Mark 2:1-12; Thinking About Forgiveness

Last week I reflected on and improved (I hope) a rather "standard" exposition of Acts 6. Today I heard what turned out to be another standard exposition, this time of Mark 2:1-12. It is one of the easiest texts of the NT on which to preach, inviting us to choose multiple themes of multi-level richness. For example, in reflecting on the paralytic brought by his friends to Jesus, we might delve into the various hurts/disabilities we encounter or suffer from in life; we might focus on the role of friends in the healing of injury/sickness; we might make our message a study of faith and its communal nature (Jesus sees the faith of the paralytic-bringers, notes it and forgives); it can be the launching ground for thinking about forgiveness; one can also consider the relationship of forgiveness and health, both mental and physical. Thus, Mark 2:1-12 is like a Sunday buffet at an exclusive club--it has so many choices that one can easily be overwhelmed with the lure of the offerings.

Because the passage virtually screams out to us with riches, we have to be especially careful as we study and exposit it. That is, we not only don't want to take too many themes, but if we don't just take the amount that we need, we run the risk of indigestion and sickness. What could be a most memorable meal, then, turns into a sad and even disgusting sight.

The preacher of the morning chose to focus generally on the issue of forgiveness, even though he took some samples of communal faith and the hurts that each one of us endures in life, and he gave the rather standard approach to forgiveness--which is that we all get hurt in life, we suffer from our hurt, we sometimes sink into all kinds of resentment, pain and anger and that, with the help of God, friends and others we can learn to get over our hurt and forgive others. Not only do I find preaching like this rather yawn-inducing, but I am not sure that it is correct. I am almost sure that it does no good. The purpose of these essays is to think a bit more about the issue of forgiveness.

But before we get to the text and my approach, I state why I think that the standard way of handling the text is unhelpful. First, in legal speak, it assumes something not yet introduced in evidence. That is, it deals with a topic without defining it. I will try to define forgiveness below, and I hope to show that while it isn't particularly difficult to come up with words to describe it, it is very difficult to understand what it truly means and how to exercise it. Second, it fails to recognize the context in which most Americans live and hear things. We are an inveterately practical people, not given much to abstraction or philosophical reflection. Thus, if there is a chance that the term's definition is laced with abstraction, we need to decide how to proceed. As I will argue below, the concept of forgiveness, as it is defined in our dicitionaries, has a highly abstract nature to it. Third, because of the abstractness of the definition, we need to come up with a strategy to bridge the meaning gap between the abstraction of definition and the need we feel for concrete precision in order for things to make sense to us. The sermon this morning didn't show any awareness that it was dealing with these issues; hence, in my mind, the humdrum results....

The Text--Mark 2:1-12

When he (Jesus) 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 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 next essay gets us going.

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