Lent Day 15: Making room for compassion and love

Crowds are so difficult to handle. There are crowds because of lack of space and crowds which are created because of lack of patience. The crowds which were near Jesus were not impatient crowds or created crowds but huge realistic crowds. It is surprising that Jesus and his disciples were not crushed by these crowds.

Jesus saw people at grounds, at the shore and sometimes he was on a boat and the crowd was on land. The few times he was in a house, the people thronged to see him. So much that there came a point when one could declare that there was no space anymore. St. Mark 2: 1-12 talks of such a scenario. Verse 2 says, “And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door…”

In South Asian countries and among the poor, lower middle class and even middle class in India, houses are filled with people. The family members and then other family, cousins and even friends who come to cities and towns for education and jobs. Even when the house is already full, the family opens its door and makes space for the person who seeks refuge. There is nothing practical about this and no clear space which is available and thought about. Space is created out of thin air.

Many Indians and Keralites who work abroad in the Middle East, also stay in bachelor rooms, where there are bunker beds and no privacy. The camps are even worse. Lots of hardships are undergone to make money for the family back home. In Kerala, migrant workers stay in small rooms, with little facilities and adjust so that they can save money to send to their homes in several parts of North India. Small rooms, spaces and facilities are created to accommodate people.

More people are cramped into a room which is already full. The sad reality of misuse of space is seen during illegal migration, when children and whole families are smuggled in trucks, boats and ships to Europe and America with promises of a bright future. Spaces, mostly illegal, are created and people are accommodated. Many don’t make it, while others squeeze through.

This is a sweaty, full and packed space into which the paralytic is brought by four men. The lack of space means that he is brought in through the roof. Creating space is a skill that the poor have. They have the gift of adapting to the situation and to the needs. This is seen in the case of the paralytic. There is always space for compassion, love and healing. The people there accept that and Jesus puts his seal on this with the healing.

Coming to think of it, the poor never say no, never say close and never say enough. The church should also follow this mentality and should embrace people instead of limiting crowds and making spaces exclusive. The high-rise buildings are possible because of workers living in cramped spaces, branded clothes and even toys are available at competitive prices because of sweatshops or spaces with poor working conditions. Jesus accepts the paralytic instead of asking his friends to take him out. He himself ministers to people in difficult scenarios and conditions. Amen.

Challenge the accusation of sin this lent

St. Mark 2:1-12

The story of the paralytic is a story of the faith of a group of people and not one person. Many of Jesus’ miracles were performed when the person healed had faith in the ability of Jesus. But in this story that we read the faith is of a group of four who break through the roof and lower down the paralytic into the presence of Jesus. Usually we look up at God. In this case we find four people and the paralytic looking down at God for a miracle.

During lent we do kneel and pray and feel that we are lifted up into the presence of God. But we fail many a time to feel and see the presence of God in our midst. Why do we put God up there when God can very well be here with us? The verses following the story of the paralytic stress this point. In verse 17 Jesus says “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” He defends the fact that his disciples don’t fast and finally says in verse 27 “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for sabbath.” Jesus is questioning ritualistic fasting.

We have the habit of raising ourselves into the presence of God without actually checking whether God is up there or down here. Jesus suggests that he is with his people and not far away from them. We can perhaps put it this way. Jesus stands for his people and he comes to earth for them. The people are not created for Jesus. The scribes who were also in the house where Jesus was sitting were perhaps looking up and therefore could not experience the power of Jesus. They simply could not fathom God in their midst.

The paralytic does not get space to reach Jesus. His friends think different and reach down to Jesus instead of reaching up to him. Their faith is also a turning around of the usual into the unusual. It is different from all others present there. This is what makes Jesus notice them with the paralytic. Jesus then says that the paralytic’s sins are forgiven. But why did he say that? Did he say that because he also like others associated disease with sin? In another case Jesus answers his disciples that someone is blind so that God’s name will be glorified and not because of the sin of his parents or anyone else. St. John 9:3 says “Jesus answered, “Neither this man not his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” So Jesus may have talked of forgiving the man’s sins because he was talking to the scribes present there. The paralytic cannot pass the crowd and come to Jesus because society does not let him pass in his accused sinfulness. So his friends go up and bring him down to Jesus. The paralytic comes down to Jesus.

Lent is a time to come down. But how liberating it is to come down and find Jesus? It is not lonely here. Rather in our coming down we find Jesus. The paralytic and his friends cross the barrier of the crowd. But they reach on top of the house where it is lonely and Godless. They then break through the roof and come down to Jesus. Lent should not just be an over the top, over the roof experience but an experience which leads us down to Jesus. We must break through the roof and come down. Jesus is always with the people and not unreachable up there. It also reminds us that we must not judge others and call others as sinners as Jesus refrains from doing that. Lent is rather a time when we should realise that Jesus, the son of God humbled himself to be with the people. We should do the same. We must not go through the roof and set ourselves up there through the ritualistic purity we think we attain. Rather we should look at Jesus’ association with ordinary people who are termed as sinners by the society. Jesus’ fasting is to challenge the notion of sin and the labelling of people as sinners.

