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In today's gospel we meet a
fellow in real need. Mark omits much of the detail that we long for in
the story. Who was this paralyzed man? Who were the four who carried
him? Were they relatives, friends, neighbors, business associates? Did
the man ask them for help to get to the Lord? Or did they decide
to bring him to Jesus on their own?
Imagine their frustration when they spot the house and the surrounding
crowd. They were up to the challenge. Without a word of explanation,
they removed the roof until there was a hole large enough to lower the
man down, practically on top of our Blessed Lord.
It must have been difficult, even for Jesus, to ignore a mat with a
grown person lying on it, hanging over him. He must have looked up and
thought to himself, "What is this? How much do they love this fellow? No
small faith could make all this happen." Mark tells us that because
Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, "Child, your sins are
forgiven."
The religious officials
present were astonished at his choice of words. They considered it
blasphemy. But Jesus was speaking the truth and the proof was in the
power of the words themselves. Jesus knew precisely what He was saying.
He also knew exactly how it would be interpreted by his listeners. He
chose those words to make a point, that the Son of Man has the power to
forgive our sins and to overcome the paralysis in our lives. How else
would we come to know this on our own?
This is an important truth for us. We must believe that Jesus does have
the power to forgive our sins. All we have to do is to get to Him.
Usually He comes to us through others. Sometimes people go to Him.
Occasionally it takes four strong men to carry a person to the Lord. How
you get there doesn't really matter. What is important is that Christ's
forgiveness becomes real for you. His forgiveness is the beginning; Paul
called it the first installment of something completely new, life in the
Spirit of Christ.
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