Which is Easier

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.

Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven. Mark 2:1-5

Which is Easier?

We often concentrate on the latter half of this story, the part where the scribes begin to grumble that Jesus is blaspheming the name of God by presuming that he can forgive sins. Jesus, knowing what the scribes are thinking turns to them and asks, “Which is easier? To say to this man ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say to him ‘Get up and walk’.

 At this point, to prove that he has authority, Jesus cures the paralytic and the man stands, picks up his mat and goes home to the amazement of all. But what was the first thing that Jesus said to the man? “Child, your sins are forgiven.”

 Why would Jesus say this? Why not simply heal the man as he had been doing all day long for everyone who asked for healing? The Scribes had been watching Jesus, hoping he might say something contrary to Jewish law, but surely, they must have witnessed a few miracles that day.

One of te tenants of old Jewish law was that God punished disobedient people, people who severely broke the law of the Talmud beyond that of the sinner. In Deuteronomy 5:9  it says “You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” The people freed from Egyptian rule wandered the desert for 40 years and even Moses was not allowed to cross over into the holy land for his lack of faith at Meribah. Numbers 20:11-12

For this man, he must have felt marginalized. People must have assumed that either he or his parents had so displeased God that he was paying the price by being paralyzed. While we don’t know if he was paralyzed from birth or injured in an accident, it didn’t matter. People might have assumed that he was a sinful man and he himself, if he was a faithful Jew would himself believed that the reason for his paralysis was his sin or the sin of his parents. He would have felt unworthy.

And so, the first thing that Jesus says to him is “Child, your sins are forgiven.” That alone must have been a burden lifted from his soul. With his sins forgiven, he could now enter the kingdom of heaven, whole or not. Whatever sin he believed he carried was gone.

Christ knows us. He knows what sins weigh us down. He knows our spiritual struggles. He knows that we want to be unburdened. To be made whole. The rest of the world looks at us and sees us for the things we do. We are judged on our occupations, our income, our relationships, our habits, our intelligence and even our political beliefs. We are bombarded hourly with what the world says we should be in body, mind and spirit.

But Christ accepts us as we are. He is not interested in our physical or mental state. He is interested in our state of grace, and he is there to give us absolution so that we can move closer to him.

Jesus did not come to condemn, but to fulfill the promise of a redeemer given from Genisis,

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”- Genisis 49:10

to Malachi,

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”-Malachi 3:1

Oft time we expect corporal healing. We pray for relief from illness or financial woes. We want a better job or a better standard of living, but that is not what we need. We need forgiveness and mercy. We need to be as close to God as he wants to be to us. We need Jesus. With Christ in our lives, we have all that we need. Which is easier? To live for the world or to live for Christ?