(I mistakenly put this down as the homily for yesterday, so we must hear it again.)
St. Mark also told this story of Jesus curing the paralytic,
and his version of the event is richer.
(Although Matthew’s Gospel comes before Mark’s in our
Bibles, Mark wrote his Gospel ten years before Matthew’s, and Matthew sometimes
gave us a cut-down version of events recorded by Mark.)
According to Mark, when the friends of the paralyzed man
brought him to the synagogue where Jesus was teaching, there was such a crowd
inside and outside that there seemed to be no way for getting close to Jesus.
But the friends of the paralyzed man found a way. They
hoisted the man’s stretcher up on to the roof. Then, after clearing away the
roofing tiles, they lowered the man on the stretcher right down in front of
where Jesus was teaching.
Jesus said, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”
The Pharisees seated behind Jesus snatched at those words, saying
to themselves that since only God can forgive sins, Jesus had committed an
impeachable offence. They could convict him of blasphemy.
The friends of the paralyzed man were disappointed, since
they wanted a cure, not some pious words.
The paralyzed man, however, was sure that it was his
sinfulness that brought on the paralysis, so he felt greatly relieved that this
guilt was removed.
Jesus, hearing the grumbling of the Pharisees, told the man
to get up and walk. He told him to carry his stretcher home with him, and that
was something he was very happy to do.
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