Friday, 1/12/18
Once, when friends were carrying
a paralytic friend to Jesus for a cure, and they could not get close because of
the crowds, they hoisted their friend up on the roof of the synagogue. Then,
after removing the roofing tiles, they lowered the paralytic right down in
front of Jesus.
In my sixty-five years as a
priest it seems like we have had this Gospel story several hundred time. Still,
it is a story that makes good drama, and I imagine Christians will find it
delightful long after you and I are gone.
With the immense crowd in and
around the synagogue, the friends could not get the man's stretcher close to Jesus.
So they hoisted him up on the roof; and then they lowered him down right in
front of Jesus.
With the man dangling there,
Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven." The people there reacted in
different ways to Jesus saying the man's sins were forgiven. His enemies, who
had the power to put to death anyone who claimed God's powers, were saying by
his claim to forgive sins Jesus was making himself God's equal.
The paralytic's friends were disappointed
in his not getting the cure they had hope for.
The paralytic himself had
probably been agonizing over the fact that his sins had brought on his paralysis,
so he would have greatly appreciated his being freed from his guilt.
But, to clinch the matter,
Jesus had the man hop down, and carry his stretcher out through the immense crowd.
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