From the Daily Lectionary for Thursday in the First Week after the Epiphany
Mark 2:1-12
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 paralyzed 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!”
This story of Jesus healing the paralytic follows the story of the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law. Both of these stories come soon after Jesus’ baptism, and therefore serve to represent the vocation of the baptized. Here again is the word: εγεριν, to stand, to “resurrect.” Jesus tells the paralyzed man to stand up, take his bed, and go home. This is not just a healing, but a restoration of order, community, and dignity.
The absence of a resurrection appearance in this Gospel compels us to look back into the text for meaning, for the “Good News.” In other words, Mark doesn’t provide a neat and tidy happy ending; he trusts that we may find the end in the means. As I have noted before, the narrative action of Mark contains nine occurrences of the word for resurrection; however, the context is not some supernatural sleight of hand, but a way of life that involves healing and restoration, and perhaps most of all dignity. The literal meaning for resurrection in the Greek is “to stand with dignity.”
Resurrection for Mark, then, is a way of life. It is the very ministry of the baptized to raise up the suffering of our world to health, to community, to dignity. But the dramatic force of this story has to do with the four friends who, to bypass the crowd, carry the paralytic to the roof, un-thatch it, and then lower their friend into the presence of Jesus. It is a testimony to the premise that resurrection is a collaborative enterprise, not a solitary one. We are stronger in community. Love is stronger when shared among friends. It will quite literally raise the lame and even the dead, that is to say those who live deathly lives of exclusion, shame, disease, and violence. Love thrives in community. Community engenders resurrection.
I’ve heard it said among church folks that “we are resurrection people.” That is truer than we know. It doesn’t mean that we necessarily believe that God caused Jesus to come back from the dead, and that in believing such a thing we are promised salvation. It means that we are to participate in the risen life of Christ, loving our neighbor as ourselves, bringing people into the presence of Jesus, which is to say, into the warm embrace of healing community, and the dignity therein engendered. Our vocation, good people, is to raise the dead, to bid them stand in God’s healing and grace-filled love. There is nothing we can do in this life more noble.
A Prayer for Joy in God’s Creation (BCP p. 814)
O God, who has filled the world with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
