“And entering into a boat, he passed over the water and came into his own city. And behold they brought to him one sick of the palsy lying in a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy: ‘Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee.’ And behold some of the scribes said within themselves: ‘He blasphemeth.’ And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said: ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee: or to say, ‘Arise, and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then he said to the man sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house.; And he arose, and went into his house. And the multitude seeing it, feared, and glorified God that gave such power to men.”
Here Jesus crosses the sea by boat, He who could have crossed it by miracle, deigned for the ordinary. Jesus had a deep love for the plain and regular: “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (Matthew 13:55), choosing to make it extraordinary by love rather than by supernatural occurrence: “Let all things be done decently, and according to order” (1 Corinthians 14:40), “Use your endeavor to be quiet, and that you do your own business, and work with your own hands, as we commanded you” (1 Thessalonians 4:11); “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us” (Ephesians 5:2), for it is love alone that gives sweetness to life, thus the Lord calls you to a land of milk and honey, that is, having the milk of life’s necessities and the honey of love: “If the Lord be favourable, he will bring us into it, and give us a land flowering with milk and honey” (Numbers 14:8). Those that had great faith then brought the one paralyzed, so too is it the duty of those fervent with divine love to bring those that are paralyzed with spiritual infirmities to the Lord by prayer, that they may be loosed from their bonds and run in the way of love: “Pray one for another, that you may be saved” (James 5:16). See then the beautiful action of Jesus, turning to this shattered man and calling him son. Before addressing care for his body, he cares for his heart, forgiving him of sin and addressing him with love: “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). The scribes were experts in the Law, yet did not know the spirit of the Law, they knew God’s commandments without knowing God, for if they did, they would have recognized the God that is love in Jesus Christ: “These always err in heart. And these men have not known my ways” (Psalm 94:10-11); “If God were your Father, you would indeed love me. For from God I proceeded, and came; for I came not of myself, but he sent me” (John 8:42). This is why Jesus exhorts: “For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20), for He desires a beautiful imitation of Him by way of being formed by Him, animated entirely by love: “If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father’s commandments, and do abide in his love” (John 15:10), for He became Incarnate to become more like you: “Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, that he might be a propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17); “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man” (Philippians 2:7), His love seeking union with you, that you by love may seek union with Him: “I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me” (John 17:23), for it is the nature of love to ever seek deeper oneness with the beloved, and the more it is one, the more it is love: “Fulfil ye my joy, that you be of one mind, having the same love, being of one accord, agreeing in sentiment” (Philippians 2:2). Returning to the point at hand, Jesus acts in a divine manner by forgiving sins: “I am, I am he that blot out thy iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember thy sins” (Isaias 43:25), but then by seeing the hearts of the scribes: “For man seeth those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart” (1 Kings 16:7), and finally by His miraculous cure of the paralytic: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him, in the midst of you” (Acts 2:22). Then He turns and declares that He, the Son of Man, has power to forgive sins, for love alone has the power to forgive: “So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts” (Matthew 18:35). The more you are given opportunities to forgive by your neighbor’s wrongdoing, the more acts of love you are privileged to make: “Then came Peter unto him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus saith to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times” (Matthew 18:21-22). Now, there is a mystery here, that the one trapped in sin and earthly affections is in a sense paralyzed, remaining close to the ground, not able to get up and walk around freely in the way of love: “For our soul is humbled down to the dust: our belly cleaveth to the earth. Arise, O Lord, help us and redeem us for thy name’s sake” (Psalm 43:25-26). The love and prayers of the faithful bring someone to God, for love stirs someone to be better and draws them outside of themselves: “Each one not considering the things that are his own, but those that are other men’s” (Philippians 2:4), and Jesus loves the faith displayed in this and hears these prayers: “Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do: that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). Jesus then exhorts the one healed to “return home,” for in many instances He does not call for a drastic life change, but to continue what one was doing but with a heart of love instead: “Let every man abide in the same calling in which he was called” (1 Corinthians 7:21), now free to love well, rather than in the previous way: “When the Lord brought back the captivity of Sion, we became like men comforted. Then was our mouth filled with gladness; and our tongue with joy” (Psalm 125:1-2). Finally, as a small point, the man is told to take up His bed before leaving, which the Church Fathers denote as a figure of the body, for you are not called to despise your body as some traditions hold, but to love the fullness of yourself, realizing that God made your body: “But God giveth it a body as he will: and to every seed its proper body” (1 Corinthians 15:38), which He will raise in the resurrection: “It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44). It is not in pleasures of the body but in the you that is your body and soul that is called to love: “Or know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own? For you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).