Meditation on Mark 2:1-12
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown
Pastor Karen Crawford
March 3, 2024: Third Sunday in Lent
My husband, Jim, has rejoined us for worship today. He drove himself to church. He has come a long way since his knee replacement surgery in January. Since then, we have had family and friends help in countless ways. We have felt your love and support throughout his healing journey. We are so thankful for all of you!
We all know the healing power of the prayers of the faith community—when we all go to Jesus together, anticipating a blessing, not only for the one needing the healing, but for the caregivers and those pleading on his behalf.
Our reading in Mark’s gospel is about the importance of the community’s work of faith for the healing of an individual and the overall wellbeing of the community.
Jesus is at his home in Capernaum, after completing a short preaching tour. The news of his coming and the power and authority of his healing and teaching has now spread. Jesus isn’t looking for more work to do. It isn’t as if Jesus has “put out a shingle saying, ‘the doctor is in.’” [1] If word hadn’t gotten out, Bible scholar Amy-Jill Levine speculates, “he could have spent more than a few days on personal care. But as health care workers know, if people know you care, they will ask for it.” [2]
The village of Capernaum isn’t anything like Smithtown. I was just thinking about that the other day, how I am always out walking in my neighborhood, but I don’t actually know more than a few of my closest neighbors, and we have lived here two years in May. I wave to people, but I don’t expect to be invited into their homes! Nor, would I want all of my neighbors to come into my home. We value our privacy, don’t we?
Not so in Jesus’ time. “Life in Palestine was very public,” says William Barclay. In the morning, the door was opened and anyone who wished might come out and in. The door was never shut unless (someone) wished for privacy; an open door meant an open invitation for all to come in.” [3] Jesus now finds “crowds pressing around the door as though he were a movie star or well-known footballer.” [4]
Four people come to Jesus, bringing their paralyzed friend on a mat. The Greek word translated “brought to” (prospheron) is an echo of other gospel healing stories when those who are sick or suffering are not able to get to the healer in their own strength. The four can’t get in because of the crowds. I wonder which one of the group said, “Hey, let’s go up on the roof!” They climb up, dig a hole, and lower him down to Jesus.
Are you curious about the house? Me, too. “The roof of a Palestinian house was flat. It was regularly used as a place of rest and quiet, and so usually there was an outside stair (that led to it). …The roof… (had) flat beams laid across from wall to wall…The space between the beams (maybe 3 feet) was filled with brushwood packed tight with clay…The roof was of earth and often a flourishing crop of grass grew on top.” If you were wondering, what the mat bearers did to the roof didn’t damage the house beyond repair. [5]
But those who stop at nothing to help their friend in today’s passage come with hope and faith that if they can just reach Jesus, everything will be OK. They aren’t disappointed.
Notice this is no marginalized person, despite his disability. This is no outcast. We don’t know his status in the community, but we see the community caring for him. It’s curious to me, though, that no family members are mentioned. In a society where family is everything, where is his family? Is he an older person, with no living family members? Has he ever been married with children? Is he a widower, whose wife was not able to have children? Had he been well and strong in his youth but an accident or illness robbed him of his health and mobility?
I yearn for more details.
And then a new idea comes to mind. Maybe this is a young man and his friends are all near his age, which might explain their lack of hesitation at digging through the roof. His youth may be confirmed by Jesus’s greeting as he is lowered down in front of him. He calls him “Child” before he tells him that his sins are forgiven.
Isn’t that the most curious thing of all—that Jesus tells him his sins are forgiven before he begins the work of healing? What’s amazing is that he says it after he sees, not the faith of the man on the mat, but the faith of his friends.
Some say his forgiveness is part of his healing. Many people believe that it’s because of their sin that they are sick. This was a common belief in the ancient world, that if someone was suffering, they must have done something wrong. They must have sinned. Think of Job’s friends!
It is quite possible that Jesus is just telling him what this man needs to hear so that he can forgive himself and receive the gift of healing.
