Apr 09 2008
signs 2 – the paralytic
Our current sermon series at Mountain is on the character of Christ as great healer and is based on various accounts from Luke chapters 5-8. This last Sunday Ben talked about Jesus’ encounter with the paralytic. You can check out the text and the sermon online.
This is a perfect story to examine as we try to understand the signifying nature of miracles.
In this story, Jesus starts with the main point, “Friend your sins are forgiven.” Because this main point is challenged, Jesus stages a sign (a miracle). However good it may be for the man to walk, it is not for the sake of his walking that he is healed. Instead he is healed to demonstrate Jesus’ power to forgive. In fact, this whole section is designed to connect Jesus ministry of physical healing with his ministry of spiritual wholeness.
As Ben mentioned in his sermon, the single Greek word ’sodzo’ can be translated both in a theological sense as “save” and in a medical sense as “heal.” This isn’t necessarily because the word meant both things but rather that both these things were viewed as a holistic pair. To ’sodzo’ something is to make it whole, to rescue from harm and to fix what is broken. You can see how this one concept could be used in both ways. (In fact it almost a shame that we don’t have very good language for talking about this concept in a holistic way because we miss that when Jesus promises to save us, he is making not just a spiritual promise but a promise that will make whole all of our person.)
So when Luke tells us that Jesus shows up with power to “sodzo” he leaves us in suspense. (This suspense is hard to show in an English translators where we are forced to choose between “heal” and “save.”) We don’t know exactly what Jesus has come with power to do except to make people whole. Then we meat a paralytic and we relax, “Ah Jesus has come to heal.” But then to our surprise (and probably to the surprise of the paralytic) Jesus does not address his physical needs but he spiritual needs.
Then he does heal as a proof of his power to forgive. The physical sodzo is a proof of the spiritual sodzo. The miracle that can be seen and known is a sign that points to the validity of the miracle that cannot be seen and known.
This interplay of physical and spiritual wholeness come full circle in the next story. Jesus is hanging out with a group that is physically fine but spiritual very diseased and then defends his action with a metaphor drawn from the medical world.
Jesus is here to save, and he will save some physically as a sign that he offers different kind of salvation to all.
Keep on the lookout for signs
on the walk
-Ethan
this is the first time i have ever commented on a blog, so i feel a gnawing pressure to sound intelligent or at the very least clever.
i write on however knowing that will not be accomplished
i am struck by two things in relation to signs 2 and the sermon on sunday.
signs 2 humbles me, it reminds like life often does that all things that happen are done as an ongoing personal revelation of who God is, but we have a choice each time a sign appears, we can turn our face in the direction of God or the other way. it is in the correct turning that we know who he is.
if we fail enough times to turn on the simple signs, he will act in that dangerous way that God can act to get our attention.
the second thing is the need to be lowered and to have friends to lower me. we think of the story of the paralytic as having an ending if we think of it only physically. he is healed and more than likely will not be paralyzed again. but the forgiveness the confession of sin in front of Jesus, that is mat lowering that needs to occur regularly.
the regularity of that and authenticity of that is probably directly related to how many close and trusted people i have in my life that are carrying my mat. and that to involves turning. turning to or away from friends.
turning, carrying and being carried
Your thoughts make me wonder.
If I was paralyzed and my friends “lowered” me to Jesus so that I could be made whole, I would appreciate them both in the moment and forever.
But sometimes I am lost in sin, and in those cases I am rarely so glad to have them helping me by “lowering” me to Jesus to be made whole in those circumstances. In that situations I have had like this it has often been years later that I have appreciated their actions.
As regards your first point, this is one of the most important implications of miracles as signs. It isn’t enough to see the signs. It isn’t enough to notice them. We have to read them and respond to them. As we will see in the miracles of Jesus. Many saw, few followed.
in relation to appreciation of my mat carriers, i agree that it is sometimes immediate and sometimes years later and sometimes it is resentment in the moment.
i find that i sometimes like my paralysis and do not want it pointed out or healed.
those bold mat carriers who would lower the reluctant paralytic are very useful friends to him
perhaps response to miracles is similar, i would sometimes rather look away from God because what he represents is both wonderful and terrible all at the same time
In hearing the various nuances at work in this text with regards to Christ’s mission to heal/save, I am struck with yet another nuance. At what moment does Jesus decide to utter the words “Friend, your sins are forgiven”? The text says, “When Jesus saw their faith.”
If we are going to highlight the role that friends play in the healing process, as well as blur the distinction between healing and forgiving, then it seems we must also be willing to consider Christ’s willingness to forgive people’s sin on account of their friend’s faith.
Along these lines, I wonder if the story would also imply that such faith is tangible within the context of true friendship rather than passing acquaintances. That is to say that it was not only their faith in Jesus, but also their deep love and commitment for their friend.
Welcome Kircher, (Is that based on the German word for church?)
That comment about “seeing their faith” is so curious. It of course isn’t grounds for reconsidering our salvation theology, but it is good fruit for precisely the kind of query you are raising.
While I don’t think that my desires for my friend can override their opportunity to accept or reject Christ’s offer for forgiveness, I do think that faithful prayer and faithful intervention in the lives of those we love is honored by God, often in ways that parallel this story. I know many people who felt certain that they were called to just get their friend before God, (either by bringing them to church or sharing with them the gospel) and then they were trusting God to do the rest. That is the kind of faith that I see in these friends.
Actually, Kircher is a Caribbean-Irish name for squirrel.
I agree with your statement that “I don’t think that my desires for my friend can override their opportunity to accept or reject Christ’s offer for forgiveness.” But it is interesting to note that you are describing a friend who is in the state of either accepting or rejecting, while this is a story of a person who is in paralysis, and is healed without the opportunity to accept or reject. Again, agree with your point that we would not want to develop a salvation theology around this line of thinking. But the story does seem to inspire Christians to bring their friends before Christ, whether that plays itself out physically or spiritually, with the awareness of Christ’s intense eagerness to heal and forgive.
Along similar lines, it seems that Jesus’ character in this story seems to echo a comparable attribute of God in the old testament, that is, the willingness to save a larger group of people based on the faith of a few (Lot and Moses). Could it be that these stories serve to enable us as “friends” to bring our “paralyzed” friends before God with the great hope that healing and forgiveness will take place?
I meant to mention that I was only kidding about the etymology of Kircher – you are right in that it has its roots in the German word for Church.
I also greatly appreciate the dialogue that you facilitate here.
Hey Kircher,
You wrote:
“Could it be that these stories serve to enable us as “friends” to bring our “paralyzed” friends before God with the great hope that healing and forgiveness will take place?”
And I say, Amen and Amen.