“…in order that you may know…” Mark 2:1-12
The story of the paralyzed man and his friends is well known. It’s one of those stories that is too amazing to have been made up. The friends bring the paralyzed man to Jesus, carrying him on a makeshift stretcher. The place is so crowded they can’t come near Jesus, so they get the bright idea of coming in through the roof. We probably all have a friend or two who thinks like this, much to our embarrassment. To make a long story short, Jesus heals the man, who picks up the stretcher and walks home. That’s about it, except there were some grumpy scribes there, too. But, of course, there is more to it.
The paralyzed man and his friends are known only by their actions, not their words. We can surmise that they were driven to act, but Jesus sees deeper than us and reveals a motive we can’t see: their faith. He also sees in this man what we cannot: his need for forgiveness. Well, you say, that’s a pretty easy call. We all need our sins forgiven. And besides, Jesus is trying to make a point with those scribes in the front row. True, but I don’t think Jesus was using the man to win an argument. What we know about Jesus tells us that he puts people first, acting with compassion towards them. Then he deals with those who have a problem with it.
The scribes were neither vocal nor active, and kept their thoughts to themselves. Their fault-finding and nit-picking letter-of-the-law approach to life led them to teach that the degree of a man’s affliction indicated the degree of his sin. No wonder the paralytic had his sins on his mind! Jesus saw this. His first words to the man are “Your sins are forgiven.” The scribe’s first thoughts were “blasphemy!” and “only God can forgive sins.” How do we know this? Jesus saw it and exposed their thoughts to the crowd, who were now anxious to see a healing.
Jesus asks the scribes point blank: “How can you think like this? Is it easier to say ‘be forgiven’ or ‘be healed’?” He then issues a challenge: “So you will know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins…” He turns to the paralytic, “Rise, take up your pallet and go home.” Which the man did. The people were amazed, never having seen anything like it. The scribes? We’re not told what they thought. But the growing conflict between the official religious establishment and Jesus was now evident. Was he a fraud or the real thing, the Son of God?