Healing, Wholeness, and Community in the Kin-dom of God

The Sacred Story for this week comes from Mark 2: 1-22 .

This is one of those stories from the Bible that many people are familiar with. Maybe you don’t remember all the details exactly, but people know the general story because the bible is FULL of stories like this.

Stories of miracles and healing and people who had faith in the goodness of God to set them free from their ailments and afflictions. The Gospel of Mark is no different. It is FULL of these stories as well - we’re only in the second chapter of Mark and already there have been FOUR different accounts of miracles and healing. 

So far Jesus has called an unclean spirit out of one man, healed Simon’s mother in law of a terrible fever, healed others of diseases, cast out more demons, and cured a man of his leprosy. Jesus was busy from the beginning of his ministry in Galilee, healing people left and right, lifting them up by the hand and proclaiming wholeness and restoration to their bodies - returning them to the life they’d enjoyed before they were sick. 

After being healed these people returned back to their families, communities, and places of work, and told everyone about the miracle that had just taken place. The news begins spreading and Jesus quickly became very popular and sought after. People traveled from all throughout the region to find where Jesus was in hopes that they too could witness his teaching and preaching and miracles.

It seemed that everyone was hungry for a miracle. 

In today’s sacred story though, things start to shift. People are still flocking to Jesus and he teaches to great crowds who are eager to hear what he has to say, but criticisms start coming in from the religious authorities of the area. Skepticism about Jesus’ right to be teaching and preaching grows. For the orthodox Jews of that time and place, the things that Jesus was saying and doing were against ALL the rules.

Jesus was proclaiming the Kingdom of God to all people. A Kingdom where all are claimed as good and worthy and loved by God. A Kingdom that in so many ways was the opposite of the Roman authority and kingdom that these people knew. 

In today’s story when Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven,” he did something unheard of and radical because, in the orthodox tradition, no one but God could issue such forgiveness of sins.

Why though was Jesus offering forgiveness for sins when what this person probably needed was a doctor and probably a physical therapist?

It seems that the way that healing is talked about in the bible, and especially in this story, can make it seem like sometimes we’re afflicted by an illness or an injury or some other burden because we’ve somehow done something to deserve it.

We now KNOW  that this kind of logic isn’t true. We know that through the gifts of science and medicine, which have been given to us by God, that there are often clear medical reasons why someone, for example, might be paralyzed like the man in today’s sacred story was.

But this connection between sin and illness was how many people explained illnesses and injuries in Jesus’ time. Some scholars say this is why Jesus offered forgiveness of sins first knowing that this man’s condition was linked by the authorities in that time and place to sin. Jesus knew what the people were likely thinking and he knew that offering this man forgiveness was more than any of the religious authorities had likely done. Jesus also knew that this man’s condition was NOT because of anything he’d done, because Jesus knew that more than forgiveness of sins, this man likely needed to be welcomed back into the community. With such a strong connection between illness and sin, this man who was paralyzed had likely been pushed to the fringes of his community. 

People likely avoided him for fear of contracting whatever deep sinfulness had caused his condition. He also probably couldn’t work and unless he had a family who was financially able to take care of him it's likely that this man struggled in many other ways. This man had been shut out from the wholeness and fullness of life he deserved because of sins other people thought he had.

What Jesus did in forgiving the sins of this man was restore him back to his community who now having witnessed the public forgiveness of this man’s so-called “sins” could welcome him back without fear of risking their own righteousness.

This, of course, stirred things up with the religious leaders of the area who immediately questioned Jesus’ authority to offer forgiveness to the man who was paralyzed.

Jesus, knowing exactly what was going on in their minds was real quick to be like: look, we ALL know it’s way easier to say this man “your sins are forgiven” than it is to tell him to just get up and walk, but if you’re gonna be like that, then OKAY, “sir, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.”

And of course, the man is able to do just that.

This miraculous healing then is not the result of this man’s sins being forgiven but is instead an exercising of Jesus’ authority. For a people who have lived under the oppressive Roman government for so long to witness a new and different kind of authority was the beginning of their liberation.

The good news of Jesus Christ is not only that our sins are forgiven, but that we have hope and trust in an authority above all earthly rulers. In the Kingdom of God there is no distinction between sinner and saint, unclean and righteous. In the Kingdom of God all are welcome as they are and FULLY as they are. In the Kingdom of God, tax collectors break bread with religious authorities and people living with disabilities aren’t kept hidden away on a mat, but are given a seat at the head of the table and all rejoice in their company.

In the Kin-dom of God - because we know that God isn’t just a King but She is a QUEEN and They are Royalty worthy of all our praise, in the KIN-DOM of God, all are welcomed and celebrated and cherished. In the Kin-dom of God, there’s a place for you at the table.

In the Kin-dom of God, there is nothing you have to do to be worthy of that love. There is no sin that makes you less worthy of God’s love. 

 In the book of Romans, it is written that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

And that is the good news we proclaim when we break bread and drink wine together at the table. There is a place for you here, and there is a place for you in the Kin-dom of Heaven. Thanks be to God.