Word to the Wise
Friday, January 15, 2021 - Friday in the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 4:1-5, 11 and Mark 2:1-12]When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, "Child, your sins are forgiven." [Mark]
The story of the paralytic lowered through the ceiling to Jesus has always fascinated me because it is one of the more dramatic scenes of healing in Jesus' ministry. However, what fascinates me is not the question of healing or forgiveness so much as the faith of the four stretcher-bearers. They were not about to be discouraged by the size of the crowd. They take their patient up on the roof, tear a hole and lower the patient down into the room! They seem to me to be like the EMT's we experience in our own time! I also like to think of them as engineers, knowing that engineering students are likely to be in the congregation here at Texas Tech! So my attention goes to a simple word: THEIR. The text (in all three synoptic gospels) says, "Seeing THEIR faith....."
Unlike Job's "friends," these four men do not sit around and tell the paralytic that he must have committed some terrible sin which he needs to admit. They care only that he is healed and they believe Jesus can heal him. The scribes and Pharisees are concerned about "blasphemy." The care-givers are concerned about their friend. No doubt the parable has the purpose of telling the audience of Jesus' power over sin and sickness (not that the two are necessarily connected as cause/effect), but we are also reminded how the faith of caring friends can lead to dramatic results. AMEN