When I read passages like this that convey a snippet of the real life of Jesus, so many thoughts come flooding in. First is that he was so truly loved and followed. When the town heard 'he's back in town' , the place gets flooded with people, so much so that even the door is blocked. These were a faithful, yearning people and Jesus not only spoke to them, he taught them, loved them, he was really one of them.
Jesus is preaching daily, helping people and showing them "The Way" to salvation. He held none of the attributes of today's televangelists. His preaching and love was where Mother Theresa found a real means to change people and the world for the better. Jesus is basically just 'doing his thing'. Really, what he was meant to do, what he donned humanity for. But again, no negative attributes, not haughty and he was fully human like any one of us.
And then in the midst of his mission, his ministry, Jesus offers a real glimpse of his humanity. The scribes, the religious self righteous elite, just like the ones we have today, are putting their own two cents in. They have something to say about who or who not can forgive. These are the same ones complaining about the 'work' of curing on the Sabbath or about the Apostles plucking heads of wheat and eating it "on the Sabbath"!! And Jesus just has had his fill of it and gives them a dose of his humanity backed by his divinity and all that power. So the Scribes are complaining and dissing Jesus and Jesus to my mind says the following. 'You know what, you want to question who or why anyone can forgive or why I have such authority? Get a load of this. Hey paralytic, not only are you forgiven for any sins you may have committed but get this, I cure you of your human ills. You may now pick up your mat and walk home.' I could only be happier if Jesus could do it all with the flourish of Endora casting a spell or exiting in a huff.
Gotta love Jesus. Not only showing us the Way but has a great grasp of the 'get a load of this' to his complainers and detractors. A real human, a real guy, someone everyone can relate to. Jesus is not the stuffy arrogant preacher of today spouting scripture like weapons. Jesus is fully human and acts like it in the best of ways. Curing. Loving. Forgiving. It is no wonder that when he came back to town the crowds drew in to him.
I love the snippets about Jesus that show him as a real human and gives us a template for how to act, love and just be. There is love, simply being and forgiveness.
Mark 2:1-12
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So 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. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. And 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.When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ At 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? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the paralytic— ‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home. ’And 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!’
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