This lent we can also do the same. There are many people in the world who have the burden of being called a sinner by others. The lent should make us strong to take upon this accusation upon ourselves. Jesus does not heal from a height. Rather Jesus shoulders the burden of sin accused upon the paralytic. He tries to set the scribes and Pharisees free out of their notion of sin. Jesus looks up not for a blessing but to carry someone’s burden and lead to a blessing. May we be a blessing to someone this lent and carry the burden of sin for someone accused of being a sinner wrongly. Amen.    

Jesus healing the paralytic: Moving beyond our paralyzed selves

Mark 2:1-12.
2 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 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. 3 Then some people[a] came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 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. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 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? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” 12 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!”

The story of Jesus healing the paralytic is quite a popular story. The intrigue in the story is increased by the adventurous four persons who help get the paralytic to the roof and then struggle to let him down so that Jesus would see him. The crowd that had surrounded Jesus is neutralized by this very creative way of approaching Jesus. It must have been quite a sight for people then. There are two things which come across to us in this passage. This helps us construct a spiritual basis for lent and takes us through a Lenten experience.

Taking the paralytic up and letting go would have been difficult for the four persons. It is like our talks and prayer to God. We are reluctant to pray and give our needs to God. The four men do the opposite of what we do. They know that they cannot get through the crowd. So they become enterprising and take the man up, only to let him down. After being enterprising and knowing that their enterprise works when Jesus takes notice, they are willing to let go of their friend into the hands of Jesus. During lent are we willing to do the same? Are we willing to accept that lent is a time when we should not only take a commitment to those who are in need of our help? Are we after fulfilling our role, willing to pull back and see God working rather than expressing our over powering ego and saying that we should then be given the honour of doing everything even when we know we are not skilled for that. Our preparation may make us feel that we can have easy access to God because we are closer to God in our own assessment. But we then understand that this is not the case. This is why we need to let go completely, lent or no lent. Letting go completely gives us uncertainty but coupled with faith and belief is the most important and beautiful thing in Christian faith.

Jesus heals the paralytic of his existence in the midst of people who look down upon him. Jesus says that his sins are healed. The healing is misleading because we think that sickness and sin are related. But this is confusing because sickness can’t be related to sin. Rather what this shows is that it is not and if at all, sickness is a corporate responsibility and therefore cannot be pin pointed on one person. What Jesus does through asking him to get up and walk is to tell them that he is fixing their short coming instead of the paralytic’s. Before that he says that your sins are forgiven. This is what the scribes complain about. They bicker as to how and from where Jesus got the authority to forgive sins. But it could also mean that Jesus is offering something greater than healing when he says that your sins are forgiven. But this is opposed by the scribes by their bickering. The paralytic could then not have been linked to his personal sin but rather to the corporate sin that everyone was bound to. It could be that Jesus could have been offering him eternal life which would then give him the courage to get over his paralysis. The scribes deny this to him.

But since the others there try to make that controversial, he says, get up, take your mat and walk. This then brings to an end the way people are going to see him. But the sin of the community remains. The paralytic is given the strength to get up and walk. This was what was denied to him all these years and this is what he now gets through the intervention of Jesus. Even as the onlookers who criticize Jesus and the paralytic stay on, the man on the mat walks away.

Disability is something we like misinterpreting in lieu of the scripture. This becomes so serious that priesthood and lay participation is being done taking into consideration such a framework which is in terms of perfection and the acceptable and unacceptable. Such a notion has dangerous ramifications on the real and true expressions of the church. This becomes a big sin during lent. Since lent is a time when we are trying to work on our short comings and sins, we then should also work on our concept of sin and who is sinning. Any set up which looks into disabled people as people who have in some way sinned is flawed. Jesus tries to go beyond the usual notion by saying that he as the second person in the trinity is capable of saying that the sin alleged and pinned on a particular person is being wiped out by him because he feels that this is unjust.

There is a feeling that lent is a time to become strong internally and spiritually. This internal strengthening sometimes also becomes a strengthening of moral attitudes in our culture. Moralizing like the scribes brings about such comments like who is he to forgive sins and by what authority is he doing it. Churches fall into the trap of thinking that priests and church committees are in the business of saying what is and what is not sin when only God can judge in reality. This means that lent can become a time to be inspired by what Jesus did. He offers forgiveness for sins which have been alleged and labelled.

When Jesus tells the person to stand, take his mat and walk, what he may have meant is to tell the paralysed person to not take this humiliation any more. Give it back to them and which better way than to stand up, take the mat and walk. Jesus inspires the paralyzed person to walk and to walk away after all that the person has had to go through. There is no need to take this insult anymore.

Lent becomes an excellent time for discernment. This is a discernment to accompany those who have been marginalized and then discern and accept the role of God in bringing them to the main stream. The Lenten experience should help us towards this commitment of accompaniment, moving back and then accepting the will of God.

Picture courtesy: http://lavistachurchofchrist.org/Pictures/Standard%20Bible%20Story%20Readers,%20Book%20Two/target46.html