Sherry Sterling

Dear friends,

The gospel reading for today is the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man whose friends lowered him through the roof of the over-flowingly crowded home where Jesus was teaching.

As the story goes on, it says that Jesus saw their faith and tells the paralyzed man his sins are forgiven. Then, teachers of the law who were there were thinking, who is this man to forgive sins, thinking that’s up to God.

Jesus knew they were thinking this, and challenged them: “Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?” Then Jesus told the man to get up; and the paralyzed man walked out. And everyone was amazed. Mark 2: 1-12

What grabbed my attention in this story as a child was the feat of digging through the roof to make an opening. Maybe it was the drawing from my Bible story picture book, and imagining the work it would take and destruction it would cause to open the roof of my Midwestern home—shingles, attic, insulation and all.

I was relieved to eventually learn that the roofs of the types of homes in Jesus’ time and place were flat and more easily opened and repaired. As a child, I was used to hearing about Jesus’ miracles, and forgiving sins didn’t yet hold as much meaning.

As an adult, the miracle of forgiveness is much more front and center to me in the story, and in life. What grabs my attention now is that Jesus offers forgiveness when he saw “their” faith.

It was not on the paralyzed man’s faith alone, but the collective of those who helped him. They were determined to get their friend in to hear Jesus, or have Jesus see him, and the paralyzed man depended on their help to get there. Their faith brought forgiveness, and then the forgiveness brought healing.

We can’t do it alone. Faith is not an individual endeavor.

We need each other in our faith journeys—to bolster our faith, to remind us and lovingly chide us, to bring us close to Jesus and his teachings, and to tear the ceiling down when there’s no other way.

And we are given, and can give each other, forgiveness. A forgiveness that restores what is broken and frees what is stuck.

Peace and love,

—Sherry