GodSprings - 12, March, 2017

A God Who Expands Boundaries For My Sake

Mark 2:3-5

And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. ⁴ And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. ⁵ And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The unexpected intrusion of a paralyzed person being lowered through a roof that had been dug up is a perfect image for the great lengths God goes to, to get outsiders into our churches. Jesus challenged these institutions at the points where they became roadblocks and invited people into a new work of God.

In his interaction with the paralytic Jesus showed what this new moment looked like. The kind of kingdom he announced was one that was centered on hospitality and healing of the outsider. This is a kingdom where the intrusion of the other, such as the paralytic, does not disrupt the work of God but rather gives new opportunities to proclaim it.

Through forgiveness and healing Jesus challenged the debt system, which held people outside the community. Ched Myers argues that Jesus introducing this language of the debt code, forgiving sins, challenged a system that had grown oppressive. He says, “The man’s lack of bodily wholeness would have been attributed to either his own sin, or, if a birth defect, inherited sin; he was thus denied full status in the body politic.” Jesus, as we see here, releases him from all debt and places him squarely back into the community.

If Jesus simply cured these people, refraining from forgiving debts and restoring their whole selves, there would have been little clash with those in power. But Jesus, as the healer-prophet, took it much further. By offering forgiveness and healing to those who wanted it, he redrew the boundaries. In effect, he said, all those you have been keeping at arm’s length through your institutionalized religion are the ones who are truly the insiders, and you who have thought you were on the inside have been wrong all along. You have misinterpreted the tradition.

This is what makes Jesus unique in his ministry and met with so much hostility. This is what Jesus is wanting from us also.

This lent season can we

a.       Be like Jesus in accepting the unwelcome strangers into our lives and find ways to be true healers.

b.      Be like the paralytic friends who start digging up roofs that keep out those who want God.

*This homily has been published in Darshan (magazine of the Delhi Diocese)