Mark’s gospel reading about the healing of the paralytic is a busy reading with seemingly many different levels of engagement going on (Mark 2: 1-12). The story goes that, as Jesus returns home to Capernaum, crowds immediately gather around where he is staying. The crowds are so great that there was in fact was no room for anyone to go through the doorway entrance. In the midst of this crowded scene, come four persons carrying a paralytic on a mat. Seeing that they cannot enter through the door, they actually climb on top of the building, break open the roof, and lower the mat with the paralytic down from the roof to the floor where Jesus was. Mark tells us how Jesus is deeply touched by the faith of those who lowered the broken man from the rooftop. We then hear the familiar dialogue concerning Jesus forgiving the paralytic’s sins, and the appalled reaction of the scribes. Jesus confronts the scribes and then “simplifies” his act of forgiveness by exchanging the words of forgiveness for words of healing, instructing the man to “pick up his mat, and go home.”
I have always appreciated this story because of the identification of forgiveness with healing. This comes out most literally in the center of the story when Jesus verbally forgives and heals the paralyzed man, much to the astonishment and dismay (to some) of the gathered crowd. But, it strikes me that there can be a lot of insight to be gleaned from the so to speak “geography” of the story.
There is a crowd, apparently a very large and almost suffocating crowd, surrounding the place where Jesus is staying. The crowd seems very fixed on whatever Jesus plans to say or do. This fixation results in a blocked entrance way – a way to approach Jesus. This becomes especially critical for someone who cannot move whatsoever, a paralyzed person, who must rely on others to move him/her about.
Who are these four others carrying this paralyzed man on his mat, who upon seeing the inability to gain access to Jesus through the blocked doorway, decide with ostensible conviction to gain access to Jesus for their paralyzed friend by climbing the rooftop, breaking the rooftop, and lowering the paralyzed man down into Jesus’s midst? This mise en scene creates beautiful imagery in the gospel story by not only setting up for the powerful interchange between the person of Jesus, the paralyzed man, and the anxious crowd, but by painting a powerful picture of our everyday lives and the way we engage and support (or fail to) each other.
I believe that we all experience “crowds” every day. In my own life, there are crowds that come in all different shapes and forms. Not just people, but things, ideas, expectations, disappointments, addictions, and misunderstandings. These “crowds” push in on me, filling in all the space so that it feels that there is no room – threatening suffocation, and even sometimes making it hard to move, so much so, that I can feel paralyzed. Most times, if not always, it takes others to carry me to a place/space where I can be strengthened, rejuvenated, enlivened, forgiven, healed. Christ is in these people….Christ is these people!
In order to get to the healing place, we sometimes have to find unorthodox, and even inexplicable ways of gaining entrance, climbing up and out, breaking through, and being lowered. Many times it involves simply being told and responding to the imperative, “Pick up your mat, and go home!”
But I do believe it is always a “we” context in this happening. The suffering and devastating tragedy in one person’s life can bring a healing to so many others, that is not easily or immediately recognizable, but it is there, even in dormancy!]
Could this be the mystical body of Christ present everywhere and all the time? I will “chew” on this for a while. Peace!
Peace,
Thomas