More Than a Healing

As we continue our study of Christ’s portrayal in the gospels, this month we will be looking at Mark and then luke, focussing on Christ the suffering messiah.

Today’s first reading, which is taken from one of the prophet Isaiah’s four “servant songs”, sets the theme. Together, the servant songs tell us of a chosen servant of God who is called to bring light to the nations and lead people to God, who endures suffering and humiliation for the sins of many, and is ultimately and vindicated and exalted by God. The parallels to the Gospel, and in the case of today’s passage specifically to the crucifixtion and the atonement, are clear.

But if there’s one verse today which is of crucial importance, it’s this one:

Isaiah 53:6 NRSV

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

As we heard last week, the metaphor of the people of God as sheep is one which is repeated again and again throughout scripture often in a context of presenting God, or specifically Christ, as the shepherd.

And sheep can easily go astray for various reasons: sometimes, it’s because they get distracted: they’re so busy focussing on grazing that they wander off in the direction of some grass without noticing that they’ve left the heard, or they’re so focussed on eating that they miss the herd moving on without them. Other times they can be misled - one sheep accidentally wanders off, and others simply follow it because their inclination is to follow the herd. Or perhaps as you may remember they’re following a more independent-thinking goat that’s created its own path.

But whatever reason, the sheep go astray. And in Isaiah’s usage of the sheep metaphor, this going astray refers to departing from God’s holy words and instructions. On following the path of sin.

In our weekly prayer of confession, we acknowledge that we have disobeyed God both in the failure to do what we should have done, and in doing that which we should not have. Sins of commision and sins of ommision, but both equally disobedience and both worthy of severe consequences.

And those sins are serious: we’re told in the scriptures that the wages of sin are death, and that those who have not found God’s favour will not see His kingdom.

Yet on Christ is laid our iniquities.

He’s borned our infirmities.

He’s wounded for our transgressions.

He has taken the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.

Christ suffered and died to take the punishment for our sins.

And then he says to us “your sins are forgiven.”

And those words, “your sins are forgiven”, are central to today’s gospel reading.

Because this is the story of not one but two miracles.

Yes, it’s the story of a paralytic man who is told “take up your bed and walk” and is miraculously healed.

But it’s also the story of a man whose sins are forgiven.

It’s a story which reveals the nature of the suffering servant who was promised.

And it’s a story which begins with an unusual act of faith.

The Faith of the Friends

Picture the scene: after the arrest of John the Baptist, Christ has moved his place of residence from Nazareth to Capernaum. It’s there he’s set up the hub of a ministry of preaching and healing primarily focussed on the region of Galilee. He’s just returned from a preaching tour of the area and word has gotten around that he’s at home - the general concencus is that he was most likely staying at the house of Peter, or one of the other disciples.

So crowds have gathered in and around the house, wanting to hear his teachings.

Except for one group of friends.

They don’t rush to that house.

Instead the rush away.

They go to find their friend who is paralysed, because they’ve heard that Jesus performs miraculous healings of those who come to him.

Four of them pick up his bed, and then they head to the house so that they can bring him to Jesus to be healed.

And when the crowd is so packed that they can’t get to him, instead of giving up they make a new path by climbing onto the roof and tearing it open.

Now this was a roof made of reeds covered with a mixture of clay and straw, and we’re told that they dug through it to make a gap big enough to lower their friend down.

So imagine what it was like to be in the house, where Christ is talking to the people when suddenly there’s a mighty sound as the hardened top layer is cracked open, and bits of clay and straw and reeds begin to fall in and onto people’s heads. Looking up, the people inside will see light entering as parts of the roof are moved out of the way and the hole is widened, perhaps even crossbeams are pushed aside in this desperate attempt to bring one man to Jesus.

And people are probably thinking, “what’s going on here? Are we in danger?” Perhaps Peter is wondering who’s going to fix his roof!

And then a man is lowered through that hole on his mat in front of Jesus, his friends carefully guiding him down.

And

Mark 2:5 NRSV

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus saw their faith.

Their faith. Not the faith of the paralyzed man, but that of his friends who had brought him and who had gone so far as to wreck someone’s property to ensure that he could be seen and healed by Jesus.

Because this is a story about a group of men whose faith manifested as a love for their friend so strong they would go to extreme lengths to ensure he could recieve the healing which they knew Christ would provide.

