When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.' Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 'Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?' At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, 'Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven", or to say, "Stand up and take your mat and walk"? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins'—he said to the paralytic— 'I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.' And he 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!'
Every time I hear this story, I think of the Bible picture book that I had as a child. We can picture the scene: a house full of people, pressing in on one another, and at the center of the room was Jesus. The roof is being taken off the house to lower the paralyzed man down to Jesus. I find the scene is busy and confusing, especially for a kid to understand.
Jesus recognizes their actions as a display of great faith, trusting that Jesus has the power to heal the man. However, Jesus goes a step further and pronounces forgiveness of the man's of the man. The scribes who were there start freaking out, accusing Jesus of blasphemy. Jesus knew they associated the man's paralysis with some sin he must have committed. Therefore, by pronouncing forgiveness the man was relieved of his burden and got up, took up his mat and went home. Everyone was amazed and the scripture tells us that they glorified God saying, "we have never seen anything like this."
The scene's picture is in my head. The mat with the man being lowered down through the roof. This makes me think of the lengths we will go to in order to get what we think we need. I'm sure that the man had heard of Jesus' healing powers. His friends were tenacious in their efforts to get him to Jesus. I wonder what they expected. I'm pretty sure that they didn't expect his sins to be forgiven. He probably just wanted to be healed, but Jesus ended up doing so much more.
We need to remember that God always gives us what we need, but rarely do we see it as something we want. It usually works out as so much more. The man was lowered down wanting to be healed, and had his sins forgiven. The paralyzed man didn't ask for anything, but had his sins forgiven and his paralysis healed. In lent, we focus on sin and forgiveness, wanting to be restored to right relationship with God as we approach Easter, needing to be healed of all the ways we come up short. We take time to look for paces in our lives that need to be evaluated; sickness, relationships, moods, anxieties, and then ask Jesus to interceed for us and forgive our sins, heal us, restore us, and reconcile us to God.
