to see.") But Jesus doesn't ask here - just makes this, what seems to me, wild leap. There is something much deeper about the connection between forgiveness and healing, but Mark doesn't give many clues here. I wonder about the beginning of this section, where it doesn't talk about him healing people - "he was speaking the word to them." Maybe that has something to do with why he didn't start with healing the guy who came down through the roof.
ReplyDelete