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(Mark 221-12)-- When Jesus 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!"
Today we hear the prophet Isaiah speak in the name of the Lord: "Do not remember the former things, or consider the things
of old. I am about to do a new thing."
Jesus does a "new thing" in today's gospel. He disconnects a conventional belief about the relationship between
illness and sin, and he breaks open the door to forgiveness.
It starts as a story about friends and a man who can't walk. The word goes out through the village. Jesus is back.
They've heard the stories about his healing power. Four friends get together and carry (or maybe drag against his will) their
friend who is disabled and cannot walk. When they get to the place where Jesus is, it is an impossible scene. People are
stuffed inside the home; they are crowded around the doors and windows. There's no way in.
But these are determined and resourceful friends. They make their way to the roof. The roof was the favorite part of
a middle-eastern home. Supported by heavy wooden beams that rested on the walls of the home, the roof was made with smaller
cross-beams covered with layers of brush, reeds, mud, grass and clay. All homes had a stone staircase or wooden ladder for
climbing on the roof, and it wasn't too difficult to open up a portion of the roof for ventilation or access. Women did many
household chores on the roof, and families relaxed there during the cool of the evening, escaping the noise and dust of the
street. (Harper's Encyclopedia of Bible Life, 1978, p. 39-40)
These four friends found a way to dig through the roof and lower their disabled friend into Jesus' presence. The gospel
account says that Jesus saw their act as "faith." Most of the time in Mark's gospel, the word faith describes acts
of perseverance, a willingness to persist and to overcome obstacles to accomplish something good. Faced with an impossible
crowd, these friends persevered to get their friend to Jesus. And Jesus saw their faith, and said, "Son, your sins are
forgiven."
Now that's not what they wanted. They wanted their friend healed. Instead, Jesus announces forgiveness. Their perseverance,
their faith, gets a test. But there is something more going on here.
Conventional wisdom is what everyone knows. Everyone knows that if you work hard, eventually you will succeed, we say.
In Jesus' day, everyone knows that illness or deformity is a consequence of sin. You can feel that understanding in the very
meaning of the word "sin." It is a term from archery, which means "missing the mark, missing the target."
Sin is some sort of failure. And a person who cannot walk, it was reasoned, is a person who has failed to be a whole person,
one who has missed the mark of wholeness. There must be some reason for that failure. It must be sin, they concluded. There
were various schools of thought. It may be the consequence of an ancestor's sin; it may be punishment for that person's own
sin.
Jesus didn't talk about sin much, at least not in the abstract. He didn't teach on its origins or its causes -- what
is a sin or what isn't a sin -- he didn't even lecture on sin's consequences. In the gospels we see Jesus being very conscious
of the reality of sin, but primarily in the act of being victorious over it. In Mark's gospel the context of any reference
to sin is always something about sins being forgiven.
So, four friends lower their crippled friend into Jesus' presence, and Jesus says, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
(I like better the translation, "My child, your sins are forgiven.")
If anyone thought that this disabled man was that way because of his sins, Jesus has just challenged their thoughts.
"My child, you are forgiven," he says. The separation between you and God is erased. You and God are reconciled.
But he's still disabled. He is restored to oneness with God, says Jesus, yet he is without physical healing.
Jesus' words cause some silent rumbling. He's raised a controversy. First, this announcement of God's forgiveness.
Who is he to be saying such things? That kind of pronouncement is reserved for the temple priests. Second, who is this that
he is saying such things to? Would God really forgive this kind of person? This man's deformity is an obvious sign of his
sin. Would God give forgiveness to such people, they wondered? Jesus can sense their discomfort.
As Jesus so often does, he confronts their questions with a question? "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Stand up and take your mat and walk'?" In one sense it's as easy to say one as
the other. But there is some difference.
For Jesus, it would be a lot easier to say "Stand up and take your mat and walk." People were attracted to
Jesus' healing ministry. The only time it got him in trouble was when he did it on the Sabbath. People liked his healing,
and that's the easier thing for him to say. The controversy starts when he says something like "Your sins are forgiven."
That'll earn him the charge of blasphemy.
Nevertheless, Jesus sets up the healing with these words: "So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority
on earth to forgive sins..." This phrase "Son of Man" is an ambiguous one. The book of Daniel references
an eschatological son of man who is coming with the clouds. But in Mark's gospel, the phrase "Son of Man" seems
always to emphasize the humanness of Jesus, like the way C.S. Lewis speaks of the human children in Narnia as "Sons of
Adam" and "Daughters of Eve." So the "Son of Man" speaks to the paralytic, "I say to you, stand
up, take your mat and go to your home." The crippled man stands and walks out before them.
Matthew adds this phrase in his version of this story, "When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they
glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings." (emphasis added) The door to forgiveness has swung wide
open. Forgiveness is universally available. You don't have to go to the temple or the priest or the church. Whatever you
loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, Jesus says later.
Some folks won't like this. Especially the whole temple monopoly, a huge business which makes its money selling forgiveness.
Especially the folks who want to protect God's prerogatives; only God can forgive sins, you know. Especially those who are
comfortable with the old orthodoxies; when you see a crippled person you know someone sinned. You don't have to feel any
sense of responsibility for people who suffer as long as you are content that they deserve it. I imagine the home-owner is
not too pleased with the hole in his roof. And I wonder about the healed man. He's going to have to find a job now. Nobody's
going to bring him his meal on his mat anymore. There is a lot of discomfort at the close of this story.
I wonder about those words Jesus spoke as he healed the man. "Take up your mat and go to your home." I wonder
if there is some reconciliation of relationships going on in that statement. Sometimes families find they cannot deal with
severe illnesses. In those days, sometimes crippled persons lived by begging on the street. Their sin was so public that
their existence was shaming to their family. "Go to your home." Those words may represent a profound event of
social healing. After all, the alienation of sin is not only with an individual's restored relationship with God. The alienation
of sin is cured when we have social wholeness as well.
Jesus has exercised authority over sin and over disease. He has also stirred up a bunch of stuff. There will be ripples
of healing and conflict spreading out from this event. It's like that a lot when Jesus is acting in human affairs.
I hope this story stirs up a bunch of stuff in you. Where in your life are you paralyzed? Stuck? What keeps you on
your mat? What dysfunction do you live with that is more comfortable than change? What act of faith might lead you toward
wholeness? How do you need to persevere, to be determined and resourceful? Who are your friends who can help you move and
shake things enough to break through the roof toward new hope? Where do you need to let go of old thoughts and embrace the
new thing God is doing? What failure to meet the mark can you forgive? Who has been outside your boundaries of forgiveness?
What do you need forgiveness for? Accept it. It's free. Jesus says to you, "My child, your sins are forgiven."
Stand up, lift your head high, and walk. Come home. Experience the reconciling power of Jesus' healing presence.
Oh, all of this may cause a stir or make somebody uncomfortable. That's okay. Don't let the crowd deter you. Be of
strong faith. Persevere. "Your sins are forgiven. ...Stand up and take up your mat and walk."
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Thanks to Brian P. Stoffregen and his Exegetical Notes at crossmarks.com for several ideas incorporated into this sermon.
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