And Jesus saw their faith.

Now this is part of a common pattern in the gospels: again and again we’re told that people would come to Christ and he would see their faith, and he would even commend that faith.

And this isn’t the only time that someone has shown their faith that Christ would heal someone else - there’s the father of the man with a demon, and there’s the Roman Centurion with the sick servant, and there’s the synagogue leader who’s daughter was dying.

But it’s certainly the most dramatic: it’s a faith clearly and wrecklessly expressed through actions that refuse to be stopped by barriers like crowds or buildings.

And whilst it doesn’t state it in the passage, I think Christ may have been especially pleased by this display of faith, because it was a clear and abundant demonstration of what it means to love others as yourself.

And when he saw their faith he said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The Scorn of the Scribes

Now we see that the second part of the story is a response not of faith but of scorn: A group of scribes, hearing Christ tell the man that his sins are forgiven, are upset: “Who does this fellow think he is?” they ask, “only God can forgive sins.”

This might seem reasonable, after all it is certainly true that only God can forgive sins.

But then we see that when Christ percieves them asking these questions his response is one of criticism. “Why do you ask these question?”

And then he asks,

Mark 2:9 NRSV

Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’?

And this is a question which is strongly critical, because by this stage Christ is well known for his miracles of healing - after all that’s why the man was brought to him. And the scribes are well aware of those miracles. They may well even have come to the house in the hope of seeing one. To see a solid proof that this is a man of God who brings miraculous healing to others.

But then instead of healing, he assures the man that his sins are forgiven. Something which, as he points out, is much easier to say than “take up your bed and walk” - after all the forgiveness of sins doesn’t demand physical evidence.

And yet despite being apparently willing to accept at face value that this man can bring healing, they balk at the forgiveness of sins.

They say, “only God can do that.”

Which perhaps is a part of what makes this so significant: because we see that Christ goes on to heal the man so that the scribes would know that he has the authority to forgive sins. Which is to say he heals so that they understand that he has the authority to do something only God can do.

Whilst he does not state it directly, Christ offers a demonstration that He is God.

And when he says to the man, “take up your bed and walk”, the man does just that and so all the people are amazed and they glorify God. They recognise perhaps, that if this man has the authority to forgive sins - an authority which comes from God - then this healing also comes from God.

Healing and forgiveness

And this one interaction frames Christ’s ministry and his miracles: it tells us that he healed all those who came to him not just because he had compassion - although he most certainly did, and it was certainly one reason - but as a clear demonstration that He was sent from God.

A demonstration that he was the servant prophecised by Isaiah.

The one who would bring healing to the nations: not just in an abstract sense of peace and unity but actual physical healing and restoring of those who were suffering.

But more than that, a healing which is total and holistic: a healing which includes the healing of spiritual wounds by forgiving sin.

And as he would later reveal, that ultimate healing would come through his suffering.

When he would take upon himself physically the punishment for our sins.

Forgiving us not merely with words but by actively experiencing the penalty in our place.

“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all,” and he has demonstrated that to us so clearly that we cannot die it!

A Call to Action

Now let’s turn back to the man’s friends - the reckless and resourceful faith which they displayed offers us a model for our own relationships.

Because it was their love for their friend and their faith in Christ that had them bring him to that place.

It was their faith that if only Christ could see their friend he would be healed that caused them to find a way, even one as drastic as digging through a roof, to get him there.

And when Christ saw their faith he said, “son your sins are forgiven” - it was their faith which brought him to Christ and which brought Christ’s love to him.

So who in your life have you the opportunity to be such a friend to?

Because just as the love of those friends for that man drew the power of God into his life, so too are we called to invite God’s healing and forgiving power into the lives of those we know.

Maybe we do that through constant prayer for them.

Or maybe we do it through active participation in their lives, demonstrating to them God’s love.

Maybe they’re people close by, or maybe they’re loved ones far away.

But Christ calls us to recognise the paralysed in our lives - whether that paralysis is spiritual, or whether it’s any sort of physical or mental or economic struggle.

And he calls us to take up the burden of carrying their needs to Him.

Of breaking down the cultural and spiritual barriers which seperate them from Him.

And of bringing him into their lives.

So that they may have the opportunity to see him, to accept his offer of grace, and to hear those most wonderful of words, “your sins are forgiven.”