Being Incensed About the Right Things
If someone tore a hole in your roof...what would you do?
Blessed 2nd Sunday of Christmas to you. Just one more day until Epiphany.
Our passage begins with Jesus finding time and space to be alone in prayer. This is important. It is formational. And it shapes Jesus for what’s to come, to be able to respond rightly to each situation.
There are many details in this passage alone that might set any individual off. Everyone wants at Jesus. He tells the man he healed not to tell anyone what he has done to help him. Instead, he tells everyone such that Jesus can’t even find a space to be alone again for a bit. Then, he’s at home (perhaps even his own dwelling), and people are clamoring into his space. And then some people begin tearing a hole in the roof. Imagine if it is indeed Jesus’ own roof.
Wouldn’t you or I be incensed?
But Mark doesn’t say that. Instead, the one place in this passage Jesus is incensed is when he sees the man with a skin disease. You really have to pause a moment to picture it…
But it all began on this day with Jesus rising and being alone in prayer. James would later name this endurance, that quiet faithfulness that holds under pressure, as a blessing. Tried and true. Don’t you think that matters?
Mark 1:35-2:12
Early in the morning, well before sunrise, Jesus rose and went to a deserted place where he could be alone in prayer. Simon and those with him tracked him down. When they found him, they told him, “Everyone’s looking for you!”
He replied, “Let’s head in the other direction, to the nearby villages, so that I can preach there too. That’s why I’ve come.” He traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and throwing out demons.
A man with a skin disease approached Jesus, fell to his knees, and begged, “If you want, you can make me clean.”
Incensed, Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do want to. Be clean.” Instantly, the skin disease left him, and he was clean. Sternly, Jesus sent him away, saying, “Don’t say anything to anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifice for your cleansing that Moses commanded. This will be a testimony to them.” Instead, he went out and started talking freely and spreading the news so that Jesus wasn’t able to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, but people came to him from everywhere.
After a few days, Jesus went back to Capernaum, and people heard that he was at home. So many gathered that there was no longer space, not even near the door. Jesus was speaking the word to them. Some people arrived, and four of them were bringing to him a man who was paralyzed. They couldn’t carry him through the crowd, so they tore off part of the roof above where Jesus was. When they had made an opening, they lowered the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven!”
Some legal experts were sitting there, muttering among themselves, “Why does he speak this way? He’s insulting God. Only the one God can forgive sins.”
Jesus immediately recognized what they were discussing, and he said to them, “Why do you fill your minds with these questions? Which is easier—to say to a paralyzed person, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk’? But so you will know that the Human One has authority on the earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed, “Get up, take your mat, and go home.”
Jesus raised him up, and right away he picked up his mat and walked out in front of everybody. They were all amazed and praised God, saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this!”
James 1:9-12
Brothers and sisters who are poor should find satisfaction in their high status. Those who are wealthy should find satisfaction in their low status, because they will die off like wildflowers. The sun rises with its scorching heat and dries up the grass so that its flowers fall and its beauty is lost. Just like that, in the midst of their daily lives, the wealthy will waste away. Those who stand firm during testing are blessed. They are tried and true. They will receive the life God has promised to those who love him as their reward.
Prayer (adapted from the prayer provided for today in the Book of Common Prayer)
God,
You wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature. Help us that we might share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.