Seventh Sunday of Year (B)
Mark 2, 1-12.
Ch 2 of Mark consists of five conflict stories. The first conflict in today’s gospel is about Jesus’ claim to have the power to forgive sin. Every Jew knew that such power belonged to God alone
Jesus returns to Capernaum, and as soon as word got around that he was back the people mob the house where he is staying, probably Peter’s house. It is full to capacity and the door is blocked. While he was preaching the word to them four men arrive carrying a paralytic – a young man probably. Unable to enter they improvise an entry via the roof and lower the stretcher down in front of Jesus.
Responding to their determination and their unshakable faith in his power to help them, Jesus announces to the paralytic that his sins are forgiven. He was making a claim that only God could make.
The reaction of the scribes present – the scholars and legal experts of Judaism – is outrage. Jesus discerns what they are thinking “How can this man talk like that?” utter such blasphemy, “Who can forgive sin but God alone?” There is an element of contempt in the phrase “this man” – this fellow! Their mistake was to take him as a mere man.
Knowing their thoughts, Jesus repeats the claim that he “the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sin” and to prove his point he publicly heals the paralytic before all present. In proof of his claim to have the power to forgive sin he commands him to pick up his palate and walk, which he does to the astonishment of the crowd. We are not told how the scribes reacted to the new claim and proof. We can guess! In working this miracle he has made two claims; that he can forgive sins and that he is the Son of Man, implying that he is the Messiah. In contrast with previous miracles Jesus seems quite unconcerned here about secrecy or that his divine identity is known.
The people express the sheer joy of the moment with dramatic understatement; “We have never seen anything like this.” In the words of Isaiah in today’s first reading, Jesus “was doing a new deed.”
Jesus made the physical healing of the paralytic a sign of the more radical inner healing from the crippling paralysis of sin.
Faith is the key to this miracle. Jesus noticed the faith both of the paralytic and his helpers that brought them to seek this healing.
It is only when we have a deep faith in the love, goodness and holiness and of God that we can appreciate how inimical to God sin is and how much we need to repent and be forgiven.
The four men carried the paralytic to meet Jesus. We too can be helped or help others to meet the Lord.
Father Geoff O’Grady