St. Mark 2:1-28: "1 And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. 2 Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. 3 Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. 4 And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven you.' 6 And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 'Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?' 8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, 'Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven you," or to say, "Arise, take up your bed and walk?" 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins'--He said to the paralytic, 11 'I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.' 12 Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, 'We never saw anything like this!' 13 Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. 14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, 'Follow Me.' So he arose and followed Him. 15 Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, 'How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?' 17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.' 18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, 'Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?' 19 And Jesus said to them, 'Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.' 23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, 'Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?' 25 But He said to them, 'Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?' 27 And He said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.'"
In today's reading, our Lord is under constant attack. It seems everything that He does in today's reading from the Gospel of St. Mark is met with accusing questions. We can definitely see the hand of the devil in these questions. The devil seeks to lead men away from the truth, and therefore he plants doubt into men's hearts.
Our Lord is simply doing what the Messiah is supposed to do, heal the lame, preach, and give forgiveness to sinners. However, these are met with opposition. The first thing our Lord is accused of is blasphemy, which is what He is eventually accused of that led to His crucifixion. The Jews considered it blasphemy to forgive someone, for afterall, as the pericope points out, they believed only God could forgive sins. This proves one thing for us for certain, that our Lord Jesus is the Son of God; that He is the God/man incarnate who was promised from long ago, and has come into the world to redeem us. For those of us trained to see these things and believe, it is hard for us sometimes to grasp why the people in the Gospel doubt so much. But this is not an uncommon reaction when people come in contact with the mysteries of God.
The same can be said of the mysteries of today, of water, wine and bread, and word. Our Lord veils Himself in these things, yet we only see these physical elements, just like the Jews of our Lord's day only saw a man. How can water do such great things? How can bread and wine be the Body and Blood of our Lord? How can the proclamation of a guy dressed in a funny robe actually bring forgiveness? These things cannot be by themselves, but it is the Word of God attached to them that makes them these things.
The Jews only see Jesus. He is just a man, they assume. However, His Word, is the Word of God, and this man's sins are forgiven in Heaven, and they are forgiven on earth by our Lord. But our Lord, in order to show the crowds His true authority and reveal His divine nature, He heals the paralytic.
Now, there is a point that should be made here before moving on, and that is that when our Lord tells the paralytic to get up and go, we see His true divine power and nature. For let us view this from the paralytics standpoint. He has lost the ability to use his limbs, and therefore, he has lost his muscle memory. It is easy for us to move around; to get up and go, because we don't need to tell our muscles to react to the brain's impulses, as a matter of fact, we don't even consciously think about getting up to walk, or anything other activity that requires our arms and legs. Not so with the paralytic, he hasn't used them, and he has lost his muscle memory. We can be certain that he has tried many times to will his body to do what he wants it to do, but it just won't happen.
This is what makes this healing so full of awe, because when our Lord says, "Arise, take up your bed and walk," he immediately (and this is one of St. Mark's favorite words in his Gospel) gets up and walks. He doesn't have to think about it, he just does it. Not only that, but this man's limbs would have been useless because of atrophy from lack of use. Again, this does not come into play, for our Lord heals him completely in mind, body, and soul. To say it another way, our Lord has re-created him, restored him to his original self. And not just physically, but also spiritually, for he forgives him of his sins. Even his soul is re-created, that is, restored to its original nature, simply by our Lord speaking His Word.
This is what our Lord does for us when He speaks His Word into our ears, through water, wine and bread, and word. He re-creates us, He restores us to our original nature, removing from us the stain of sin and death, so that we may walk in His way. This re-creation, this restoration, is given to us in the holy means that our Lord has given us to use just for this purpose. And these holy means are found only in the house of God. Therefore, we have a need just like this paralytic, who had to be brought to our Lord Jesus in the house, and even when there was no room, he was let down through the roof. We have this need as well to be brought to where our Lord is giving out His holy Word, in the house of God. So that having been let down into the house, that is, upon humbling ourselves in His presence, we may rightly receive His holy gifts, and be healed of all of our sins.
May God be with you!
Deacon Dulas
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