Lenten Daily Reflection 2020-03-05
Lenten Reflection for Thursday, March 5
Ann Mellow
Mark 2: 1 - 12
2When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2So 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. 3Then some people* came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. 4And 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.5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ 6Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ 8At 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? 9Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? 10But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the paralytic— 11‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’12And 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!’
Jesus is always turning things upside down. What a troublemaker! It would be so much easier just to go along as usual. Even when things are tough, we often resist changing our perspective.
The people who cut through the roof to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus were willing to take a chance in faith and hope. Perhaps this new prophet would be able to help. And, as is often the case in the gospel, those with power, the scribes who write the rules and shape reality, were not happy at all with Jesus coloring outside the lines and forgiving the man his sins. After all, who does this man Jesus think he is?
And Jesus, as is his way, doubles down by performing a miracle, as if to say, “What does it take for you to get unstuck, to change, to see the presence of God right in front of you? This man will walk. Is THIS enough?”
How often are we like the scribes, debating the boundaries of our known if sometimes unsatisfying world view and reality, unwilling or unable to see a different way, a scary way, an unknown way, one that is right in front of us – a life-giving way that Jesus holds out to us.
And the man in the story was literally paralyzed. But sometimes I can feel that I am also paralyzed, stuck, held back in some way by the daily-ness of life to let God in and allow my life to be transformed.
The Mothers have consistently challenged us as individuals and as a community to take that brave step to walk more closely with Jesus; to open ourselves to God and to unknown possibilities, ones that might even turn our own worlds upside down. To learn to walk anew. It is a journey worth taking, I think.