When Jesus begins to forgive others of their sins, the religious authorities grumble among themselves. Because who can forgive sins, except for God? Jesus senses their spirit and knows what’s on their minds and, even more importantly, what’s in their hearts. In forgiving the man with paralysis, “Jesus is not acting on his own initiative but by the virtue of the authority, exousia, that has been invested in him as the Son of Man.” [6] The key sentence in this passage is when he says, “The son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He is the one of whom the prophet Daniel speaks in his vision in chapter 7, verses 13 and 14.[7]
“I saw in the night vision, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and was brought before him. And there was given to him dominion and honor and a kingdom, so that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his authority (exousia) is an everlasting authority, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed.”
Jesus, when he is betrayed, arrested, and interrogated by the council in Mark 14:62, will answer the High Priest, when he asks if he is the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One, ‘I am.’ And he quotes Daniel’s vision, “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
In Mark 2, Jesus ends the argument with the religious leaders over his authority to forgive the man who wasn’t able to draw near to him on his own, but needed help from his friends. He ends the argument by healing him.
“ ‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home,’ Jesus says. The man 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!’” The man who wasn’t marginalized with his disability—and was cared for by his neighbors—is now a living testimony in his own community to the power and authority of Christ to heal and forgive.
In a few moments, we will gather, once again, at the Lord’s Table, to experience Christ’s presence, partake of the bread and cup, pray, and be strengthened to labor with him in his ministry of forgiveness, healing, peace, and reconciliation.
Friends, we are those who carry the mats for people who cannot, in their own strength, draw near to Jesus. We are the ones who will stop at nothing to find healing for our loved ones, even if it means tearing a hole in a roof. But we are also those who are carried by others, when we are not strong enough to do it for ourselves.
In Mark 9:34 and 35, the disciples will have an argument. Who is the greatest among us?
Jesus answers, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servants of all.” That word for servants, diakonos, is where we get our word for deacon.
When I consider this argument, I can’t help but think of the caregivers in chapter 2, carrying the man on the mat in Capernaum, the ones whose faith is praised by Christ, the greatest Servant of all, who was willing to suffer and give his life as a ransom for many.
I am wondering, with Amy-Jill Levine, why the disciples didn’t learn their lesson from the caregivers in chapter 2. The question they “should have been asking is not, ‘Who is the greatest among us?’ but, ‘What can we do to help?’” [8]
Let us pray.
Christ, our Healer, thank you for inviting us to come to you boldly to seek forgiveness and healing. Thank you for your love and mercy and for the example of friends helping friends, carrying the mat of the paralyzed man, even cutting a hole in your roof, so that nothing would stand in the way of his healing. Lord, what can we do to help? Refresh, unite, strengthen, and guide us so that we may be your heart, hands, and feet for our families, friends, neighbors, and community. Lead us to join with you in your work in the world in a ministry of forgiveness, healing, peace, and reconciliation. In Christ we pray. Amen.
[1] Amy-Jill Levin, “Take Up Your Pallet and Walk”in Signs and Wonders, a Beginner’s Guide to the Miracles of Jesus (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2022) 6.
[3] William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, Revised Edition (Edinburgh, Scotland: The Westminster Press, 1975) 46.
[4] N.T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004) 16.
[8] Amy-Jill Levine, 25.
Bibliography:
Barclay, William. The Gospel of Mark, Revised Edition. Edinburgh, Scotland: The Westminster
Press, 1975,46-52.
Collins, Adela Yarbro Collins. Mark, a Commentary. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007,
183.
Levine, Amy Jill. Jewish Annotated New Testament, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011, 62-23.
Levine, Amy Jill. Signs and Wonders: A Beginner’s Guide to the Miracles of Jesus, Nashville, TN:
Abingdon Press, 2022, 6-25.
Placher, William C. Mark. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, 42-45.
Wilson, Walter T. “Practicing Healing in Community” in Healing in the Gospel of Matthew:
Reflections on Method and Ministry. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 139-159.
Wright, N.T. Mark for Everyone. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, 16-18.
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